Salary Increase, Reduction In Working Hours And Other Keys To The Strike Of General Motors, Ford And Stellantis Workers | The USA Print – THE USA PRINT

General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, three of the vehicle manufacturing companies in the United States, are affected by the unprecedented strike that workers began this Fridaygrouped in the United Auto Workers (UAW) union.

From three factories, to approximately 13,500 people They are protesting and, according to Shawn Fein, president of the group, this is the first time that everyone has done it at the same time.

“Let’s be clear: no one wants to strike,” he said. “But I respect the right of workers to use their options within the collective bargaining system. And now let’s understand the frustration of the workers,” he added as quoted by EFE.

The manifestation received a nod from President Joe Biden, who claimed that automakers’ record profits should be shared. But, although he acknowledged that companies have made some important offers, he believes they “should go further” to guarantee contracts to union members.

salary variations and better conditions, the offer of companies, mechanisms of an unprecedented strike and the consequences of the stoppage.

Negotiation of a collective agreement

The United Auto Workers union and the Detroit Big Three—as the big auto companies are known— They negotiate a collective agreement every four years.

The news agency He pointed out five key points about the strike: negotiation of a collective agreement, reivind

The agreement covers salaries, social benefits and other working conditions that will be in effect for 48 months.

Those negotiations began last July, but no agreement was reached. Two months later, and with the agreement no longer valid, the union decided to call a strike. Thus, they hope to force General Motors, Ford and Stellantis to establish a pact.

Salary demands and better conditions

The workers of the three companies They proposed a salary increase of 36%, spread over the next four years and they justified that since the serious economic crisis of 2008 and 2009, and the recent impact of the pandemic, they have gone through many sacrifices.

Companies have multiplied their profits to billions of dollars a year and the UAW believes that “it is time” for companies to distribute that bonanza with their employees.

The group also wants, among other points, that the working day be reduced to 32 hours, Traditional pensions are reinstated and workers in the new battery production factories are unionized.

The companies’ offer

EFE explains that, although the negotiations are carried out with great secrecy, General Motors and Ford publicly declared that They offered salary increases of 20%, distributed over the four-year period.

Jim Farley, CEO of Ford, assured that this offer is the most generous his company has made in the last 80 years.

The CEO of General Motors, Mary Barra, expressed herself in similar terms, stating that the proposal to assume a 20% salary increase It is very competitive and historic.

Mechanisms of an unprecedented strike

The United Auto Workers traditionally focuses its negotiating efforts on one of the big three automakers to hammer out the most advantageous deal for workers and use it as a model with the other two companies.

During negotiations in 2019, the union declared a strike against General Motors. For 40 days, 49,000 manufacturer workers ceased their activities, which cost him 3.8 billion dollars.

This time the new president of the UAW, Shawn Fein, has changed the rules of the game and has called, for the first time in history, selective strikes at the same time in some of the production plants of the three companies.

Fein stated that the strategy keeps companies in a permanent state of doubt about which plants could stop operating. He said that they are prepared to extend the strikes until they receive answers to their demands.

For this, it has an 825 million dollar fund that will allow workers to be paid $500 a week on strike so that they have income for the entire time the protest lasts.

The consequences of the stoppage

Following instructions from the UAW, employees at three assembly plants went on strike early Friday: General Motors’ Wentzville, Missouri; Toledo, Ohio, by Stellantis; and Michigan, in Michigan, from Ford.

But the stoppage of production in these three plants affects other facilities that manufacture components. That is to say, the consequences go beyond those three locations.

The strike, according to a report released in August and mentioned by EFE, would cause a loss of 5,000 million dollars.

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