After six weeks of striking U.A.W. has gained another important piece in its cause. On Tuesday the United Automobile Workers union stopped production at G.M.'s largest factory in the country. This step substantially increases their strength and puts even more pressure on America's largest automakers.
On the same day that General Motors announced it had a drop in third quarter profits, the union organized and told the Arlington, Texas based plant to halt working. The work stoppages so far, which have also hit Ford Motor and Stellantis, have reportedly lost the automakers around $800million dollars thus far. Arlington was selected as a part of U.A.W.'s ongoing strategy of targeting automakers' most profitable models and vehicles. This particular Texas plant is responsible for manufacturing large sport utility vehicles including the Cadillac Escalade, Chevrolet Tahoe, and G.M.C. Yukon.
Executives for General Motors had announced prior to the walkout on Tuesday that they had hope for a temporary agreement with U.A.W. in the near future. However, this strike through a wrecking ball into those hopes and leaves the future dim and uncertain. If these strikes continue to drag on they could leave a mark on the U.S. economy, making it more difficult for consumers to purchase automobiles of their choice.
These automakers are using these detrimental side effects to hopefully negotiate terms with the union. Stellantis reported to the union that as a result of the strikes they had to lay off 525 workers at factories in Michigan. All together, Stellantis has had to lay off over 2,000 employees, Ford has laid off 3,000, and G.M. a reported 3,000.
In terms of negotiations, G.M. has offered U.A.W. affiliated workers a 23% increase in pay over a four year term. This would lift the standard wage for experienced workers from $32 to $40 an hour, and lower rates for newer workers. This would in turn have employees working 40 hours per week at a top rate earning $84,000 a year. The union has initially demanded raises of around 40%, claiming that lower increases could not account for the living standards workers have suffered through due to inflation and past concessions in contracts.
An agreement seems lost in the horizons as U.A.W. president Sean Fain has his eyes set on a broader movement that would extend to workers at Toyota, Honda, and Tesla. However, negotiations could be hurried by the oncoming pains of winter, with union members not keen on facing its harshness on $500 a week provided by the union.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/24/business/economy/uaw-general-motors-strike.html
It's evident that the U.A.W. and automakers negotiations remains challenging. The disparity between the automakers' proposals and the union's initial demand for raises demonstrates how complicated these issues are. As it keeps going on, it's not just affecting businesses, it might also have an effect on the US economy, making it harder for people to buy cars.
ReplyDeleteThis seems like it's going to end in one of two ways. One the U.A.W. is not going to be able to afford to strike anymore since it cannot afford to give out money forever. Two winter is going to hit causing a higher need for income and people are going to go back to work. For it to be dragged out so long it must seem to be completely unreasonable to raise wages to that extent. These huge retailers may have a lot of money but if their profits go below the margin everyone's screwed.
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