By Rajika Chauhan
Staff Writer
2023 has been a significant year for labor movements, with high-profile strikes taking place across all industries as employees show increased dissatisfaction with pay and working conditions. Of the 362,00 workers that have gone on strike this year, according to data from Cornell University, the United Auto Workers (UAW) have been the most recent labor union to join. AP reports almost 13,000 workers in auto-manufacturing plants have walked out since striking began on Sept. 14, comprising 13% of the union’s 146,000 members.
The strikes are specifically targeted to the three major Detroit-based auto companies: GM, Ford and Stellantis, as per Reuters. The situation has potential to reach a stand-still in light of the demands being made by the UAW and the refusal of the companies to yield under the pressure of rising production costs.
Key demands from the union are increases in worker compensation and hourly pay, as well as an end to pay differences for new employees, according to The New York Times. The current tiered wage structure practiced by GM and Ford makes it so newer workers are paid less for the same efforts, with temporary employees starting at only $17 hours as compared to highs of $32. Additional stipulations on the table are a return of traditional pension plans for new hires, and an increase in wages by 36% over four years.
UAW leader, Jack Fain, acknowledges that the union’s demands will be expensive for auto-makers, but feels that it is justified for workers to ask for a deserved cut as companies and their CEOs continue to prosper. The sentiment is shared strongly by the workers who are joining the picket line.
Antione Turner, an employee at the GM customer-care center in Bellevile, Michigan, expressed frustration with the increasing salaries and profits of upper management, which have gone unmatched at the worker level.
“We aren’t getting paid what we are supposed to,” Turner stated to the AP. “I feel like our CEO is getting all our money.”
The UAW has made significant concessions in cost-of-living wage increases and pay raises over the last decade, in an effort to support the auto companies as they recovered from the 2007-2009 financial crisis and more recent recession, as reported by Reuters. Workers are now looking for retributive compensation from the companies they believe they helped prop up.
Matters are complicated by claims from the companies that the union’s demands are too expensive, as costs of production and maintenance have been rising as the industry plans to transition to electric vehicles. Expenses are being split between the continued building of combustion engine vehicles and investment in battery plants for future electric vehicle manufacturing, as indicated by NYT. The companies further expressed worries that conceding to union demands would drive up retail prices, making it difficult to compete with lower-priced manufacturers from Europe and Asia.
Reuters reports that the strike also poses an opportunity for candidates on the political trail, with President Joe Biden looking to position himself as “the most pro-union president in history.” Biden has made plans to visit Detroit and join the picket lines in the coming week, although his presence is a reminder of the contentious balance between preserving worker jobs and transitioning to an electric vehicle market, in light of his climate-focused administrative policies.
Trump has also announced a visit to Detroit in the coming days, but is likely to be received with a colder welcome than his opponent, having earned a poor reputation amongst labor unions for supposedly “anti-worker” policies when he was president.
The UAW has been sustaining its strikers through a targeted approach, mobilizing workers at only specific plants to walk-out in order to stretch its $825 million strike fund. The labor stall has the potential to stretch out into the winter, as companies are resistant to negotiate and turning to non-union workers to fulfill labor needs.
