United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain said Wednesday that autoworkers and the Big Three automakers are still far apart, although negotiations continue, and that the union may strike all of the Big Three at once.
“We’re keeping all of our options open. An all-out strike is still a possibility,” Fain said during a webcast with members.
The UAW and Ford Motor Co.
F,
General Motors Co.
GM,
and Stellantis NV
STLA,
have made progress but were still far apart, though negotiations continue until the deadline of Thursday at 11:59 p.m. Eastern, Fain said.
“For the first time in our history, we may strike all of the Big Three at once,” Fain said.
He said if no deal is reached, there’s also the possibility of doing “standup strikes,” designed to keep the companies guessing. These could escalate in order to give the union leverage in bargaining.
A targeted strike helps the UAW avoid distributing strike pay, set recently at $500 a week per member, to all 150,000 of its members. But it could have a broader effect.
“It is possible for strikes at critical parts plants to have much wider implications,” Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, said in an interview with MarketWatch on Wednesday.
He noted that the 1998 strike against GM, a work stoppage by 9,200 workers at two of that company’s plants in Flint, Mich., resulted in shutdowns that affected more than 150,000 workers.
The most recent U.S. autoworkers’ strike was at GM in 2019, which lasted for nearly six weeks and involved about 50,000 workers.
See: Would a United Auto Workers strike provide an opportunity for Tesla — and push up used-car prices?
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