UAW strike 2023: No new expansions as strike enters fifth week
(CBS DETROIT) - No new strikes were announced today, but UAW President Shawn Fain said the union has entered a new phase and will no longer wait until Friday to announce strike expansions.
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain provided the update in a Facebook Live Friday morning.
Fain: "We're done waiting until Fridays to escalate our strike."
While Fain didn't announce strike expansions Friday morning, he said that the UAW is done waiting until Friday to announce new strike expansions.
He said that the union will begin calling out plants when they need to, where they need to, with little notice.
"We will be calling out plants when we need to, where we need to, with little notice," Fain said. "We're not sticking to one pattern or one system of giving these companies an extra hour or an extra day. They know what needs to happen and they know how to get it done."
In addition, he shared that union members went to Ford's World Headquarters to negotiate, and the automaker tried to present the same deal the union had rejected two weeks ago.
Fain said Ford started waiting until Friday to make any progress in bargaining and stopped being interested in reaching a fair agreement, so they will no longer wait until Friday to make announcements.
He told all union members to be ready to stand up and strike.
In the announcement, Fain also said he would be heading to Pennsylvania to spend time with union members at Mack Trucks.
UAW strike to Ford's Kentucky Truck Plant
This comes after Fain expanded the strike on Wednesday to one of Ford's most profitable plants, the Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville.
On Wednesday, Oct. 11, 8,700 autoworkers walked out and joined the strike, and in a social media post, the UAW said it was called after Ford refused to move forward with negotiations.
"We have been crystal clear, and we have waited long enough, but Ford has not gotten the message," UAW President Shawn Fain said on X, formerly Twitter.
Ford responded to the strike with the following statement:
"The decision by the UAW to call a strike at Ford's Kentucky Truck Plant is grossly irresponsible but unsurprising given the union leadership's stated strategy of keeping the Detroit 3 wounded for months through "reputational damage" and "industrial chaos."
Ford made an outstanding offer that would make a meaningful positive difference in the quality of life for our 57,000 UAW-represented workers, who are already among the best compensated hourly manufacturing workers anywhere in the world. In addition to our offer on pay and benefits, Ford has been bargaining in good faith this week on joint venture battery plants, which are slated to begin production in the coming year.
The UAW leadership's decision to reject this record contract offer - which the UAW has publicly described as the best offer on the table - and strike Kentucky Truck Plant, carries serious consequences for our workforce, suppliers, dealers and commercial customers. Kentucky Truck is Ford's largest plant and one of the largest auto factories in America and the world. The vehicles produced at the Louisville-based factory - the F-Series Super Duty, the Ford Expedition and the Lincoln Navigator - generate $25 billion a year in revenue. In addition to affecting approximately 9,000 direct employees at the plant, this work stoppage will generate painful aftershocks - including putting at risk approximately a dozen additional Ford operations and many more supplier operations that together employ well over 100,000 people.
This decision by the UAW is all the more wrongheaded given that Ford is the only automaker to add UAW jobs since the Great Recession and assemble all of its full-size trucks in America."
UAW negotiations continue
The UAW continues to negotiate with Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, as the union has yet to reach agreements with any of the automakers.
Teams from the UAW and Stellantis met for a bargaining meeting on Thursday, Oct. 12, but it is unknown if a new counteroffer was presented then.
On Friday, Fain said negotiations have continued with GM and Stellantis, but there is no good news yet from either automaker.