The United Auto Workers union expanded its strike against General Motors on Saturday to include the company’s engine plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, a move that could halt GM’s massive production of pickup trucks and deepen its financial problems.
The seven-week strike expansion leaves GM as the only Detroit automaker without a contract agreement. Chrysler owner Stellantis reached the agreement with the UAW on Saturday and with Ford on Wednesday.
These deals gave workers a record 25% pay increase over their four-and-a-half-year contract and allowed companies to restart profitable pickup truck assembly lines.
At GM, people familiar with the negotiations said sticking points in the UAW talks include pension benefits and issues related to temporary workers.
GM has more retirees than Ford or Stellantis, and increases in pension benefits for workers hired before 2007 have cost GM more than its rivals.
“We are disappointed by GM’s needless and irresponsible refusal to reach a fair agreement,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement to Reuters.
GM said in a statement that two of its large pickup plants could be affected by the Spring Hill closure and that it wanted to reach a deal quickly.
The UAW is already on strike at GM’s Arlington, Texas, assembly plant, which produces the Chevy Tahoe, Suburban and Cadillac Escalade. GM said earlier this week that this strike would cost it $400 million a week.
The Spring Hill plant, which employs 4,000 workers, supplies engines to nine automakers that build many of the automaker’s best-selling and most profitable vehicles.
UAW lawyer Benjamin Dictor said in a social media post: “Imagine, everyone builds pickup trucks except you. If everyone could do it, what does that say about you?”
STELLANTIDE
The deal with Stellantis follows a template laid out by the UAW and Ford. The agreements will equate to overall wage increases of more than 33%. Contracts will begin with an initial increase of 11%.
“We look forward to welcoming our 43,000 employees back to work and resuming operations,” Stellantis said Saturday.
The agreements with Ford and Stellantis will have to be ratified by all workers.
US President Joe Biden said in a statement that “the Stellantis contract is a testament to the power of unions and collective bargaining to create strong middle-class jobs.”
The deal includes a commitment to reopen Stellantis’ assembly plant in Belvidere, Illinois, which will now build midsize pickup trucks, Fain said in a video on social media. The pickups will compete with GM’s Ford Ranger and Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon models.
Stellantis also agreed to build a battery factory near the Belvidere plant, the UAW said.
Illinois Gov. Jay Pritzker called the deal a “huge win for Illinois” and said the state would offer incentives to help offset the automaker’s costs.
Stellantis will also keep open two plants that were at risk of closing: an engine manufacturing complex in Trenton, Michigan, and a machining operation in Toledo, Ohio, Boyer said.
In total, the automaker committed $19 billion in new investments in its U.S. operations and the creation of 5,000 jobs, where it had previously planned to cut 5,000 jobs, Fain and Boyer said.
The UAW won the right to strike over product investment decisions, Fain said.
INCREASED COSTS
Fain accused Detroit automakers of enriching executives and investors while neglecting workers and said the UAW’s success would help workers across the country.
The companies argued that the UAW’s requirements would significantly increase costs and put them at a disadvantage compared to electric vehicle leader Tesla. and foreign brands such as Toyota Motor, which are not unionized.
Ford expects the new contract to add between $850 and $900 in labor costs per vehicle. Tesla already had a labor cost advantage of about $20 an hour, analysts say.
(Additional reporting by Mrinmay Dey in Bangalore and Jeff Mason in Delaware)
Source: Terra
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