Strike in the USA hits GM, Stellantis and Ford for four days

By Redação AutoIndústria | 9/18/23 | Translated by Jorge Meditsch

After four days on strike and almost no advance in negotiations, United States automotive specialists fear other General Motors, Stellantis and Ford plants may be affected by the movement led by UAW, United Autoworkers Union.

Stellantis should have proposed a 21% wage increase this weekend, far from the workers’ claim. The union’s president, Shawn Fain, said the conversations were minimal, and the manufacturer’s proposal distances the two sides even more. “The ball is in their field”, he said. “We have a long way to go”.

The first simultaneous strike in the three largest manufacturers in nine decades started on Friday. 9/15, and until now affects only one plant of each manufacturer. About 13 thousand of the sector’s 146 thousand crossed arms since then.

The workers claim for a salary adjustment of about 40% over four and a half years – 20% immediately – and other benefits.

They allege manufacturers’ profits increased drastically in the last four years and the main executives’ salaries grew much above the workers’ increase in the same period.

In a video released this Monday, 9/18, the union says GM, Stellantis and Ford’s profits increased by 65%, and CEOs’ salaries were raised by 40%.

The manufacturers should also increase expenses to repurchase shares by 1,500% and benefit from a 34% price raise for new vehicles, as the inflation was 20% and workers’ wages increased by only 6%.

According to the American press, the strike began one month after the first UAW claims for negotiations without satisfactory answers from the manufacturers.

The strike halted GM’s plant in Wentzville, Missouri, Ford’s in Wayne, Michigan, and Stellantis’ in Toledo, Ohio. The union estimates that more than 24 thousand vehicles will not be produced if the strike completes one week.

Photography: UAW