Talks between Detroit’s three automakers and the United Auto Workers union continue Sunday, as 12,700 workers from three plants continue to demonstrate on the picket lines.
UAW President Shawn Fain appeared Sunday morning on MSNBC and CBS’ “Face the Nation” after NBC reported that President Joe Biden was sending a team to Detroit earlier this week to help resolve the strike.
“The good thing I see in all of this is that our members are on the picket lines with our allies, and to me it’s not really about the president or the former president… it’s about of working class people standing up,” Fain said on MSNBC.
He added that “progress is slow” in negotiations, but the union and General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis NV are meeting on Sunday.
“I don’t really want to say we’re closer,” he said.
The union is demanding, among other demands, significant salary increases, an end to the tiered pay system and cost-of-living adjustments. Specifically, the UAW initially proposed salary increases of 46% over the life of the contract (40% when not cumulative). A subsequent offering reduced this figure to 36% uncompounded.
On “Face the Nation,” Fain said Stellantis’ recent 21 percent pay raise offer was “definitely off-limits and we’ve made that very clear to the companies.”
More:Position of the UAW and the three Detroit automakers on key issues
Before the contracts at the three Detroit plants and the UAW expired, on Thursday, September 14 at 11:59 p.m., Fain called for a targeted strike at three plants: GM Assembly in Wentzville, Mo., Stellantis’ Toledo Assembly in Ohio and Ford’s Michigan Assembly in Wayne. Fain could call for more workers to walk out at different factories depending on how negotiations progress. This is the first time in its history that the UAW has called a strike against all three automakers simultaneously.
On Saturday, the UAW said it had “reasonably productive” discussions with Ford, while Stellantis accused the union of misrepresenting its offers. The Ram truck and Jeep maker said it offered the UAW a compound wage increase of nearly 21% and a path to “fix” the Belvidere Assembly Plant, the former plant of Jeep Cherokee in north-central Illinois that was idle in late February, but the proposal was only on the table until the contract expired at midnight Thursday.
Fain called the move evidence that the company views workers as “a bargaining chip.”
As a result of the strike in Michigan Assembly’s final assembly and painting areas, Ford announced Friday that it had to temporarily lay off 600 workers in other parts of the plant.
The same day, GM warned that it will likely have to stop production at Fairfax Assembly in Kansas due to the work stoppage at Wentzville, as the Missouri plant supplies parts to Fairfax.
Concerns in Washington
Biden on Friday urged the Detroit Three to “go further” in their offers to the union and is expected to deploy Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and Senior Advisor Gene Sperling to Detroit to “offer their full support” to the union and manufacturers automobiles to reach an agreement.
In Fain’s interviews with the media on Sunday, he emphasized Biden’s involvement and the union’s decision to refrain from supporting the president who claims to be the most pro-union president in the country’s history.
“Our support is going to be deserved,” Fain said on “Face the Nation.” “We expect action. Not words.”
Michigan Democratic U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell of Ann Arbor also appeared on “Face the Nation,” saying “almost all auto plant workers benefit from the outcome of these negotiations.”
Dingell added that she does not believe the president should intervene or be at the negotiating table with the parties.
“All of us, policymakers and other stakeholders, need to understand what these issues are and what we can do to support these discussions at the table,” she said. “And then (do) what we need to do to help create a strong, viable and competitive industry.”
Dingell, who has also been pressed by the union’s lack of support for Biden ahead of the 2024 election, said she wants presidential politics and negotiations with the union and automakers to be “totally separate.”
“I’m really worried about what’s happening at the table,” she said. “This is going to determine the future of the auto industry in Michigan. I want to keep presidential politics out of this and do what’s right from a political standpoint. Then we can talk about the presidential election .”
Although the union did not support Biden, Fain, in a letter to staff in May, said another term for former President Donald Trump “would be a disaster.”
Trump, the likely Republican presidential nominee in 2024, said Sunday on ABC’s “Meet the Press” that he didn’t know Fain but “he’s not doing a good job representing his union, because he won’t have a union in three years.” from now on. These jobs are all going to disappear, because all these electric cars are going to be made in China. »
khall@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @bykaleahall
Staff writer Riley Beggin contributed.
