Update: UAW expands strike against Ford, GM

Adds Ford comments in paragraph 5

The United Auto Workers (UAW) union is expanding strikes against US automakers Ford and General Motors (GM).

The union will strike Ford's Chicago SUV assembly plant and GM's Lansing Delta Township, Michigan, SUV plant, bringing the total number of striking workers to 25,000 out of the UAW's almost 150,000 union-represented auto workers.

The adjacent Lansing Regional Stamping plant will not strike, UAW president Shawn Fain said in a Facebook Live event today.

"Sadly, despite our willingness to bargain, Ford and GM have refused to make meaningful progress at the table," Fain said. "To be clear, negotiations haven't broken down. We're still talking with all three companies and I'm still hopeful we can reach a deal."

GM's executive vice-president of global manufacturing Gerald Johnson said a "comprehensive counteroffer from UAW leadership" had not been received after the company's 21 September contract proposal.

"Calling more strikes is just for the headlines, not real progress," Johnson said. "The number of people negatively impacted by these strikes is growing and includes our customers who buy and love the products we build."

In a statement this afternoon, Ford said the UAW is holding up a contract agreement over future battery plants that will be coming on line in the next two to three years.

"If the UAW's goal is a record contract, they have already achieved this," Ford chief executive Jim Farley said. "It is grossly irresponsible to escalate these strikes and hurt thousands of families."

Fain cited new progress on the UAW's demands with Stellantis, including the restoration of benefits lost during the 2008/2009 financial crisis, as to why that company did not see additional strike actions.

"Moments before this broadcast Stellantis made significant progress on the 2009 cost of living allowance, the right not to cross a picket line, as well as the right to strike over product amendments, plant closures and outsourcing moratoriums," Fain said.

On 15 September, the UAW struck three assembly plants — one each at Ford, GM and Stellantis — targeting all three companies at the same time for the first time in the union's history. It then expanded the strike on 22 September to 36 parts distribution centers at GM and Stellantis, saying that enough progress had been made at the time with Ford to exclude the company from further actions.

The original strike led GM to idle its Fairfax, Kansas, plant because of a lack of parts, while Stellantis curtailed production and laid off workers at one of its parts facilities in Ohio and later at two plants in Kokomo, Indiana. Ford also had to lay off workers at its Wayne, Michigan, plant that was among the original strike targets.

Integrated steelmaker US Steel idled the remaining blast furnace at its Granite City, Illinois, steel mill in response to the strike.

By Rye Druzin

UAW struck auto plants and associated idlings