UAW strike day 8: Walkout expands to GM, Stellantis parts distribution centers nationwide
As bargaining with Ford Motor Co. continues amid signs of a potential deal, the United Auto Workers on Friday expanded its strike of the Dearborn automaker's two cross-town rivals to 38 General Motors Co. and Stellantis NV parts distribution centers across the country.
The UAW's decision to expand the strike, its second such move in less than a week, includes some 5,600 workers at those facilities, which span 20 states, who walked off the job at noon, joining about 12,700 other Detroit Three workers who remain on strike at three assembly plants run by GM, Stellantis and Ford.
The move — reminiscent of the union's historical preference for choosing a "lead company" — for now spares Ford from an expanded strike against its facilities. But it starts the next phase of the UAW's "Stand Up" strike strategy, where the union announces new locations just hours before walkouts begin in an attempt to keep the Detroit Three automakers on their toes.
The union last week struck three plants — Ford's Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, GM's Wentzville Assembly in Missouri and Stellantis' Jeep plant in Toledo — in the first concurrent strike against all three in history.
“This will impact these two companies’ repairs operations," UAW President Shawn Fain said during a Facebook Live event Friday morning announcing the expanded strike. "And our message to the consumer is simple: the way to fix the frustrating customer experience is for the companies to end price gouging. Invest these record profits into stable jobs and sustainable wages and benefits. It’s that simple."
"This expansion will also take our fight nationwide. We will be everywhere, from California to Massachusetts, from Oregon to Florida," he added. "And we will keep going, keep organizing, and keep expanding the Stand-Up Strike as necessary. Across the country, people are gonna know that the UAW is ready to stand up for our communities, and ready to stand up against corporate greed.”
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Underlying the national focus on the widening strike, President Joe Biden said Friday he would travel to Michigan on Tuesday to show support for UAW members, including a visit to a picket line, something Fain has urged him to do. The plans for the president's trip come after former President Donald Trump's campaign announced earlier this week that he would travel to Michigan for an event with UAW members.
Companies respond
GM and Stellantis both slammed the union's latest action.
"Today's strike escalation by the UAW's top leadership is unnecessary. The decision to strike an additional 18 of our facilities, affecting more than 3,000 team members plus their families and communities, adds validity to the blueprint identified in last night's leaked texts — that the UAW leadership is manipulating the bargaining process for their own personal agendas," GM said in a statement provided by spokesperson David Barnas.
The company says its officials have "contingency plans for various scenarios and are prepared to do what is best for our business, our customers, and our dealers."
Stellantis, in a statement provided by spokesperson Jodi Tinson, also referenced leaked messages reported Thursday by The Detroit News in which the union's communications director discussed tactics aimed at inflicting “recurring reputations damage and operational chaos."
"Following yesterday’s publication of comments made by the UAW’s Communications Director and the subsequent strike announcement, we question whether the union’s leadership has ever had an interest in reaching an agreement in a timely manner. They seem more concerned about pursuing their own political agendas than negotiating in the best interests of our employees and the sustainability of our U.S. operations given the market’s fierce competition," the automaker's statement said.
The company made what it characterized as a "very competitive offer" to the union Thursday that would give full-time hourly workers a 21.4% compounded wage increase, a "long-term solution" for the automaker's idled Belvidere plant, and "significant product allocation."
"We still have not received a response to that offer," Stellantis said in its statement. "We look forward to the UAW leadership’s productive engagement so that we can bargain in good faith to reach an agreement that will protect the competitiveness of our Company and our ability to continue providing good jobs."
UAW leaders join pickets
Fain arrived at Mopar's headquarters and distribution center in Center Line after noon, wearing a camouflage polo shirt.
"These guys do a great job," he said. "They've been stepped on for a long time, and it's time they get their share like everybody else."
Workers at the parts distribution center are capped at $25 per hour, he noted.
Center Line is one site marked for closure with the consolidation of a few centers in Michigan. Fain said no facilities should be closed because of the profits the automakers have been making.
"It's ridiculous. We're better than this," he said. "These are the best of times in the history of these companies, and these workers have created these massive profits, and they continue to be left behind and going backwards. That has to stop."
Fain called messages from the UAW's spokesperson that the union could keep workers out for months "BS," blaming the leak on the corporations.
"We have a plan in place and call it chaotic," he added. "Call it what you want to call it. It is strategic, and everything we're doing, this is on (the companies') shoulders. Everything that's happening right now is on their shoulders. They own it because they chose not to take care of the membership."
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He later added: "The worker is our No. 1 priority. Anyone who says otherwise is foolish."
UAW Vice President Rich Boyer, head of the union's Stellantis department, walked workers off the line in Center Line. He said the union estimates the company would cut roughly 5,400 workers across its footprint. He says that includes the 1,000 already cut in Belvidere, 2,000 from productivity improvements, and 1,000 at Mopar.
"The only jobs they really want to guarantee are the people that stand on the line," Boyer said, "but the people that are like the salary bargaining units, the people that are the supplementals, they don't want to guarantee them jobs. So, I've got a big problem with that."
On Sept. 16, Mark Stewart, Stellantis' chief operating officer in North America, said the company is looking to optimize its parts distribution center footprint, modernize its facilities, consolidate underutilized and aged centers, and make them more efficient with technology. He said there wouldn't be job reductions from Mopar's consolidation.
"This is a money grab," Boyer said. "If they sell off all these places, it's nothing more than a money grab. They're going to tell you that it's to get into electrification. Our tax dollars are paying for that."
Meanwhile, there is no direct path into those battery plant jobs, he said, though the company proposed a voluntary buyout program geared toward having workers apply to battery plants operated by joint ventures.
"There's no way I would do that," Boyer said. "There's no way. I owe it to these people to give them a future and future generations of autoworkers. So, if we have to stay out, however long we have to stay out, we're going to stay out."
Stellantis has announced battery plants in Kokomo, Indiana, and Windsor, Ontario. Boyer says Stellantis wants to build a battery plant in Belvidere, Illinois, where it idled its Jeep Cherokee plant in February. He said it wants to open the stamping plant there with 150 people. In addition, the company proposed putting in a Mopar distribution center that would employ 400 to 600 people.
Boyer said the company hasn't said with whom the battery plant would be built, but it would open in 2028.
"What do we do with the folks for the next five years?" he said.
Stellantis, in July, said it plans to build a second U.S. battery plant with Samsung SDI. At the time, it said that plant would open in 2027.
In a statement, Stellantis said the company offered a "sustainable solution for Belvidere providing comparable employment opportunities."
It added it has proposed "several vehicle allocations and billions of dollars in investments over the duration of the contract" and offered "workforce stability with a relevant level of production in U.S. during the duration of the contract."
The company also said it provides supplemental unemployment benefits to displaced employees "above and beyond what employers normally provide."
Stellantis said its latest offer included a 21.4% compounded wage increase (20% not compounded). That breaks down to a 10% increase in the first year followed by 2.5% in each of the succeeding years. Stellantis estimates full-time hourly employees would earn between $80,000 and $96,000 annually by the end of the contract term.
Boyer declined to share what else the company has moved on. Fain declined to share what the union has given up in the talks. Boyer said he expects a sixth offer from Stellantis by the end of the weekend.
At GM's Davison Road Processing Center in Burton near Flint, Richard Heller, chairman of Local 651 representing the facility's workers, called the strike “long overdue.” His members were ready to go.
“I always equate it to we want to be able to buy the product that we put together,” he said. “There’s no more middle class. All you have is upper and lower class.”
More workers join picket lines
Paul Bonds, 60, of Pontiac is an inspector at the Mopar plant in Center Line. He says he wants to see higher wages and cost-of-living adjustments.
"It's like (the union) forgot about us," he said about previous administrations. "This is the first time they're representing me," he said, adding of Fain's visit to the line: "That's big."
"Every time gas goes up, nothing happens," Bonds, a 30-year UAW member with Local 1248, said about COLA. "They never should have given that up."
He sees closing Center Line as a move to save money and would be unfortunate for workers who have to move their lives and families.
If that's the case, Sheneatha Johnson-Williams, 45, of Redford Township, who works in records at the Center Line facility and is a 25-year UAW member with Local 889, said: "We need to see some of that money."
Antonio Wright, 28, of Sterling Heights said he felt good as he walked out the gate around the Mopar distribution center in Center Line.
"I feel like we're being seen, for what they give us," the parts picker and 3-year UAW member said of the walkout. "We're going to get what we deserve."
For him, that looks like pay raises, COLA and retirement benefits.
The increasing prices of goods were the talk on the picket lines. The News overheard one group of walkers talk about fewer slices in a Jet's Pizza, which meant a family of five had to get two pies.
The strikers, meanwhile, were being instructed to hold the picket line.
"Nobody goes in there," Jason Craig, 50, of New Baltimore, a parts picker and 25-year member, said to a group at one gate. "I don't care if Jesus shows up and wants to go in there. Lock it."
Eric Bridges Jr., 43, of Detroit, a hi-lo driver, said the strike is about more than workers like himself.
"The pay treatment in corporate America, in general, needs to be changed," he said. "It's not just us. It's something bigger than us."
As for him, he sees receiving anything more than what he currently makes as a bonus.
"We're not greedy," said Mike Kaptur, 61, of Oak Park, a 29-year member who works in inventory control. "If we get a little raise and improvement in profit sharing, I'd be good with that, or even getting COLA back. Truly, I'd be happy."
George Farrell, 56, of St. Clair Shores says he hasn't seen a raise since 2007 as his job as a salaried bargaining unit employee was outsourced twice, and then he was made an hourly worker.
"I've received lump sums," said the parts picker, who has 28 years with the union. "The problem with lump sums is they don't go with you when you retire."
Stellantis' proposal, though, to sell the Center Line facility and consolidate in Trenton would turn roughly a 10-minute commute for them to an hour.
"Hopefully, it takes a couple of years, so it's after I retire," he said.
Michele Cole, 40, of Eastpointe joined the picket line, though she works at GM's Romulus Powertrain plant. She was there supporting her sister who works in Center Line, other relatives who work for Stellantis and the temporary and supplemental workers who she says need a pay increase.
She hired into GM as a temp. In 2008, she was making $21 per hour with COLA. In 2009, she said, her pay would've been cut to $15 per hour, prompting her to leave the company, because she said it wasn't worth it for her. She returned in 2016, and can't believe temps still are making less than what she had.
"If they could pay it then, they can pay it now," she said, adding there needs to be a pathway to full-time status. "It doesn't have to be 90 days, but there needs to be something to look for."
Jermaine Pointz, 29, of Harper Woods stocks shelves at the distribution center after being laid off in Sterling Heights and transferring here. As a result, he says he should be at $32 per hour, but is receiving $22, and the pay cap is $25.
"It's eight years to get to $25," he said. "That needs to be fixed. They need repair parts just as much."
He adds that Trenton is a long drive, but if he gets the bump in pay he says he and his co-workers should have, he'd be OK with the consolidation move.
Progress in talks with Ford
In excluding Ford from the strike at parts centers, the UAW cited progress at the bargaining table with the Dearborn automaker this week.
Fain noted proposed contract improvements the union has gotten from Ford. Those include the previously-announced move to bring workers at Ford's Rawsonville Components Plant and Sterling Axle Plant onto the same wage scale as assembly plants workers; the restoration of the cost-of-living adjustment that was suspended in 2009; and, for the first time, the right to strike over plant closures.
"Ford is working diligently with the UAW to reach a deal that rewards our workforce and enables Ford to invest in a vibrant and growing future," the company said in a statement sent by spokesperson Dan Barbossa. "Although we are making progress in some areas, we still have significant gaps to close on the key economic issues. In the end, the issues are interconnected and must work within an overall agreement that supports our mutual success."
Fain said that Ford has agreed to new job security provisions, including guaranteeing income security for up two years, with healthcare, for laid-off workers. He also cited improvements to the profit-sharing formula Ford has offered, saying the current proposal "would have resulted in a 13.3% increase for the average employee in payouts last year."
Fain did not mention any movement on wages; the latest known offer from Ford was a 20% wage increase over the length of the contract.
“We’re not done at Ford. We still have serious issues to work through," he said. "But we do want to recognize that Ford is showing that they’re serious about reaching a deal. At GM and Stellantis, it’s a different story."
He noted that the latest offer from GM includes a proposal that would bring workers at the automaker's Customer Care and Aftersales (CCA) and GM Components Holdings (GMCH) in line with the wage structure at assembly plants.
However, he indicated that the union remains far apart from GM and Stellantis on issues such as profit-sharing and job security.
Even strikes at just three plants have started to affect other plants. GM idled its Fairfax Assembly plant in Kansas on Wednesday, as a result of the strike in Wentzville.
Stellantis also said Wednesday that it was "immediately" laying off workers at a machining plant outside of Toledo as a result of the strike at the Jeep plant in the city. Spokesperson Ann Marie Fortunate said another estimated 300 layoffs took place Friday at Kokomo Transmission and Kokomo Casting in Indiana for the eight-speed transmission line.
Ford laid off about 600 workers last week at its Wayne plant, where the UAW body and paint shop workers are striking.
GM President Mark Reuss published an opinion piece in the Detroit Free Press on Wednesday that called UAW demands "untenable." GM's offer would bring 85% of the company's represented employees to a base wage of about $82,000 a year, he wrote. UAW Vice President Mike Booth, director of the union's GM department, responded with his own piece Thursday, saying the union was fighting for all 100% of its members.
"Temps start at $16.67 an hour. Once a temp actually gets a permanent job, the starting wage is $18 an hour," Booth wrote. " I don’t know what qualifies as 'poverty wages,' but show me a Big Three executive who would work for that pay."
The new facilities being struck
The UAW has tapped some 5,600 workers at 38 GM and Stellantis parts distribution centers across the country to go on strike, effective noon Friday.
The Stellantis facilities, according to the UAW, include:
- Marysville in Marysville, Michigan
- Centerline Packaging in Center Line, Michigan
- Centerline Warehouse in Center Line, Michigan
- Sherwood in Warren, Michigan
- Warren Parts in Warren, Michigan
- QEC in Auburn Hills, Michigan
- Romulus in Romulus, Michigan
- Cleveland in Streetsboro, Ohio
- Milwaukee in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Minneapolis in Plymouth, Minnesota
- Denver in Commerce City, Colorado
- Chicago in Naperville, Illinois
- Los Angeles in Ontario, California
- Portland in Beaverton, Oregon
- Atlanta in Morrow, Georgia
- Winchester in Winchester, Virginia
- Orlando in Orlando, Florida
- Dallas in Carrollton, Texas
- New York in Tappan, New York
- Boston in Mansfield, Massachusetts
The GM facilities include:
- Pontiac Redistribution in Pontiac, Michigan
- Willow Run Redistribution in Belleville, Michigan
- Ypsilanti Processing Center in Ypsilanti, Michigan
- Davison Road Processing Center in Burton, Michigan
- Flint Processing Center in Swartz Creek, Michigan
- Lansing Redistribution in Lansing, Michigan
- Cincinnati Parts Distribution in Westchester, Ohio
- Denver Parts Distribution in Aurora, Colorado
- Hudson Parts Distribution in Hudson, Wisconsin
- Chicago Parts Distribution in Bolingbrook, Illinois
- Reno Parts Distribution Center in Reno, Nevada
- Rancho Cucamonga Parts Distribution in Rancho Cucamonga, California
- Ford Worth Parts Distribution in Roanoke, Texas
- Martinsburg Parts Distribution in Martinsburg, West Virginia
- Jackson Parts Distribution in Brandon, Mississippi
- Charlotte Parts Distribution in Charlotte, North Carolina
- Memphis AC Delco Parts Distribution in Memphis, Tennessee
- Philadelphia Parts Distribution in Lang Horne, Pennsylvania
Staff Writer Hayley Harding contributed.