GM, Stellantis make serious movement in UAW contract demands, no new offers from Ford

UAW president says there’s ‘more to be won;’ 6,800 UAW members at Stellantis’ largest plant walk off the job

By SHERI GASSAWAY
Missouri Correspondent

While GM and Stellantis made serious movement last week toward the United Auto Workers contract demands, UAW President Shawn Fain said Friday there’s “more to be won.” On Monday, 6,800 UAW members walked off the job at Stellantis’ Sterling Heights Assembly plant in suburban Detroit.

This as the UAW Stand Up Strike, the first strike against all Big Three automakers at the same time, is now in its sixth week. The initial action Sept. 14 included strikes at a Ford and Stellantis plant and the GM Assembly plant in Wentzville, which represents UAW Local 2250 members. Some 40,000 UAW autoworkers out of 146,000 are currently on strike.

The UAW is asking for a 40 percent increase in wages over a four year contract – roughly the same compensation CEOs at the Big Three have received in the last four years. As of Friday, Stellantis and GM agreed to agreed match Ford’s 23 percent wage increase – up from 20 percent the week prior. The original offer was just nine percent.

RECORD CONTRACTS, DECADES OF DECLINE
“One thing we’ve been hearing over and over from these companies is how they’ve offered us record contracts,” Fain said. “We agree. These are already record contracts, but they come at the end of decades of record decline. So it’s not enough to be the best ever, when auto workers have gone backwards over the last two decades.”

Ford has not made any new offers since 8,700 UAW workers walked out in a surprise strike Oct. 11 at the company’s most profitable SUV and truck plants in Louisville, Ky. While Fain didn’t announce any new walkouts during his video on Friday, he said the “bottom line is we’ve got cards left to play, and they’ve got money left to spend.”

OUTLINE OF PROPOSALS
Fain shared the latest offers from all three companies in his Oct. 20 video. Here is a breakdown of current proposals, as shared by CNBC:

• Wages: All three automakers have offered a 23 percent pay increase over four- and-a-half years.
• Wage tiers: All three automakers have agreed to eliminate wage tiers at parts facilities where workers have historically been paid less than production-line workers.
• Wage progression: Ford has offered a three-year progression to the top wage rate, a system that was in place from the mid-1990s until the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis. GM has also offered a three-year progression, but only for current workers. GM wants a more gradual four-year progression for future hires. Stellantis has offered only a four-year progression.
• Cost of living adjustments (COLA): Ford has offered to restore its COLA formula to the level last used in 2009, meeting the UAW’s demand. Fain said that GM is “approaching restoration but not fully there,” while Stellantis wants to delay cost-of-living adjustments by a year.
• Job security: Ford and Stellantis have agreed to give the union the right to strike over plant closures, a key UAW demand. GM so far has rejected that demand.
• Temporary workers: Ford has offered to convert current temp workers with 90 days of service to full-time employees, with a raise to $21 per hour for remaining and future temps. GM has proposed to convert current and future temps with one year of service to full-time employees, and has matched Ford with a $21 per hour wage for remaining and future temps. Stellantis agreed to convert “thousands” of current temps to full-time status, with a wage increase to $20 per hour for remaining and future temps.
• Retirement plans: All three automakers have offered a $3 increase to pension benefits. Ford and Stellantis have offered to increase their 401(k) contributions to 9.5 percent plus $1 per hour. GM offered an increase to eight percent, plus $1.25 per hour.
• Payments to retired workers: Ford offered annual lump sum payments of $250 to retired workers, with surviving spouses eligible to continue to receive the payments. GM offered a one-time lump sum payment of $1,000, with surviving spouses not eligible. Stellantis rejected all increases to retiree pay.
• Profit sharing: Ford offered to improve its existing profit-sharing formula by including profits from Ford Credit, its financing subsidiary, and to make temp workers eligible to receive profit-sharing payments. Stellantis and GM both want to maintain their current profit-sharing formulas, but GM has offered to make temp workers with 1,000 hours of service eligible to receive payments. Stellantis has not offered to make its temporary workers eligible to receive profit-sharing payments.
• Work-life balance: All three automakers have offered to make Juneteenth an official paid holiday and have offered two weeks of paid parental leave.

HELP HOLD THE LINE
If you would like to join UAW Local 2250 on the picket line, stop by one of five gates at the GM Wentzville Assembly plant at 1500 State Highway A, Wentzville, Mo.