UAW 2250 members walk out at Wentzville as United Auto Workers launch targeted strike

By TIM ROWDEN
Editor-in-Chief

Wentzville, MO – Thousands of United Auto Workers (UAW) members at Ford, GM, and Stellantis walked out at midnight Thursday, Sept. 14, marking the beginning of the UAW’s Stand Up Strike – the first ever to target all three automakers – starting with the GM Wentzville Assembly plant, the Stellantis Toledo Assembly Complex and the Ford Michigan Assembly plant.

Rather than launching a nationwide strike – which could still happen – UAW President Shawn Fain said the union is targeting its action to keep the automakers guessing, not knowing which plants might be struck next, as UAW and the automakers remain deadlocked in contract negotiations.

“We are using a new strategy,” Fain said in a livestreamed video before the strike began. “We are calling on select locals to stand up and go out on strike,” adding that other locals could be called out at their plants depending on how negotiations progress.

GM plants, including Wentzville, were idle for 40 days in 2019 before the company and the union agreed on a new contract.

The GM, Ford and Stellantis plants currently on strike represent only a small portion of all the unionized factories of GM, Ford and Stellantis and of those companies’ 150,000 UAW members.

The GM plant employs 3,600 hourly workers, according to the union, and the Stellantis plant 5,800. The union said about 3,300 workers at Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant would be affected.

WHAT WORKERS ARE DEMANDING
The UAW is demanding a 40 percent wage increase over the next four years. The compensation packages for the chief executives of the three companies have increased about that much, on average, over the last four years.

Fain, who took office as union president this year, has also called for cost-of-living adjustments that nudge wages higher in response to inflation, shorter work weeks, improvements to retiree pensions and health care, and job security measures like the ability to strike at plants that are designated for closing.

The UAW also wants changes to a wage scale that starts new hires at about $17 an hour and requires eight years for them to climb up to the top UAW wage of $32 hour.

‘TIRED OF THE WEALTH IMBALANCE’
Missouri AFL-CIO President Jake Hummel met with Local 2250 strikers Friday morning (Sept. 15) and pledged the state Federation’s support.

“We’re going to be there as long as they need us to be there,” Hummel said. “I think everyone is tired of the wealth imbalance in this country. I sat in a Labor/management forum a few years back where a Ford exec was there to tell people that the UAW had saved them a few years ago with the concessions that they made, that they wouldn’t have survived without them. Well, those companies are profitable like never before. Their CEOs are making millions and millions of dollars of and it’s time to get back to a place where their employees can make a decent living and have some job security as they make the switch to electric vehicles.”

TIME TO TAKE CARE OF THEIR WORKERS
Pat White, president of the Greater St. Louis Central Labor Council, said it’s time for the Big Three to take care of their workers.

“The wages for the workers have been stagnant for 10 years now and especially GM has had record profits,” White said. “Their leaders’ salaries have gone up 40 percent. It’s now time for them to pay the folks that actually make the product what they deserve.

“Right now, when unions are at record high approval ratings and over 70 percent of Americans support the strikers, there’s no better time than now to demand what they deserve,” White said.

‘IT’S CRIMINAL’
Missouri AFL-CIO endorsed U.S. Senate candidate Lucas Kunce, who is running to unseat Republican incumbent Josh Hawley in 2024, visited the strike line Friday evening.

“If CEOs at the Big Three auto companies can afford to give themselves 40 percent pay raises while they’re handing out $66 billion in stock buybacks and dividends to shareholders, they sure as hell can afford to give auto workers fair wages and the contract they deserve,” Kunce said. “American auto workers have seen their average real hourly earnings fall 19.3 percent since 2008. It’s criminal. I stand in solidarity with UAW and every auto worker fighting for what they’ve earned.”

STAND WITH WORKING FAMILIES
U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) issued a statement in support of the striking autoworkers at GM, Ford and Stellantis.

“For decades, auto executive wages have skyrocketed while raking in billions in corporate profits, but the workers on the assembly line actually creating those profits have been asked to sacrifice their own pay while seeing their plants shuttered and communities devastated,” Duckworth said.

“UAW is fighting for a fair, living wage — as well as better conditions — for workers and I stand with them as they stand up for America’s working families. I’ll always defend workers’ rights to collectively bargain for better pay, benefits and working conditions, and I hope negotiations result in an agreement soon.”