UAW Local 2250 votes to authorize strike if needed as Big Three contract deadline approaches

By SHERI GASSAWAY
Missouri Correspondent

Wentzville, MO – UAW Local 2250 members at the General Motors’ Wentzville Assembly Plant have overwhelmingly approved a strike if needed as Detroit’s Big Three contract negotiations heat up and a Sept. 14 contract deadline approaches. That’s when the current contract will expire.

The UAW and the Big Three – General Motors, Ford Motor Co., and Stellantis – are in contract negotiations for nearly 150,000 employees who are represented by the UAW.

“Members of UAW Local 2250 (Region 4) are ready to stand together for a strong contract,” the UAW International shared on Facebook. “Join the movement to win justice on and off the job!”

Nationally, UAW members voted 97 percent to authorize a strike, and the results were similar in the Local 2250 vote. Newly elected UAW President Shawn Fain is calling for practice pickets and other local actions.

“Let’s show the companies we mean business by organizing actions across the country,” Fain said to members. “One of my favorites: the practice picket. For decades, unions across the country have used this tactic because it’s simple, fun and sends a clear message to the boss. The Teamsters were the most recent union to use practice pickets to win a strong contract. Now it’s our turn.”

Should a strike occur, it would be the second one in four years for UAW members at General Motors. In 2019, a 40-day strike against the auto giant ended with a four-year contract that included raises, bonuses, improved profit sharing and a path for temporary workers to get hired.

‘RECORD PROFITS MEAN RECORD CONTRACTS’
While talks haven’t broken down, Fain has not been shy about ditching tradition and adopting a more confrontational approach with the Big Three over issues like wages and job security.

“Ford, General Motors and Stellantis made a combined $21 billion in profits in just the first six months of this year,” Fain said in a statement. “That’s on top of the quarter-trillion dollars in North American profits that the Big Three made over the last decade. Record profits mean record contracts.”

MEMBERS’ DEMANDS
Fain shared the UAW members’ demands on Facebook Live. They include:

• Eliminating tiers – “It’s wrong to make any worker second class. We can’t allow it any longer in the UAW. The Teamsters ended tiers at UPS. We’re going to end tiers at the Big Three.”
• Substantial wage increases – “Yes, we’re demanding double-digit pay raises. Big Three CEOs saw their pay spike 40 percent on average over the last four years. We know our members are worth the same and more.”
• Restoring COLA – “It’s Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA) that made sure working-class communities thrived for decades. Taking that away hammered us and our hometowns. It must be restored.”
• Defined benefit pension for all workers – “All workers deserve the retirement security that UAW members had for generations.”
• Re-establishing retiree medical benefits – “That’s just as essential as a solid pension.”
• Right to strike over plant closures – “The Big Three have closed 65 plants over the last 20 years. That’s been as devastating for our hometowns as it has been for us. We have to have the right to defend our communities from the corporate greed that’s killing so many cities and towns.”
• Working family protection program – “It’s a program that keeps UAW members on the job. If companies try to flee our hometowns, they’ll have to pay UAW members to do community-service work. Companies can still make a healthy profit and it’ll keep our communities healthy, too.”
• End abuse of temp workers – “We are going to end the abuse of temps. Our fight at the Big Three is a fight for every worker.”
• More paid time off to be with families – “Our members are working 60, 70, even 80 hours a week just to make ends meet. That’s not living. It’s barely surviving and it needs to stop.”
• Significantly increase retiree pay – “We owe our retirees everything. They built these companies and they built our union. We will not forget them in these negotiations.”

For bargaining updates and the latest news on negotiations, visit uaw.org/uaw-auto-bargaining.