'Progress is slow' in auto talks, UAW's Shawn Fain says
The United Auto Workers "stand-up" strike against all three Detroit automakers heads into a new week with talks continuing and White House aides set to arrive to try to facilitate a resolution.
Union members picketed Sunday for a third straight day at three plants in Michigan, Ohio and Missouri, where 12,700 workers walked out early Friday as contracts with Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Stellantis NV expired.
Appearing Sunday on MSNBC and "Face the Nation" on CBS, UAW President Shawn Fain said "progress is slow" in the negotiations, while NBC reported that President Joe Biden is sending a team to Detroit early this week to help the sides come together.
"The good thing that I see in all this is our members are out there manning the picket lines with our allies, and this really, to me, isn't about the president or the former president ... this is about working-class people standing up," Fain said on MSNBC.
Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University, said that since Biden has created a reputation as a pro-union president, “he feels an obligation to deliver” on that. And a prolonged strike could jeopardize his union claims and the Biden administration’s push for a greener, all-electric future a year before the presidential election.
“Both the environmental wing and the labor wing are important parts of his coalition. And in states like Michigan where every vote counts, he wants to make certain that he's in a position to where he can avoid a catastrophe,” Masters said. “He wants to make certain that he's not gonna leave any stone unturned to prevent the strike from going on so long that it thrusts the economy into a recession, causes a spike in inflation, or otherwise has an adverse impact on workers and union sentiment toward his candidacy.”
The union is seeking significant wage increases, an end to a tiered wage system and cost-of-living adjustments, among other demands. Specifically, the UAW initially proposed 46% wage increases over the length of the contract (40% when not compounded). A subsequent offer decreased that to 36% not compounded.
On "Face the Nation," Fain said Stellantis' recent 21% wage increase offer is "definitely a no-go, and we made that very clear to the companies."
More:Where UAW, Detroit Three automakers stand on key issues
Ahead of last week's 11:59 p.m. Thursday expiration of the Detroit Three-UAW contracts, Fain called for a targeted strike at GM's Wentzville Assembly in Missouri, Stellantis' Toledo Assembly in Ohio and Ford's Michigan Assembly in Wayne. Fain could call more workers to walk out at different plants depending on how talks proceed. This is the first time in its history the UAW has called a strike against all three automakers simultaneously.
Pickets back push for more
At the Ford plant in Wayne on Sunday, striking workers said they support the push by UAW leaders to get more than what the automakers are offering.
Michael Davis, 55, of Westland, an assembly line worker at the plant that makes the Bronco SUV, doesn't want to be sacrificing his paycheck on strike, but he says it's what the workers must do.
"I want them to be fair to us," the 3.5-year UAW member said. "Some of us in there work two to three jobs. I work in landscaping. I work the day shift, come home, get my stuff, and am done at 9 p.m. and go to sleep. I'm exhausted."
He says the offer to move the progression timeline to full pay from eight years to four years would be progress. If Biden stepped in to bring both sides together to get an agreement, "I'm fine with that," he said.
Brittany Eason, 38, of Romulus, is a hustler, too. In addition to working at the plant, she works as a pastry chef and picks up gigs on DoorDash and Instacart to support herself and her child. Parts shortages that have resulted in plant downtime have made it even more difficult to support her family. She says a 20% raise isn't enough.
"I make $32 and some change," said the 12-year autoworker whose great-grandfather was among the first Black millwrights at Ford. "After taxes get taken out, that's not a livable wage. After the price increases we've seen, it's expensive to eat healthy if you don't want to die early and eat a bunch of crap."
She says Biden should step in: "He needs to, because the Big Three aren't giving us our just due."
Eason says she likes building cars, even while having a skilled trades certification in culinary and an associate's degree in general studies.
Likewise, Jennifer Cartier, 42, of Wayne, has opted for a position in utility at the plant even though she is a test away from becoming a nurse and has an associate's in early education. The health care coverage was attractive for her and her two children.
"We're not asking for a lot," she said. "We're asking for what we deserve."
Brittany Davis, 32, of Ypsilanti, who works on the engine line, says a new agreement should include a pension. "We break our bodies down," the seven-year UAW member said. "We need something to fall back on once this all is over."
Supporters of the autoworkers honked horns and dropped by with cases of Gatorade and to offer ponchos as the skies grew gray. Some came with homemade signs calling for the union to bring out all 146,000 workers on strike now to get cost-of-living adjustments, pensions and the end of tiers.
"I think they should shut it all down to win it all together," said Tania Kappner, 52, a teacher from Detroit who joined the picket line representing the By All Means Necessary civil rights group. "They're fighting for our whole community."
Christopher Brackney, 24, of Trenton, has been a temporary worker at the Bronco plant for two months. He says no one wants to be on strike, but he was there to represent his dad, who is a Ford retiree, as well. His grandfather came from Scotland to work for GM.
"That's not how the job is anymore," he said. "It should be you're a full-time employee after 90 days like any other job. You're not going to come in at the top wage, but it shouldn't take eight years. That's just insane."
He suggested three years seems reasonable.
On Saturday, the UAW said it had "reasonably productive" talks with Ford, while Stellantis accused the union of mischaracterizing its offers. The Ram truck and Jeep maker said it offered the UAW a nearly 21% compounded wage increase and a pathway to "resolve" Belvidere Assembly Plant, the former Jeep Cherokee factory in north central Illinois that was idled at the end of February, but that the proposal was only on the table until the contract expired at midnight Thursday.
Fain called the move evidence the company sees workers as "a bargaining chip."
As a result of the strike in the final assembly and paint areas at Michigan Assembly, Ford said Friday it had to temporarily lay off 600 workers in other parts of the plant. On the same day, GM warned it will likely have to halt production at Fairfax Assembly in Kansas as a result of Wentzville's work stoppage because the Missouri plant supplies parts to Fairfax.
Concerns in Washington
Biden on Friday urged the Detroit Three to "go further" in their offers to the union and was expected to deploy Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and senior adviser Gene Sperling to Detroit to "offer their full support" to both the union and the automakers to reach a deal.
During Fain's media interviews Sunday, he was pressed on Biden's involvement and the union's decision to hold back on endorsing the president, who claims to be the most pro-union president in the country's history.
"Our endorsements are going to be earned," Fain said on "Face the Nation." "We expect action. Not words."
Michigan Democratic U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell of Ann Arbor also appeared on "Face the Nation," stating that "almost all workers at auto plants benefit from where these negotiations go."
Dingell added she doesn't believe the president should intervene or be at the negotiating table with the parties.
"Every one of us that are policymakers and other stakeholders need to understand what these issues are, what we can do to support those discussions at the table," she said. "And then (do) what we need to do coming out of these to help make a strong, viable, competitive industry."
Dingell, who was also pressed on the union's lack of endorsement for Biden ahead of the 2024 election, said she wants to keep presidential politics and negotiations with the union and automakers "totally separate."
"I'm really worried about what's happening at the table," she said. "It is going to determine the future of the auto industry in Michigan. I want to keep presidential politics out of this and do what's right from a policy perspective. Then we can talk about the presidential election."
Even though the union hasn't endorsed Biden, Fain, in a May letter to staff, said that another term for former President Donald Trump "would be a disaster."
Trump, the likely Republican presidential nominee in 2024, said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he doesn't know Fain, but "he’s not doing a good job in representing his union because he’s not going to have a union in three years from now. Those jobs are all going to be gone because all of those electric cars are going to be made in China."
khall@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @bykaleahall
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Staff Writer Riley Beggin contributed.