UAW EXPANDS STAND UP STRIKE AGAINST GENERAL MOTORS AND STELLANTIS

DETROIT – UAW President Shawn Fain just announced on Facebook Live that the union, at noon today, will expand its Stand Up Strike against General Motors and Stellantis at 38 locations across 20 states. On Monday, Fain had announced that the union would expand its Stand Up Strike against automakers that did not make substantial progress toward a fair agreement. Neither company did. Approximately 5,600 Big Three workers will join the approximately 13,000 who are already on strike.

The union is continuing to strike Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Mich., but is not expanding its strike against the Dearborn-based automaker. The UAW and Ford did make substantial progress in bargaining over the last week.

Following is an excerpt from Fain’s prepared remarks describing the status of negotiations. You can view the remarks as delivered at the UAW’s Facebook and YouTube channels:

“As you know, we gave our Members Demands to the company two months ago. They wasted a whole month failing to respond. But there has been movement. In particular, we’ve made real progress at Ford. We’re not there yet, but I want you to see the direction that Ford is going, and what we think that means for our contract fight.

At Ford, Rawsonville Components and Sterling Axle employees will now be on the same wage scale as assembly workers. We have eliminated that entire wage tier. At Ford, we have officially reinstated the COLA that was suspended in 2009.

UAW family, many people said this couldn’t be done, but we just did it. We have also won, for the first time in our history, the right to strike over plant closures during the life of our agreement. I don’t have to tell you that this is an important victory in our fight to save our jobs, keep families together, and keep our communities from being gutted.

At Ford we’ve also won additional job security for our members in the event of indefinite layoff. If that happens, our members, including temporary workers, will now receive income security for up to two years, with healthcare.