The auto workers’ strike against Detroit’s Big Three will enter its fifth day on Tuesday.
to Detroit to meet with both sides. Biden has backed the UAW in brief public comments, saying that the automakers have not fairly shared their record profits with workers.
An administration official said Monday that acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and senior aide Gene Sperling will not serve as mediators — they won’t be at the bargaining table — but are going to Detroit “to help support the negotiations in any way the parties feel is constructive.” The official was not authorized to discuss private discussions and spoke anonymously.“This is our battle. Our members are out there manning the picket lines,” he said Monday on MSNBC.
The UAW is seeking wage increases of 36% over four years, while the companies have offered about 20%. The union is also demanding a 32-hour workweek for 40 hours of pay, and other changes. Rather than launching an all-out strike of its 146,000 members, the union opted to target three factories, a plan that could make the union’s $825-million strike fund last longer. Workers walked out of a GM plant in Wentzville, Mo.; a Ford plant near Detroit; and a Stellantis factory in Toledo, Ohio, that produces Jeeps.
A key feature of the UAW strategy is the threat of escalating the strike if the union is unhappy with the pace of bargaining. On Friday, Fain said more factories could be targeted: “It could be in a day, it could be in a week.”
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Transcript: United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain on 'Face the Nation,' Sept. 17, 2023The following is a transcript of an interview with United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain that aired on 'Face the Nation' on Sept. 17, 2023.
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