2023-10-12 23:25:33
© Reuters. Members of the UAW union protest outside the Ford factory in Kentucky 10/12/2023 REUTERS/Luke Sharrett
DETROIT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The surprise strike by the United Auto Workers (UAW) union at Ford (NYSE:) Motor’s largest and most profitable plant is increasing pressure on Stellantis (NYSE:) and General Motors (NYSE:) , with negotiators resuming contractual discussions this Thursday.
Union negotiators turned their attention this Thursday to talks with Stellantis, said the entity’s president, Shawn Fain, confirming a Reuters report.
“We hope that conversations with Stellantis will be more productive than those with Ford,” he wrote on social media. Stellantis did not immediately comment.
The strike at Ford’s most profitable plant in Kentucky is a wake-up call to Stellantis and GM, whose wages and benefits are lower than Ford’s, based on summaries the automakers and the union have released.
Some analysts see Fain’s decision to close Ford’s Kentucky plant, which builds Super Duty pickups and Lincoln Navigator SUVs, as a sign that the final plan may be beginning in the nearly month of coordinated shutdowns at Detroit’s Big Three automakers.
“Pressure has always been necessary to force a deal,” Chris McNally, an analyst at Evercore ISI, wrote in a note on Thursday.
(Reporting by Joe White in Detroit, Abhirup Roy in San Francisco and David Shepardson in Washington; Additional reporting by Priyamvada C in Bengaluru)
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