strike extends to Stellantis and General Motors factories

2023-09-22 17:48:39

The president of the powerful United Auto Workers union, Shawn Fain, announced Friday the extension of the strike at manufacturers General Motors and Stellantis, due to lack of progress in negotiations, while “real progress” were carried out with Ford.

Shawn Fain said that the 38 parts distribution centers of GM and Stellantis, located in twenty states of the United States, were called to stop work at noon Friday.

The three factories already on strike since September 15, when the collective agreements expired without agreement for the next ones, will remain on strike, he said. These three sites – one for each of the big three manufacturers – employ some 12,700 of the 146,000 union members working for the « Big Three ».

A 40% salary increase demanded by the union

This is the first strike affecting all three groups at the same time. Concerning Ford, Shawn Fain clarified that there had been ” movement “ more than “serious problems” persisted. Furthermore, on Friday he invited American President Joe Biden, who has supported the strikers on several occasions, to join a strike picket.

Joe Biden notably pleaded for a sharing ” just “ of the « profits record ». And he said to himself ” iron “ Wednesday that his government “be called the most pro-union administration in American history”. He wore a red tie to the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week in solidarity with the strikers, the White House said.

The union is demanding in particular a salary increase of 40% over four years, corresponding to that which the group leaders have benefited from over the last four years.