Employees at a small number of Ford, GM and Stellantis plants will walk off the job Friday and more would join soon after.
Autoworkers in Detroit are planning to walk off the job Friday if their union leaders can’t agree on a new labor contract with Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain said during a Facebook Live event late Wednesday that members will use a so-called “stand up” strike strategy in which employees “at a limited number of targeted locations” will be ready to leave their posts starting at midnight ahead of Friday morning. The walkouts will happen at assembly plants and parts distribution centers across the Big Three automakers, he said.
“Then, based on what’s happening in bargaining, we’re going to announce more locals that are going to bw called to stand up and strike,” Fain said. “These locals will join others that are already on strike, so that our strike at each company will continue to grow over time.”
Fain said more employees will strike if the Big Three stall the negotiations or continue to send “insulting offers” that don’t meet union members’ requests.
If both sides fail to ink a new deal, it would mark the first UAW strike since and culminate in the nation’s . The strike could cause a surge in car prices, result in $5.6 billion in economic losses for the automakers, according to one forecast and reduce the nation’s GDP by as much as 0.
