Thousands of autoworkers walked off the job at three Midwest plants in an unprecedented strike, as the United Automobile Workers (UAW) and Detroit’s three big carmakers (GM, Ford, and Stellantis) remained miles apart on contract talks. Thousands of workers have joined picket lines to demand higher wages, job security and clarity on how employers will deal with new or disruptive technologies. Carmakers are anxious to keep costs down as they ramp up electric vehicle manufacturing, while striking workers want to preserve jobs as the industry shifts to batteries.
The UAW is one of the nation’s largest unions and its demands for a four-year 40 percent hike in wages have been rejected by Ford, GM and Stellantis. Inflation has put a huge dent in the real wages and salaries of union workers. Adjusted for inflation, wages for autoworkers in the United States have fallen 19 percent since 2008, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning research group. Much of it was due to the government bailout of the automobile industry undertaken in 2009 following the collapse of the housing market.
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