Tag: Ford Motor Company

Detroit’s Big Three automakers continue to lay off hundreds of factory workers as the United Auto Workers strike reaches its fourth week. 

General Motors on Monday idled a total of 155 workers at plants in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio, the company confirmed. Ford let go 537 workers in Michigan and Ohio, according to the latest numbers posted on X. Stellantis (the parent company of Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram) laid off 570 workers at plants in Indiana and Michigan as recently as October 6, the company confirmed Monday. To date, Ford has laid off a total 1,865 non-union workers while GM has let go of 2,330 and Stellantis has released 640 — bringing the combined total of strike-related layoffs by the Big Three to roughly 4,835.

Automakers say they are forced to lay off those workers because their job tasks are tied to factories the UAW has called on to strike. Ford, GM and Stellantis have not disclosed if they plan to rehire those workers once the strike ends. 

“While we are doing what we can to avoid layoffs, we have no choice but to reduce production of parts that would be destined for a plant that is on strike,” Bryce Currie, Ford’s vice president for Americas Manufacturing and Labor Affairs, said in a statement Monday. “Strike-related layoffs are an unfortunate result of the UAW’s strategy.”

The UAW launched its “stand-up strike” last month when nearly 13,000 autoworkers halted work at Big Three assembly plants Michigan, Missouri and Ohio. The UAW’s demands include a 36% pay increase over four years; annual cost-of-living adjustments; pension benefits for all employees; greater job security; a faster path to full-time status for temporary workers; and a four-day work week. Automakers have responded by laying off thousands of non-union workers.

The layoffs are separate from the hundreds of workers let go by companies that supply parts to Ford, GM and Stellantis. LM Manufacturing, a Michigan company that makes seats for the Ford Bronco, temporarily laid off about 650 workers last month because of the UAW strike, CBS Detroit reported. Another supplier, Sodecia Automotive, said last week that it will temporarily lay off about 140 workers until late November, according to a company notice. 

GM reaches agreement in Canada

The strike bug stretched north of Michigan on Tuesday as GM workers in Ontario, Canada, walked off the job. Hours later, both sides reached an agreement with GM saying in a statement that work will resume at the company’s facilities Tuesday afternoon.

Lana Payne, president of the Unifor union, which represents more than 20,000 Canadian autoworkers at the Big Three said GM agreed to all items that it members fought for such as pensions, retiree income and converting temporary workers into permanent employees during the agreement.

The new agreement covers about 4,300 autoworkers at three GM facilities in Ontario.

UAW talks continue 

Back in Michigan, UAW President Shawn Fain said last Friday that talks between the union and the Big Three are headed in the right direction — noting that GM has agreed to fold employees at its forthcoming electric vehicle battery plant in Indiana into the UAW contract.

Automakers say they have made reasonable counteroffers. GM on Monday brought to the negotiating table a 20% wage increase, an 8% company contribution to employee retirement accounts and increasing temporary worker wages to $20 an hour. 

Negotiations are continuing this week but neither side has signaled an end in sight. The longer the strike lasts, the deeper it hurts the nation, economists have said. 

Three weeks of the UAW strike has so far cost the U.S. economy $5.5 billion, according to Anderson Economic Group, a Michigan consultancy firm. That figure includes Big Three losses at around $2.68 billion and $1.6 billion in losses for parts suppliers. 

— The Associated Press contributed to this report.

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain said Friday that the union’s ongoing strike against Detroit’s Big Three automakers is securing vital concessions, mooting the need to expand the work stoppage — at least for now.

“We are winning, we are making progress and we are headed in the right direction,” the union leader said in a broadcast on Facebook.

As evidence of that momentum, Fain said General Motors has agreed to fold employees at its forthcoming electric vehicle battery plant in Indiana into the UAW contract. “Today we made GM say yes when they’d rather say no,” he said.

Yet while Fain said negotiations are progressing, he also emphasized that Ford, GM and Stellantis (the parent company of Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram, along with several foreign car brands) still need to meet union demands on issues including retirement benefits. 

“Our strike is working but we’re not there yet,” he said. “Everything we’ve done has been [with] one goal in mind: record contract that reflects Big Three record profits.”

The UAW’s demands include a 36% pay increase over four years; annual cost-of-living adjustments; pension benefits for all employees; greater job security; a faster path to full-time status for temporary workers; and a four-day work week. Along with a pay hike, the union also wants the automakers to eliminate a two-tiered wage system the companies adopted in 2007 as the companies were struggling financially. 

The automakers say they have made reasonable counteroffers, arguing that the UAW’s wage and other demands would make it hard to compete with other car manufacturers. 

Automakers said this week they’re still negotiating in good faith, with Ford saying Thursday it would “continue to work towards finding solutions to address outstanding issues.” 

“Negotiations remain ongoing, and we will continue to work towards finding solutions to address outstanding issues,” GM said Friday. “Our goal remains to reach an agreement that rewards our employees and allows GM to be successful into the future.”

“Transformative win”

Fain said the UAW was set to announce an additional strike at GM’s plant in Arlington, Texas, but union leaders changed course upon receiving a written agreement from the automaker that it would add its EV battery manufacturing to the UAW contract. The agreement was a “transformative win,” for the union’s membership said Fain, who sported a white T-shirt with the words “EAT THE RICH” in large bold letters for the livestream. 

Workers at GM’s Arlington plant produce the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, the GMC Yukon and Yukon XL as well as the Cadillac Escalade and Escalade-V, CBS News Detroit reported. 

GM adding the EV plants is “a monumental development,” said Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University.

“GM went far beyond and gave them this,” he said. “And I think GM is thinking they may get something in return for this on the economic items.”

Battery plants are key to the union’s survival as the auto industry makes a generational transition from internal combustion engines to vehicles that run on electricity. Fain has long wanted to pull the battery factories into the national contracts with the intent of winning top union wages for workers.

If electric battery plants are nonunion and pay less than UAW-represented assembly plants for gas cars, workers who might eventually lose their jobs at gasoline engine and transmission plants would have no place to go to get the same wages and benefits.

The auto companies have said the plants, mostly joint ventures with South Korean battery makers, had to be bargained separately.

Fain also used Friday’s address to mention other concessions made by the Big Three: Ford began its negotiations by offering a 9% wage increase and that has more than doubled to 23%. Stellantis and GM meanwhile have current offers of 20% increases. 

Fain said Ford and Stellantis have agreed to restore cost-of-living adjustments to worker wages, which were eliminated in 2007. The automakers have also agreed to reduce the time it takes for workers to reach top wages, which is currently eight years, to three years at Ford and four years at GM and Stellantis, he said.  

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Detroit’s Big Three automakers are furloughing or laying off thousands of non-union employees amid a bitter standoff with striking members of the United Auto Workers.

Ford Motor on Monday furloughed 330 workers in Chicago and Lima, Ohio, adding to the 600 workers the automaker laid off last month at an assembly plant in Wayne, Michigan. General Motors, which on Tuesday reported a 21% increase in sales for its third-quarter earnings, has laid off more than 2,100 workers across four states. Stellantis (the parent company of Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram) has idled nearly 370 workers, Reuters reported, including 68 workers in Perrysburg, Ohio.

The UAW on Oct. 29 expanded its nearly three-week-old strike to target GM’s Lansing Delta Township Assembly plant in Delta, Michigan, which manufactures the Chevrolet Traverse and Buick Enclave. Ford workers at the Chicago plant make the Explorer and Lincoln Aviator.

Automakers say the furloughs and layoffs are a result of the UAW strike, which has now entered its third week.

“It is unfortunate the UAW’s decision to call a strike at GM Lansing Delta Township Assembly continues to have negative ripple effects,” GM said in a statement to CBS News on Tuesday that confirmed the furloughs. “The impacted team members are not expected to return until the strike has been resolved. Since we are working under an expired labor agreement, there are no provisions for company-provided sub-pay in this circumstance.”

The automakers also said that a lengthy strike will lead to more layoffs for people who work at auto parts suppliers.

“We understand to date there are about 2,400 supplier employees that have been laid off,” Liz Door, Ford’s chief supply chain officer, said last week, adding that if the strike is prolonged, there could be “anywhere between 325,000 to 500,000 employees that could be laid off.”

The UAW has criticized the automakers’ moves to lay people off, with union chief Shawn Fain saying last month that the Big Three are using the layoffs as a tactic “to put the squeeze on our members to settle for less.”

The UAW launched a coordinated strike last month when nearly 13,000 autoworkers walked off the job at Big Three assembly plants Michigan, Missouri and Ohio — the first time union members at the companies had simultaneously stopped work. Another 5,600 workers at 38 GM and Stellantis-owned parts distribution centers in 20 states walked off the job last month.

The union expanded its work stoppage last Friday, bringing the total number of striking autoworkers to 25,000, or 17% of the UAW’s roughly 146,000 members. 

So far, the strike has cost the auto industry about $3.9 billion, according to an estimate from Michigan-based consulting firm Anderson Economic Group. That includes $325 million in worker wages, $1.12 billion in losses for the automakers, $1.29 billion in losses for parts suppliers, and $1.2 billion in dealer and customer losses.

The UAW’s demands include a 36% pay increase over four years, annual cost-of-living adjustments, pension benefits for all employees, greater job security, restrictions on the use of temporary workers and a four-day work week. Along with a wage hike, the union also wants the automakers to eliminate a two-tiered wage system the companies adopted after the 2008 financial crisis. 

For their part, the automakers say they have made reasonable counteroffers, while arguing that the UAW’s wage and other demands would make it hard to compete with other car manufacturers. Both sides have said they’re open to further negotiations. 

“We can confirm there was a meeting today between the GM and UAW leadership teams,” GM spokesman David Barnas said in a statement to CBS News on Tuesday. “The union did present a counter to our proposal from Sept. 21. We are assessing, but significant gaps remain.”