The United Auto Workers union has reached a tentative contract agreement with Mack Trucks that covers about 4,000 workers in three states.
Mack Trucks confirmed a tentative agreement on a five-year contract early Monday after the UAW announced the deal just before midnight Sunday.
“The terms of this tentative agreement would deliver significantly increased wages and continue first-class benefits for Mack employees and their families,” Mack President Stephen Roy said. “At the same time, it would allow the company to successfully compete in the market, and continue making the necessary investments in our people, plants and products.”
“Nearly 4,000 UAW members at Mack Truck in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Florida (UAW Region 8 & Region 9) have a tentative agreement!,” the union said on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
The UAW said that more details would become available as members review the tentative deal with Mack, which is owned by Volvo Group.
Mack Trucks confirmed a tentative agreement on a five-year contract early Monday after the UAW announced the deal just before midnight Sunday.
AP Photo/Keith Srakocic
Mack said UAW members still need to ratify the agreement and that the union will schedule ratification meetings.
The deal announcement comes just after UAW expanded strikes against Detroit automakers Friday, ordering 7,000 more workers to walk off the job at a General Motors plant in Lansing, Michigan, and a Ford plant in Chicago, to put more pressure on the companies to improve their offers.
The strike began on September 15 when nearly 13,000 autoworkers halted work at Big Three assembly plants Michigan, Missouri and Ohio. A week later, another 5,600 workers at 38 GM and Stellantis-owned parts distribution centers in 20 states walked off the job. The activity marks the first UAW strike since auto workers walked out on GM in 2019.
Union President Shawn Fain told workers in a video appearance that the strikes were escalated because Ford and GM refused “to make meaningful progress” in contract talks.
The UAW spared additional strikes at Stellantis. Fain said the parent company of Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram has made progress on negotiations, including in cost-of-living adjustments and giving workers the right to strike.
“We are excited about this momentum at Stellantis and hope it continues,” Fain said.
President Biden joined UAW strikers this week in Michigan on the picket line — a historically unprecedented move for a sitting U.S. president — saying they saved the auto industry following the 2008 financial crisis and urging them to “stick with it.”
What the UAW wants
The UAW’s demands include a 36% pay increase across a four-year contract, 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 adopted at the companies after the 2008 financial crisis.
Automakers have long said that they are willing to give raises, but they fear that a costly contract will make their vehicles more expensive than those built at nonunion U.S. plants run by foreign corporations.
The United Auto Workers strike against the Big Three automakers expanded Friday to two more plants in Lansing, Michigan, and Chicago, Illinois, bringing the total number of striking UAW workers to 25,000.
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Members of the United Auto Workers union picket outside the Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Michigan, on Sept. 26, 2023.
Matthew Hatcher | AFP | Getty Images
DETROIT — The United Auto Workers union is holding up negotiations with Ford Motor over future electric vehicle battery plants, Ford CEO Jim Farley said during a press briefing Friday.
“I believe we could have reached a compromise on pay and benefits, but so far the UAW is holding the deal hostage over battery plants,” he said after the UAW announced it would expand strikes to two additional assembly plants — one each for Ford and General Motors.
Farley criticized the union for its targeted strike strategy, saying he feels the actions were “premeditated” and insinuating the union was never interested in reaching a deal before a Sept. 14 deadline.
“We have felt from the very beginning, between all the lines of our comments, that the original strike was premeditated and that everything is taking way too long,” he said. “That actual events are predetermined before they happen. It’s been very frustrating.”
Farley’s public criticism of the union is uncharacteristic for Ford, which is historically viewed as the most union-friendly company of the Detroit automakers.
Farley said the company isn’t “at an impasse” with the union but warned that day “could come if this continues.”
GM CEO Mary Barra echoed much of Farley’s criticisms of Fain and the UAW’s strike strategy.
“It’s clear that there is no real intent to get to an agreement,” she said in an emailed statement Friday night. “It is clear Shawn Fain wants to make history for himself, but it can’t be to the detriment of our represented team members and the industry.”
UAW President Shawn Fain fired back at Farley, saying the CEO hasn’t been present at the bargaining table and that he’s “lying about the state of negotiations.”
“It could be because he failed to show up for bargaining this week, as he has for most of the past ten weeks. If he were there, he’d know we gave Ford a comprehensive proposal on Monday and still haven’t heard back,” Fain said in a statement Friday afternoon. “He would also know that we are far apart on core economic proposals like retirement security and post-retirement healthcare, as well as job security in this EV transition, which Farley himself says is going to cut 40 percent of our members’ jobs.”
Multibillion-dollar EV battery plants — and their thousands of expected workers — are crucial to the automotive industry’s future and uniquely positioned to have wide-ranging implications for the UAW, automakers and President Joe Biden’s push toward domestic manufacturing.
Current and former union leaders previously told CNBC that the battery plants will have to be a priority for the labor organization, regardless of whether they’re directly discussed in the national agreement, for the long-term viability of the union.
However, they’re considered a “wild card” issue in the contract negotiations. Many of the battery plants that have been announced cannot legally be included in the current talks, as they are joint venture facilities.
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain addresses picketing UAW members at a General Motors Service Parts Operations plant in Belleville, Michigan, on Sept. 26, 2023, as U.S. President Joe Biden joined the workers.
Jim Watson | Afp | Getty Images
Ford has announced four future battery plants, including three joint ventures and a wholly owned subsidiary using battery technology licensed from Chinese auto supplier CATL. Ford earlier this week paused construction on the latter plant in Marshall, Michigan, due to the union negotiations, Farley said.
“We can make Marshall a lot bigger or a lot smaller,” Farley said Friday.
GM is the only Detroit automaker with a joint venture battery plant in operation and unionized — making it the first in the country to face this particular negotiating dynamic and a landmark plant to set standards for the industry.
Farley noted that some of the battery production won’t even be covered under the timeline of the deals that are currently being negotiated. He also defended the company’s prior offers, which include more than 20% hourly wage growth, reinstatement of cost-of-living adjustments, job protections and other benefits.
“If the UAW’s goal is a record contract, they have already achieved this,” Farley said. “It is grossly irresponsible to escalate these strikes and hurt thousands of families.”
The United Auto Workers is expected on Friday to announce additional work stoppages at Detroit’s Big Three carmakers, expanding a strike that has already shuttered assembly plants, parts distribution centers and other facilities across more than 20 states.
UAW President Shawn Fain is scheduled to appear in a broadcast on Facebook at 10 a.m. to give an update on the status of labor negotiations with Ford, General Motors and Stellantis (the parent company of Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram, along with a number of foreign brands).
The UAW launched its “stand-up strike” — a rhetorical nod to the “sit-down” strike by GM workers in Flint, Michigan, in the 1930s — on September 15 when nearly 13,000 autoworkers halted work at Big Three assembly plants Michigan, Missouri and Ohio. A week later, another 5,600 workers at 38 GM and Stellantis-owned parts distribution centers in 20 states walked off the job. Ford was spared, with Fain saying the sides were making headway on wage, job security and other issues.
The UAW’s demands include a 36% pay increase across a four-year contract, 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 adopted at the companies 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.
Union leaders counter that the Big Three reaped hefty profits as car prices jumped during the pandemic, while workers failed to enjoy the same benefits.
The UAW striking in weekly waves allows the union to “inflict significant disruption while minimizing the number of workers not receiving paychecks,” Benjamin Salisbury, an analyst at Height Capital Markets, said in a report.
The UAW’s next targets are likely to include plants that make some of the Big Three’s most profitable vehicles, such as the Chevrolet Silverado and Ram pickup trucks, according to experts.
“Of note, the auto companies produce trucks at multiple factories,” Salisbury said. “Therefore the union may select only a few facilities to up the ante but continue work at others to serve as leverage if negotiations worsen.”
Striking workers are receiving pay through an $825 million fund set up by the UAW.
Khristopher J. Brooks is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering business, consumer and financial stories that range from economic inequality and housing issues to bankruptcies and the business of sports.
Suddenly, it just tumbled out: “Honestly, every time I hear you I feel a little bit dumber for what you say.”
That was former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley’s rebuke of businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, easily the best line of Wednesday night’s messy and awkward GOP primary debate. Ramaswamy, for his part, produced his own meme-worthy quote during a heated exchange with Senator Tim Scott: “Thank you for speaking while I’m interrupting.”
Such was the onstage energy at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum: Chaotic, sloppy, largely substance-free. Seven candidates desperately fought for fresh relevance; none of them came away with it. Rather than pitching themselves as the candidate who can beat former President Donald Trump, these Republicans seemed to be operating most of the time in an alternate universe, in which Trump was absent not just from the stage, but from the race.
Eight years ago, so many candidates were vying for the Republican nomination that the party took to splitting primary debates into two sessions: the main event and the undercard. The latter contest was mocked as the “kids’ table” debate. So far this time around, there’s only one unified debate night. Nevertheless, Trump has such a commanding lead over his challengers that, for the second debate in a row, he hasn’t even bothered to show up and speak. Voters have no reason to believe he’ll be at any of the other contests. Trump counter-programmed last month’s Fox News debate by sitting down for a sympathetic interview with the former Fox star Tucker Carlson. On Wednesday, Trump delivered a speech in Michigan, where a powerful union—United Auto Workers—are in the second week of a strike.
All seven candidates who qualified for the debate—individuals with honorifics such as “governor,” “senator,” and “former vice president”—spent the evening arguing at the kids’ table. Barring some sort of medical emergency, Trump seems like the inevitable 2024 GOP nominee. As Michael Scherer of The Washington Post pointed out on X (formerly Twitter), the candidates on stage were collectively polling at 36 percent. If they were to join forces and become one person (think seven Republicans stacked in a trenchcoat), Trump would still be winning by 20 percent.
How many other ways can you say this? The race is effectively over. So what, then, were they all doing there? A cynic would tell you they’re merely running for second place—for a shot at a cabinet position, maybe even VP.
One candidate decidedly not running for vice president is Former Vice President Mike Pence, who has taken to (gently) attacking his old boss. Nor does former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie seem to want a sidekick or administration gig. Christie has staked his entire campaign on calling out Trump’s sins, and, so far, it’s not working. Earlier on Wednesday, Christie shared a photo of himself at a recent NFL game, with a cringeworthy nod to new Kansas City Chiefs fan Taylor Swift: “I was just a guy in the bleachers on Sunday… but after tonight, Trump will know we are never ever getting back together.”
At the debate, Christie stared directly into the camera like Macho Man Randy Savage, pointer finger and all, to deliver what amounted to a professional wrestling taunt. “Donald, I know you’re watching. You can’t help yourself!” Christie began. “You’re not here tonight because you’re afraid of being on this stage and defending your record. You’re ducking these things, and let me tell you what’s going to happen.”
[Here it comes]
“You keep doing that, no one up here’s gonna call you Donald Trump anymore. We’re gonna call you Donald Duck.”
“Alright,” moderator Dana Perino said.
The crowd appeared to laugh, cheer, boo, and groan.
The auto-worker’s strike, and criticisms of the larger American economy, received significant attention at the debate. North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum laid the strike “at Joe Biden’s feet.” Pence came ready with a zinger: “Joe Biden doesn’t belong on a picket line, he belongs on the unemployment line.” (Another Pence joke about sleeping with a teacher—his wife—didn’t quite land.)
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, once seen as Trump’s closest rival, stood center stage but spent most of the night struggling to connect as all the candidates intermittently talked over one another. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, perhaps trying to fight back against those who claim he lacks charisma, frequently went on the attack, most notably against Ramaswamy, who, in the previous debate, claimed his rivals were “bought and paid for.” Later, Scott attacked DeSantis for his past controversial comments about race: “There is not a redeeming quality in slavery,” Scott said. But he followed that up a moment later with another sound byte: “America is not a racist country.”
However earnest and honest Scott’s message may be, it was impossible to hear his words without thinking of the man he’s running against. So again: What was everyone doing Wednesday night? In an alternate reality, a red-state candidate like Scott, Haley, or Burgum might cruise to the GOP nomination. In a way, Fox Business, itself, seemed to broadcast tonight’s proceedings in that strange other world. The network kept playing retro Reagan clips as the debate came in and out of commercial breaks. And those ads? One featured South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem—not a 2024 presidential candidate, but certainly a potential VP pick—making a pitch for people to move to her sparsely populated state. Another ad argued that the Biden administration’s plan to ban menthol cigarettes would be a boon to Mexican drug cartels. What?
It was all a sideshow. Trump’s team seemed to know it, too. With just over five minutes left in the debate, the former president’s campaign blasted out a statement to reporters from a senior advisor: “Tonight’s GOP debate was as boring and inconsequential as the first debate, and nothing that was said will change the dynamics of the primary contest being dominated by President Trump.” For all of Trump’s lies, he and his acolytes can occasionally be excruciatingly honest.
President Biden joined striking autoworkers on the picket line in Michigan on Tuesday. The president told United Auto Workers members they’ve “earned a hell of a lot more than you’re getting paid now.” Robert Costa reports.
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President Joe Biden visited the United Auto Workers union picket line outside a General Motors parts distribution center in Belleville, Michigan, on Tuesday, making him the first sitting president to join a picket line.
“Stick with it, because you deserve the significant raise you need and other benefits,” he said through a megaphone to a few dozen UAW members.
UAW President Shawn Fain, who accompanied him on the visit, thanked the president for his solidarity.
This is a developing story. Please return for updates.
President Biden travels to Michigan Tuesday to join United Auto Workers union members on the picket line, with the strike now in its second week.
It’s an unusual move for a sitting president to make such a visible intervention for striking workers. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre insists they’re “not going to get into negotiations,” and wouldn’t say whether the White House supports UAW workers’ current proposal. The Biden administration had said it would send Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and top White House adviser Gene Sperling to help with negotiations, but then decided last week to keep the two in Washington.
Su and Sperling “have been in regular touch for the past several weeks with all parties,” Jean-Pierre said.
The message that Mr. Biden’s presence at the strike is intended to send is that “we support the auto workers,” Jean-Pierre said.
“To be very clear, he is standing with them to make sure that they get a fair share,” Jean-Pierre also said.
Mr. Biden plans to speak and join the picket line, but Jean-Pierre on Monday declined to share details of the president’s day.
The president announced he would join the picket line last week, shortly after former President Trump announced he would visit Detroit on Wednesday and skip Wednesday’s Republican presidential debate in California. Trump has accused Mr. Biden of only visiting because Trump said he would.
“Crooked Joe Biden, who is killing the United Autoworkers with his WEAK stance on China and his ridiculous insistence on All Electric Cars, every one of which will be made in China, saw that I was going to Michigan this week (Wednesday!), so the Fascists in the White House just announced he would go there tomorrow,” the former president posted on Truth Social Monday morning.
The UAW, which began its walkout on Sept. 15, has expanded its strike against Detroit’s Big Three automakers to include General Motors and Stellantis (formerly Chrysler) distribution centers across 20 states. The Big Three also includes Ford. Fewer than 20,000 UAW members are striking, out of the UAW’s nearly 150,000 members.
The UAW has demanded a 36% pay increase, annual cost-of-living adjustments, pensions and a four-day work week, among other things. The sides still appear far apart.
Mr. Biden, who likes to call himself the most pro-union president, said last week that the companies have made “significant offers” but must do more. The president said workers deserve a “fair share of the benefits they help create for an enterprise.”
“Companies have made some significant offers, but I believe it should go further — to ensure record corporate profits mean record contracts,” the president said when the strike began.
President Biden will travel to Michigan next week to meet with the United Auto Workers who are striking against Detroit’s Big Three automakers. This comes after the union expanded its historic strike Friday to include General Motors and Stellantis parts distribution centers across 20 states. CBS News senior transportation correspondent Kris Van Cleave reports.
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The United Auto Workers is expanding its historic strike against Detroit’s Big Three automakers to include General Motors and Stellantis parts distribution centers across 20 states.
UAW President Shawn Fain said during a Facebook Live address on Friday that workers at 38 GM and Stellantis facilities will walk off the job at noon local time. GM and Stellantis “are going to need some serious pushing” to get closer to an agreement, said the union leader, who wore a black-and-white camouflage-printed union shirt.
“We’re not going to wait around forever for a fair contract,” said Fain. “The companies know how to make this right.”
Notably, the labor group is not targeting Ford for additional strikes. The union is making progress with Ford on wage, job security and other issues, according to Fain, who said the company “is serious about reaching a deal.”
Ford has agreed to dismantle the two-tiered wage system at its Components and Sterling axel assembly plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan, according to Fain. The automaker has also agreed to reinstate cost-of-living adjustments — which were eliminated in 2009 — and the right to strike over plant closures. Other concessions Ford made include beefed-up profit-sharing payments that will also be offered to temporary workers who have been on the job for 90 days.
“Ford is working diligently with the UAW to reach a deal that rewards our workforce and enables Ford to invest in a vibrant and growing future,” the company said in a statement Friday. “Although we are making progress in some areas, we still have significant gaps to close on the key economic issues.”
Roughly 5,600 Big Three workers will join the nearly 13,000 who are already on strike.
“In selecting the parts distribution centers, the UAW creates a scenario where manufacturing disruptions will be more difficult to predict or manage, and could be widespread,” Joe Langley, associate director of North American production forecasting at S&P Global Mobility. “A vehicle has thousands of parts, and if one is missing it cannot be completed.”
The UAW’s move to escalate the work stoppage highlights how far the side remain apart on core union demands, which include a 36% pay increase across a four-year contract, annual cost-of-living adjustments, pension benefits for all employees, greater job security and a four-day work week.
GM and Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep, have rejected the union’s proposals for job security, reduced-use of temporary workers and profit-sharing, which is why the union’s expanded strike targets their facilities, Fain said. Those plants will remain on strike until GM and Stellantis submit more substantive offers, he said.
GM said in a statement Friday that the strike targeting 18 of its facilities is unnecessary and that it adversely impacts “more than 3,000 team members plus their families and communities.”
“We have now presented five separate economic proposals that are historic, addressing areas that our team members have said matters most: wage increases and job security while allowing GM to succeed and thrive into the future,” the carmaker said in a statement. “We will continue to bargain in good faith with the union to reach an agreement as quickly as possible.”
Stellantis didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The automakers argue they’re facing pressure to keep costs low in order to compete with Tesla and foreign car makers, while also investing money into the rapidly growing electric vehicle market. The companies also say their counteroffers are reasonable, while signaling they are willing to negotiate further.
“If we don’t continue to invest, we will lose ground — quickly,” GM President Mark Reuss wrote Wednesday in an op-ed published in the Detroit Free Press. “Our competitors across the country and around the world, most of whom are non-union, will waste no time seizing the opportunity we would be handing them.”
What does the UAW want?
The UAW is also seeking limited use of temporary workers and more paid time off, as well as stronger job protections, including the right to strike over plant closings.
The union argues that the Big Three reaped hefty profits as car prices surged during the pandemic, while workers failed to enjoy the same benefits.
“Autoworkers have waited long enough to make things right at the Big Three,” Fain said in a video earlier this week. “We’re not waiting around, and we’re not messing around.”
“Companies have made some significant offers, but I believe it should go further — to ensure record corporate profits mean record contracts,” Mr. Biden said.
Why target the parts facilities?
Among other issues, the UAW is pushing automakers to eliminate the two-tiered wage system present at all three companies. Higher-tier workers — anyone who joined the company before 2007 — make roughly $33 an hour. Anyone who joined after that year is classified as lower tier, and their pay starts at around $17 an hour. Lower-tier employees also don’t receive defined benefit pensions, and their health benefits are less generous.
Fain said employees at parts distribution centers are disproportionately impacted by the pay structure.
“At Stellantis and GM… workers at parts distribution centers are permanently stuck on a lower wage scale,” he said. “For workers hired after 2015, top pay maxes out at just $25 an hour, and it takes eight years to get there.”
Although GM has offered to raise those wages, the UAW is also pressing for cost-of-living increases and more job security, Fain said.
Staging walkouts at the GM and Stellantis parts distribution centers is aimed at making it harder for the companies to repair cars at their dealerships, Fain said.
The move “goes at the hearts and lungs of auto operations for GM and Stellantis given the ripple impact/pressure points and is a clear shot across the bow at both,” Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said in a report.
Lynne Vincent, a business management professor at Syracuse University, said the UAW’s “selective striking” strategy is aimed at maximizing the worker’ leverage while keeping the automakers off balance.
“It gives them the power of surprise so the Big Three cannot fully strategize and create their own counter tactic,” said Vincent, an expert on the psychological impacts of strikes.
United Auto Workers members and supporters on a picket line outside the General Motors Co. Ypsilanti Processing Center in Ypsilanti, Michigan, on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023.
Emily Elconin/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The UAW’s so-called stand-up strike — a rhetorical nod to the Flint, Michigan, “sit-down” strike against GM in the 1930s — kicked off on September 15 when Ford, GM and Stellantis workers in Michigan, Missouri and Ohio walked off the job after negotiations between the automakers and the UAW failed to yield a new labor agreement.
The automakers responded by announcing temporary layoffs at some factories, beginning with Ford Motor which had temporarily laid off 600 non-striking workers at its assembly plant in Wayne, Michigan, on September 15, only hours after employees at the facility had walked off the job.
Stellantis announced this week it was temporarily laying off 68 workers at a plant outside Toledo because of the ongoing strike, with more layoffs expected at its transmission plant in Kokomo, Indiana. GM said it will lay off 2,000 workers at its plant in Kansas City, Kansas, because there’s no work for them since they depend on parts from the Wentzville facility.
Workers from those plants, as well as those walking off from the 38 distribution sites added Friday, will be paid through the UAW’s $825 million strike fund.
Experts say the economic impact of the UAW strike could extend beyond the auto industry. A work stoppage lasting three weeks could cost the U.S. economy $415 million, according to an estimate from The Perryman Group.
Here are the GM and Stellantis parts distribution facilities where workers are set to strike.
General Motors
Pontiac Redistribution (Pontiac, Michigan)
Willow Run Redistribution (Belleville, Michigan)
Ypsilanti Processing Center (Ypsilanti, Michigan)
Davidson Road Processing Center (Burton, Michigan)
Flint Processing Center (Swartz Creek, Michigan)
Lansing Redistribution (Lansing, Michigan)
Cincinnati Parts Distribution (Westchester, Ohio)
Denver Parts Distribution (Aurora, Colorado)
Hudson Parts Distribution (Hudson, Wisconsin)
Chicago Parts Distribution (Bolingbrook, Illinois)
Reno Parts Distribution Center (Reno, Nevada)
Rancho Cucamonga Parts Distribution (Rancho Cucamonga, California)
Fort Worth Parts Distribution (Roanoke, Texas)
Martinsburg Parts Distribution (Martinsburg, West Virginia)
Jackson Parts Distribution (Brandon, Mississippi)
Charlotte Parts Distribution (Charlotte, North Carolina)
Memphis AC Delco Parts Distribution (Memphis, Tennessee)
Philadelphia Parts Distribution (Langhorne, Pennsylvania)
Stellantis
Marysville (Marysville, Michigan)
Centerline Packaging (Center Line, Michigan)
Centerline Warehouse (Center Line, Michigan)
Sherwood (Warren, Michigan)
Warren Parts (Warren, Michigan)
Quality Engineering Center (Auburn Hills, Michigan)
Khristopher J. Brooks is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering business, consumer and financial stories that range from economic inequality and housing issues to bankruptcies and the business of sports.
The United Auto Workers strike has entered Day 6 as union representatives and Detroit’s Big Three remain at odds over wage increases.
UAW President Shawn Fain and other union leaders have argued that Ford, General Motors and Stellantis — parent company of Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram — can afford to pay workers more money because the companies have sharply boosted CEO pay in recent years. Those pay increases have helped create an unreasonably high pay gap between CEOs and average workers, the UAW says.
“The reason we ask for 40% pay increases is because, in the last four years alone, the CEO pay went up 40%,” Fain said on CBS News’”Face the Nation” Sunday. “They’re already millionaires.”
A Ford representative told CBS MoneyWatch that the UAW’s claims are misleading, noting that since 2019 CEO Jim Farley’s total compensation has risen 21%, not 40%, while his annual salary over that period is down 6%.
Farley earned $21 million in total compensation last year, the Detroit News reported, which is 281 times more than typical workers at the company, according to Ford filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares made $24.8 million in 2022, according to the Detroit Free Press, roughly 365 times more than the average worker at Stellantis, SEC filings show. GM CEO Mary Barra earned nearly $29 million in 2022 pay, Automotive News reported, which is 362 times more than the typical GM worker.
While those ratios may seem staggering, they’re not uncommon, according to Michael Dambra, an accounting and law professor at University at Buffalo.
“It’s right in line with what’s been happening in the past three or four years,” Dambra told CBS News.
Triple-digit pay gaps between a CEOs and workers are also not unique to the auto industry, Dambra and other experts say.
Back in the ’60s and ’70s, company executives earned “somewhere between 20 and 30 times” regular employees, but “that’s massively increased, particularly in the 2000s,” said Dambra.
Factoring in the nation’s 350 largest companies, the CEO-to-worker pay ratio was 20-to-1 in 1965, according to the Economic Policy Institute. That figure jumped to 59-to-1 in 1989 and 399-to-1 in 2021, EPI researchers said. The CEO-to-worker pay ratio for S&P 500 firms was 186-to-1 in 2022, according to executive compensation research firm Equilar.
That pay ratio continues to grow because CEOs are increasingly paid in stock awards. Companies often justify paying CEOs in stock by saying it aligns a corporate leader’s financial incentives with the company’s — ostensibly, the executive earn more if the company does well or hits certain targets.
But companies often boost CEO pay even when executives miss their targets, the left-leaning Institute for Policy Studies said in a 2021 report that identified 50 large companies that changed their executive compensation rules during the pandemic.
Barra told CBS News last week that 92% of her pay is based on GM’s financial performance in a given year. She noted that employees’ total pay is also tied to performance through profit-sharing bonuses.
“The way that General Motors is set up, if the company does well, everyone does well,” she said.
Although that may be broadly correct, employees’ profit-sharing pay stops at a certain dollar amount, Dambra said, noting the $12,000 cap the UAW and automakers had in their now-expired contract. Barra’s pay structure doesn’t have a cap, “so essentially compensation for Mary Barra is unlimited,” he said.
“As stock performance improves and stock returns go up, the share-based compensation she gets is uncapped — it’s exponential, unlimited growth,” Barra said.
Khristopher J. Brooks is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering business, consumer and financial stories that range from economic inequality and housing issues to bankruptcies and the business of sports.
As the United Auto Workers enters day four of its strike against Detroit’s Big Three, the stakes are getting higher for automakers Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. UAW President Shawn Fain has threatened to target more factories for work stoppages if “serious progress” toward an agreement isn’t reached by Friday at noon.
What do striking autoworkers want? Here is a list of contract demands the union is making at the negotiating table.
Pay increases and cost of living adjustments
The UAW is asking automakers for a 36% pay increase across a four-year contract. For now, however, the sides remain far apart on a wage hike.
Stellantis — which owns Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram, along with major foreign brands including Citroën, Peugeot and Maserati) — on Saturday offered a 21% wage increase over four years, with an immediate 10% bump when a new contract is signed. The union summarily rejected the offer.
“It’s definitely a no-go,” Fain told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday of Stellantis’ proposal. “We’ve made that very clear to the companies.”
The UAW also wants the Big Three to reinstate annual cost of living adjustments, arguing that inflation is eating away worker paychecks. For decades, the Detroit automakers offered a COLA, but stopped after GM and Chryslers went bankrupt following the 2008 financial crisis.
Adjusting for inflation, autoworkers have seen their average wages fall 19.3% since 2008, according to Adam Hersh, senior economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. That’s because autoworker “concessions made following the 2008 auto industry crisis were never reinstated,” Hersh said in a recent blog post, “including a suspension of cost-of-living adjustments.”
End of wage tiers
The UAW wants the Big Three to scrap its two-tiered wage structure. Under that system, top-tier workers — meaning anyone who joined the company in 2007 or earlier — earn an average of roughly $33 an hour. But those hired after 2007 are classified as lower tier and earn far less — up to about $17 an hour.
Lower-tier employees also aren’t eligible for defined benefit pensions, and their health benefits are less generous. The UAW says that paying employees half as much for doing the same work amounts is unfair.
Defined benefit pension plans for all
Currently, UAW workers who were hired after 2007 don’t receive defined benefit pensions. For years, the union gave up general pay raises and lost cost-of-living wage increases to help the companies control costs.
“The majority of our members do not get a pension nowadays. It’s crazy,” Fain complained while speaking to Ford workers last month at a plant in Louisville, Kentucky.
Art Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations in Buffalo, believes the union will ultimately lose its battle for the return of pensions.
“I think the chances of them winning even most of what they’re looking for is between slim and none,” said Wheaton. For example, he said, “I wouldn’t hold my breath for [the return of pension plans]. Almost no one in any industry is adding those today.”
“But you never ask for the minimum, you ask for more than what you want to reach a deal,” he said.
Along with substantial pay raises, more paid time off and pension benefits, one of the changes UAW leaders have been bargaining for is a four-day workweek, working 32 hours for 40 hours of pay, and more time off “to spend with family,” according to the UAW site.
“Our members are working 60, 70, even 80 hours a week just to make ends meet. That’s not living. It’s barely surviving and it needs to stop,” Fain said last month on Facebook Live, explaining the demands of the union.
“The Big Three have closed 65 plants over the last 20 years,” according to the UAW’s website. “That’s devastated our hometowns. We must have the right to defend our communities.”
With that in mind, the union also wants to implement a “working family protection program” that pays UAW to do community service work if the companies shut down a facility.
Perhaps most important to the union is that it be allowed to represent workers at 10 electric vehicle battery factories, most of which are being built by joint ventures between automakers and South Korean battery makers. The union wants those plants to receive top UAW wages. In part that’s because workers who now make components for internal combustion engines will need a place to work as the industry transitions to EVs.
Retiree health care
In addition to a return of traditional pension payment plans and significantly higher pay for retired workers, the union is seeking health care for all retired UAW members. Workers hired before 2007 still have those benefits. But those hired since – a majority of hourly workers – do not.
The UAW gave up the pension plans and retiree health care for new hires and COLA for all members when GM and Chrysler were hurtling toward bankruptcy in 2009. But it will be difficult for the union to convince management to reinstate those benefits, said Patrick Anderson, CEO of Anderson Economic Group, a Michigan research firm.
Limited use of temporary workers
The union is also demanding that the automakers limit their use temporary workers, who under the tiered-wage system receive the least pay and no benefits.
“We are going to end the abuse of temps. Our fight at the Big Three is a fight for every worker,” the UAW states on its website.
“Audacious” demands
Fain himself has acknowledged that the union’s demands are “audacious.” But he contends that the automakers can afford to raise workers’ pay significantly.
Over the past decade, the Detroit Three have emerged as robust profit-makers. They’ve collectively posted net income of $164 billion, $20 billion of it this year. The CEOs of all three major automakers earn multiple millions in annual compensation.
“Companies have made some significant offers, but I believe it should go further — to ensure record corporate profits mean record contracts,” President Biden said Friday as he addressed the decision by UAW’s decision to strike,
The auto workers’ strike against Detroit’s Big Three entered its fourth day with no signs of an early breakthrough and amid a threat by the United Auto Workers that the labor action could soon escalate.
A spokesman for General Motors said that representatives of the company and the labor group were continuing to negotiate. But In a video statement late Monday, UAW President Shawn Fain said more factories could be targeted if “serious progress” toward an agreement isn’t reached by Friday at noon.
“Autoworkers have waited long enough to make things right at the Big Three. We’re not waiting around, and we’re not messing around,” he said.
So far the strike is limited to about 13,000 workers at three factories — one each at GM, Ford Motor and Stellantis. GM warned, however, that 2,000 UAW-represented workers at an assembly plant in Kansas City are “expected to be idled as soon as early this week” because of a shortage of supplies from a GM plant near St. Louis, where workers walked off the job Friday.
Workers at the Kansas City plant build the Chevrolet Malibu and Cadillac XT4.
Ford on Friday moved to temporarily lay off 600 non-striking workers at its assembly plant in Wayne, Michigan, only hours after other employees at the facility had walked off the job.
“This layoff is a consequence of the strike at Michigan Assembly Plant’s final assembly and paint departments, because the components built by these 600 employees use materials that must be e-coated for protection,” the company said in a statement Friday. “E-coating is completed in the paint department, which is on strike.”
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she is hoping for a quick resolution, and that it is too soon to gauge the impact of the strike.
“It’s premature to be making forecasts about what it means for the economy. It would depend on how long the strike lasts and who would be affected by it,” she said on CNBC.
In a sign of the potential economic and political of a long strike, President Joe Biden is sending two top administration officials to Detroit this week to meet with both sides. Biden has sided with the UAW in brief public comments, saying that the automakers have not fairly shared their record profits with workers.
An administration official said Monday that acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and senior aide Gene Sperling will not serve as mediators — they won’t be at the bargaining table — but are going to Detroit “to help support the negotiations in any way the parties feel is constructive.” The official was not authorized to discuss private discussions and spoke anonymously.
The UAW’s Fain on Sunday shot down an offer by Stellantis — which owns Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and RAM, along with major foreign brands including Citroën, Peugeot and Maserati — to hike its worker’ wages by 21% over four years.
Ford and GM have also each offered a roughly 20% pay bump. The union is asking for a 36% hike over a four-year contract.
The union also wants the Big Three automakers to eliminate their two-tier wage model, which results in many workers earning less than the average wage of $32 an hour; offer defined benefit pensions to all employees; limit the the use of temporary workers; offer a four-day workweek; and provide more job protections, including the right to strike over plant closings.
“Our demands are just,” Fain said on “Face the Nation.” “We’re asking for our fair share in this economy and the fruits of our labor.”
Rather than launching an all-out strike of its 146,000 members, the union opted to target three factories a plan that could make the union’s $825 million strike fund last longer. Workers walked out of a GM plant in Wentzville, Missouri, a Ford plant near Detroit, and a Stellantis factory in Toledo, Ohio, that produces Jeeps.
A key feature of the UAW strategy is the threat of escalating the strike if the union is unhappy with the pace of bargaining. On Friday, Fain said more factories could be targeted: “It could be in a day, it could be in a week.”
Strategically, targeting three factories “certainly created more uncertainty,” Harry Katz, the Jack Sheinkman Professor of Collective Bargaining at Cornell University, told CBS News, adding that Fain is signaling that “he’s a tough, militant guy that’s not going to agree to concessions.”
The UAW “will get a strong agreement — it’s a question of how and when they reach a compromise,” Katz predicted.
With the United Auto Workers’ strike against the big three automakers, union leader Shawn Fain told CBS News’ Face the Nation that he’s fighting against “poverty wages” and “greedy CEOs.” His fiery rhetoric and creative approach to the strike is underscoring his difference with prior union management, according to experts.
Fain was relatively unknown outside the union until September 14, when Detroit’s Big Three automakers failed to reach a new labor agreement before their contract with UAW members expired. Since the strike began, Fain has become the public face of the union’s fight to extract higher wages and benefits from the automakers.
He’s also earning comparisons to Senator Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont, with comments such as Fain’s remark to Face the Nation on Sunday that “the billionaire class keeps taking more and more and the working class keeps getting left behind.”
“He’s creative, I will give him that,” Harry Katz, the Jack Sheinkman Professor of Collective Bargaining at Cornell University, told CBS MoneyWatch. “He seems to want to prove over and over to the members that he’s different.”
Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers (UAW), speaks to the crowd during a UAW rally in Detroit, Michigan, US, on Friday, Sept. 15, 2023. The United Auto Workers began an unprecedented strike at all three of the legacy Detroit carmakers, kicking off a potentially costly and protracted showdown over wages and job security.
Emily Elconin/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Fain was elected as president of the UAW just six months ago in a tight runoff race that tipped in his favor by only a few hundred votes. In the lead-up to the election, Fain stressed that he wanted to run the union differently, criticizing prior management for being “way too close” to automakers and failing to fight for their workers.
“To me, we’re at a crossroads,” Fain told Bloomberg Law in 2022 as he was running for election to be UAW president. “We have to get leaders in there who are going to take action and be proactive and not wait for things to happen then react to it.”
Here’s what to know about Fain.
When did Shawn Fain join the UAW?
Fain, 54, started with the UAW in 1994, when he worked as an electrician for Chrysler at its Kokomo Casting Plant in Kokomo, Indiana, his hometown.
The union was familiar to Fain as he comes from a family of UAW members, with his grandfather starting at Chrysler in 1937, the year that workers at that automaker joined the union. Two of his grandparents were UAW GM retirees, and Fain carries one of his grandfather’s pay stubs in his wallet to remind him of his family’s beginnings.
His role in the union included serving his local at “every level,” according to the UAW. That included being elected five terms as a skilled trades committeeman and the plant shop chairman for Local 1166.
Shop chair is “among the most demanding jobs in the union in that you’re dealing with grievances and issues on the shop floor all the time,” University of California, Berkeley professor Harley Shaiken told NPR.
In 2009, he became a UAW negotiator, and then in 2012 became an international representative.
What is Fain known for?
In prior years, Fain was outspoken about some labor agreements, telling Bloomberg News that he was against ratifying a two-tier initiative in 2007 that meant new hires would be paid at a lower rate and be excluded from some traditional benefits such as a pension plan.
“I faced a lot of blowback back then,” he noted.
But it was an embezzlement scandal at the UAW that opened the door to new voices like Fain in the union’s top leadership. That case involved more than a dozen UAW officials who were accused of siphoning money for their own uses, ranging from gambling to buying cocaine.
Fain stands among members of the UAW outside of the UAW Local 900 headquarters across the street from the Ford Assembly Plant in Wayne, Michigan, after midnight on Friday, September 15, as a deadline expired to reach a deal with employers on a new contract.
MATTHEW HATCHER/AFP via Getty Images
What was Fain doing during the UAW scandal?
During the embezzlement scandal, Fain was working as an international representative at the Stellantis training center, overseeing the skills training programs. Stellantis, which was formed in 2021 in a merger between Fiat Chrysler and European automaker Groupe PSA, owns Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and RAM, along with major foreign brands including Citroën, Peugeot and Maserati.
“I always felt like leadership was way too close to the company, but really the only people who could know what was really happening were the people who had to sign off on expenditures. I wasn’t in that type of role then,” he told Bloomberg News. “I’ve been working with the federal government, with teams of attorneys — everything — trying to clean up and reorganize.”
What is Shawn Fain’s salary?
The most recent data available on Fain’s salary with the UAW is from 2022, prior to his election as president, according to the U.S. Labor Department. Last year, Fain earned $160,130 as an administrative assistant for the union, a union filing shows.
Prior UAW president Raymond Curry earned $267,126 that year.
What does the UAW want from the automakers?
Fain told CBS News’ Face the Nation on Sunday that the union’s demands “are just. We’re asking for our fair share in this economy and the fruits of our labor.”
The strike involves three factories: a GM assembly plant in Wentzville, Missouri; a Ford assembly plant in Wayne, Michigan; and a Stellantis assembly complex in Toledo, Ohio. The plants build some of the automakers’ most popular vehicles, including the Jeep Wrangler and the Ford Bronco.
The UAW’s goal is to pressure automakers to provide a 36% pay increase across a four-year contract; pension benefits for all employees; limited use of temporary workers; more paid time off, including a four-day workweek; and more job protections, including the right to strike over plant closings.
Is Fain’s strategy working?
His strategy of targeting three factories in the UAW’s initial move “certainly created more uncertainty,” said Cornell’s Katz. Fain likely wants to prove “he’s a tough, militant guy that’s not going to agree to concessions.”
But it’s likely that the labor dispute will be settled due to economic circumstances, rather than due to the influence of individual labor leaders, he added. The fact is, Katz added, that the autoworkers are bargaining from a position of strength, and as thus are likely to earn many — but not all — of their demands.
For instance, because the labor market is tight, autoworkers’ spouses or partners are likely working, giving the employees more bargaining power and economic flexibility to handle a strike, he added.
The UAW “will get a strong agreement — it’s a question of how and when they reach a compromise,” Katz said.
Katz’s prediction: the UAW will win a 3% annual raise in base pay over a multi-year contract, as well as a reinstatement of the cost-of-living adjustment and a lump-sum payment to make up for the hit from inflation during the pandemic. Some temporary workers will be converted into permanent employees, and the wages of the bottom-tier workers will be brought up closer to the top tier. But, he added, it’s unlikely they UAW get the return of a traditional pension.
“I would reject [the automakers’] offers just as he is rejecting them,” Katz added. “More power to him. When company profits and sales are strong, there’s a low employment rate and a strong economy, unions do rather well.”
Talks between United Auto Workers and automakers resumed Monday, the fourth day of UAW’s strike. The union is ready to expand its walkout if no deal is made this week, and leadership says the two sides are still far apart. Kris Van Cleave reports.
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The auto workers’ strike against Detroit’s Big Three went into its fourth day with no signs of an early breakthrough and against the threat that the walkout could soon spread.
A spokesman for General Motors said that representatives of the company and the United Auto Workers were continuing to negotiate on Monday.
So far the strike is limited to about 13,000 workers at three factories — one each at GM, Ford Motor and Stellantis. GM warned, however, that 2,000 UAW-represented workers at an assembly plant in Kansas City are “expected to be idled as soon as early this week” because of a shortage of supplies from a GM plant near St. Louis, where workers walked off the job Friday.
Workers at the Kansas City plant build the Chevrolet Malibu and Cadillac XT4.
Ford on Friday moved to temporarily lay off 600 non-striking workers at its assembly plant in Wayne, Michigan, only hours after other employees at the facility had walked off the job.
“This layoff is a consequence of the strike at Michigan Assembly Plant’s final assembly and paint departments, because the components built by these 600 employees use materials that must be e-coated for protection,” the company said in a statement Friday. “E-coating is completed in the paint department, which is on strike.”
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she is hoping for a quick resolution, and that it is too soon to gauge the impact of the strike.
“It’s premature to be making forecasts about what it means for the economy. It would depend on how long the strike lasts and who would be affected by it,” she said on CNBC.
In a sign of the potential economic and political of a long strike, President Joe Biden is sending two top administration officials to Detroit this week to meet with both sides. Biden has sided with the UAW in brief public comments, saying that the automakers have not fairly shared their record profits with workers.
An administration official said Monday that acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and senior aide Gene Sperling will not serve as mediators — they won’t be at the bargaining table — but are going to Detroit “to help support the negotiations in any way the parties feel is constructive.” The official was not authorized to discuss private discussions and spoke anonymously.
UAW President Shawn Fain on Sunday shot down an offer by Stellantis — which owns Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and RAM, along with major foreign brands including Citroën, Peugeot and Maserati — to hike its worker’ wages by 21% over four years.
Ford and GM have also each offered a roughly 20% pay bump. The union is asking for a 36% hike over a four-year contract.
The union also wants the Big Three automakers to eliminate their two-tier wage model, which results in many workers earning less than the average wage of $32 an hour; offer defined benefit pensions to all employees; limit the the use of temporary workers; offer a four-day workweek; and provide more job protections, including the right to strike over plant closings.
“Our demands are just,” Fain said on “Face the Nation.” “We’re asking for our fair share in this economy and the fruits of our labor.”
Rather than launching an all-out strike of its 146,000 members, the union opted to target three factories a plan that could make the union’s $825 million strike fund last longer. Workers walked out of a GM plant in Wentzville, Missouri, a Ford plant near Detroit, and a Stellantis factory in Toledo, Ohio, that produces Jeeps.
A key feature of the UAW strategy is the threat of escalating the strike if the union is unhappy with the pace of bargaining. On Friday, Fain said more factories could be targeted: “It could be in a day, it could be in a week.”
Strategically, targeting three factories “certainly created more uncertainty,” Harry Katz, the Jack Sheinkman Professor of Collective Bargaining at Cornell University, told CBS News, adding that Fain is signaling that “he’s a tough, militant guy that’s not going to agree to concessions.”
The UAW “will get a strong agreement — it’s a question of how and when they reach a compromise,” Katz predicted.
Both sides met Saturday as members of United Auto Workers continued their strike against the big three automakers. The union is demanding, among other things, a pay increase of at least 36% along with cost of living and job protections. Kris Van Cleave reports.
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United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain said Sunday that the union is rejecting an offer from one of the Big Three automakers for a 21% wage increase as autoworkers for Ford, General Motors and Chrysler parent company Stellantis went on strike Friday.
UAW leaders have been bargaining for a four-day work week, substantial pay raises, more paid time off and pension benefits, among other demands.
“Our demands are just,” Fain told “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “We’re asking for our fair share in this economy and the fruits of our labor.”
Chrysler parent Stellantis said Saturday it had put a cumulative 21% wage increase on the table, with an immediate 10% increase upon a formal agreement. Fain said the union has asked for 40% pay increases to match the average pay increases of the CEOs at the three companies in recent years.
UAW president Shawn Fain on “Face the Nation,” 9/17/2023
CBS News
“It’s definitely a no-go,” Fain said about the 21% pay hike offered. “We’ve made that very clear to the companies.
Fain said the autoworkers are “fed up with falling behind,” arguing that the companies have seen massive profits in the last decade while the workers “went backwards.”
“Our wages went backwards,” he said. “Our benefits have went backwards. The majority of our members have zero retirement security now.
“Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan asked Fain if autoworkers would be walking out at other plants, Fain said they are “prepared to do whatever we have to do, so the membership is ready, the membership is fed up, we’re fed up with falling behind.”
Brennan asked Fain how he makes the case that automakers need to invest more in union workers when the labor costs of competitors who don’t use union labor, such as Tesla and Toyota, are significantly lower.
“First off, labor costs are about 5% of the cost of the vehicle,” Fain said. “They could double our wages and not raise the price of the vehicles and still make billions in profits. It’s a choice. And the fact that they want to compare it to how pitiful Tesla pays their workers and other companies pay their workers — that’s what this whole argument is about. Workers in this country got to decide if they want a better life for themselves, instead of scraping to get by paycheck to paycheck, while everybody else walks away with the loot.”
President Biden, who has referred to himself as the most pro-union president in recent history, weighed in on the strike on Friday.
“Companies have made some significant offers, but I believe it should go further — to ensure record corporate profits mean record contracts,” Mr. Biden said.
Mr. Biden is deploying two of his top administration officials — acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and senior adviser Gene Sperling — to Detroit as negotiations continue. A senior administration official said Sunday that Su and Sperling will not be acting as mediators, but are going “to help support the negotiations in any way the parties feel is constructive.”
Rep. Debbie Dingell, a Michigan Democrat, told “Face the Nation” that the president should not “intervene or be at the negotiating table.”
“I don’t think they’ve got a role at the negotiating table,” she said.
