UAW President Shawn Fain vows to expand autoworker strike with

The United Auto Workers is no longer notifying the Big Three automakers before calling additional walkouts amid the labor group’s ongoing strike, union President Shawn Fain said on Friday. 

“We are prepared at any time to call on more locals to stand up and walk out,” Fain said said in a webcast on the UAW’s month-long strike against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. 

The UAW ramped up its walkout on Thursday by shutting down Ford’s largest factory in Louisville, Kentucky, where 8,700 members left their jobs, bringing to roughly 34,000 the numbers of workers on strike against the three car makers. 

“For two weeks, Ford has been tell us there is more money to be had,” only to deliver the same economic offer to UAW negotiators on Wednesday, prompting the decision to strike the Kentucky that day. “We didn’t wait until Friday and we didn’t wait a minute,” said Fain.

The strike at the truck plant that builds the Super Duty pickup, Lincoln Navigator and Ford Expedition large SUVs took the automaker by surprise, a particular blow as the lineup represents the company’s most lucrative products, generating $25 billion a year in revenue.

Ford said the company is unable to improve on its offer of a 23% pay increase without hurting its ability to invest in its business. The Ford plant in Kentucky generates $48,000 in revenue every 60 seconds, or “vastly more than the lowest paid Ford workers make in a year,” said Fain.

Fain last week disclosed that Ford’s proposal included the 23% hike, which is higher than the 20% offers from General Motors and Stellantis, Chrysler’s parent.

The UAW began its strike against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis on September 15 with workers walking off the job at one assembly plant from each automaker. 

“The longer our strike goes on, the more the public turns against corporate greed at the Big Three,” said Fain, who cited a recent poll from the Associated Press shows just 9% of Americans support the automakers.