As the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike against Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis nears the month-long mark, some progress has been made as of late, which prompted the union not to take additional action against the Detroit Big Three last week. However, there is still seemingly a sizable gap between the two sides in terms of certain sticking points in negotiations – chiefly among them, future EV and battery plants under construction at the moment. Ford has accused the union of holding up talks over this particular topic, while UAW President Shawn Fain has called that notion a flat-out lie. Now, according to Reuters, Ford and UAW are currently at a bit of an impasse in regards to these same future EV plants, along with retirement security issues.
In regard to the latter topic, the UAW wants to restore the same retirement security that was previously provided by pre-2007 defined benefit pension plans, which is something that none of the three automakers have thus far agreed to do. The problem is, extending these benefits to workers hired after 2007 would cost automakers billions, which is why both sides are exploring the idea of offering annuities as an investment option in company 401(k) plans, which could give retirees fixed, predictable payouts that aren’t affected by stock market swings.
Another big issue relates to the fact that the UAW wants existing and future joint-venture EV battery plants to be included in the union’s master contracts with the automakers, which is something that GM reportedly agreed to do last week to avoid a strike at its Arlington, Texas plant. However, both Ford and Stellantis have thus far refused to follow suit, though FoMoCo revealed its seventh – and most generous – contract proposal just last week.
Previously, The Blue Oval said that “future employees at these operations can choose to be union represented and enter the collective bargaining process. While Ford remains open to the possibility of working with the UAW on future battery plants in the United States, these are multi-billion-dollar investments and must operate at competitive and sustainable levels.”
We’ll have more on the UAW strike soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford-UAW news, UAW news, and 24/7 Ford news coverage.
Comments
UAW votes for a hard blue line! Blue has created record inflation and is pushing for EV’s (before we’re ready for them) that require less UAW workers to build them compared to ICE vehicles. Now the same UAW is demanding more money to combat that inflation with automatic COLA adjustments and job security promises to prevent layoffs when less workers are needed to build the EV’s. So, in spite of voting for their own fate they are complaining about. Be careful what you wish for when you’re harvesting all those ballots people!!
Fire everyone and go nonunion maybe we can go back to a $50k truck instead of a $100k truck. Plenty of people will take that job.
If other AFL-CIO Unions can provide Pension Benefits for there Union why Can’t the Big-3 provide for there UAW ? Other Unions have issues with construction projects because the non-Union started the job and did bad work where they had to get Union Conractors in to fix and do the job correct which then cost the project price to increase by thousands to hundreds of thousands, Do the job right the first time! You get what You Pay For ! If non Union produce cars and then have issues with cars breaking down have accidents hurt and kill people then it will cost the Big-3 Millions ! UA Union Pipefitter