The United Auto Workers union said Friday it has made progress in labor talks with General Motors Co. and Stellantis.
At the same time, the Detroit-based union attacked Ford Motor Co. Ford “is just waiting around, handing money to Wall Street,” union President Shawn Fain said on a Friday livestream.
The UAW on Friday did not expand the strike against all three automakers. It’s striking some, but not all operations at the three companies.
This week, GM and Stellantis “put a lot more money on the table,” Fain said. Ford “hasn’t come back with anything new.”
The UAW is seeking pay raises, cost-of-living adjustments and an end to pay structures that give newer workers less than more experienced employees. The union wants to address concessions it made in the 2000s when GM and Chrysler (now part of Stellantis) went into bankruptcy and were bailed out by the U.S. government.
Despite progress, Fain said the UAW isn’t ready to settle. “There is room to move,” he said. “These extremely profitable companies have more to give.”
Fain’s comments also reflect worsening ties between the UAW and Ford.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Ford had relatively good relations with the union, at least compared with GM and Chrysler. That extended into the 2000s, when Ron Gettelfinger was union president. Gettelfinger came up from the union’s Ford department.
Based on Fain’s remarks on Friday, that era is long past.
“The days of UAW and Ford being a team … are over,” Fain said. “We’re not going to partner with Ford in a race to the bottom.” One of the Ford operations affected by the strike is Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville, which produces Super Duty pickups (F-250 and above), among the company’s most profitable vehicles.
On Monday, Bill Ford, executive chairman of Ford Motor, urged a settlement of the strike that began in mid-September.
“We need to come together to end this acrimonious round of talks,” he said during a speech at the automaker’s Dearborn, Michigan factory, which produces F-150 pickups. The plant is near the automaker’s headquarters. “Let’s come together, reach an agreement and take the fight to the real competition.”
Bill Ford cited Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co., electric vehicle maker Tesla and Chinese automakers as among the real competition. Toyota and Honda established U.S. factories decades ago but they have not been organized by the UAW.
On Friday, Fain appeared to reject the sentiment that Bill Ford voiced. He referred to the 66-year-old great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford as “billionaire Bill Ford.”
The union chief also said the UAW will organize the U.S. operations of automakers based in other countries.
“We’re going to organize foreign automakers like we never have before,” Fain said.
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