On Oct. 23. United Auto Workers union expanded their strike to Ram 1500, Chrysler-parent Stellantis’ largest assembly plant.
UAW stated that the cause for the latest walkout by 6,800 workers was based on Stellantis having the “worst proposal” on the table on wage increases, temporary worker pay and conversion to full time status as well as cost-of-living adjustments.
More than 40,000 union members working at Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis are now on strike since the walkouts began on Sept. 15, when about 27% of the Detroit Three automakers’ total workforce.
Stellantis said it is “outraged” over the expanded strike after presenting a more generous offer on Thursday.
“We left the bargaining table expecting a counter-proposal, but have been waiting for one ever since,” the company said. “The UAW’s continued disturbing strategy of ‘wounding’ all the Detroit Three will have long-lasting consequences. With every decision to strike, the UAW sacrifices domestic market share to non-union competition.”
UAW’s expanded strike against Sterling Heights is similar to its recent walkout from Ford’s Kentucky Truck assembly plant, its most profitable single operation globally.
“Expanding it to the pickup trucks is really at the heart of what these companies produce,” said Tim Ghriskey, a senior investment strategist at Ingalls & Snyder, which has owned auto stocks in the past.
Wells Fargo analyst Colin Langan estimated that production losses at the truck plant will cost Stellantis $110 million in operating earnings per week.
This estimate is doubling the automaker’s overall hit from the strikes to about $200 million a week.
Bill Ford, company chair of Ford, has warned the strike was taking a toll on the automaker and the U.S. economy.
After five weeks of strikes, the economic losses for the auto industry had crossed $9.3 billion, Anderson Economic Group LLC estimated on Monday.
On Friday Oct. 20, Mack Truck executives said that the United Auto Workers Union (UAW) is ignoring three months of good faith bargaining by submitting, “unreasonable economic demand,” for their workers.
“Unfortunately, the new UAW economic demands are completely unrealistic,” said Mack President Stephen Roy. “We’ve already shown that we’re prepared to provide our employees with significantly improved wages, but we are not prepared to jeopardize the company.”
