What’s at stake as 13,000 workers go on strike at major US auto makers

About 13,000 auto workers have walked off the job at three targeted factories after their union leaders couldn’t reach a deal with Detroit’s automakers.

The United Auto Workers union is seeking big raises and better benefits from General Motors, Ford and Stellantis. They want to get back concessions that the workers made years ago, when the companies were in financial trouble.

Shawn Fain, the combative president of the UAW, says the targeted strikes will give the union leverage in contract talks and keep the auto companies guessing about its next move.

Here’s a rundown of the issues standing in the way of new contract agreements and what consumers could face in a prolonged strike:

The union is asking for 36% raises in general pay over four years — a top-scale assembly plant worker gets about $32 an hour now. In addition, the UAW has demanded an end to varying tiers of wages for factory jobs; a 32-hour week with 40 hours of pay; the restoration of traditional defined-benefit pensions for new hires who now receive only 401(k)-style retirement plans; and a return of cost-of-living pay raises, among other benefits.

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.

Fain himself has acknowledged that the union’s demands are “audacious.”

The automakers have moved closer to the UAW’s demands on wages, but a big gulf remains.

On Thursday, GM & Ford said it boosted its offer to a 20% wage increase (Stellantis, formerly Fiat Chrysler, was 17.5%).

At the end of August, the three automakers collectively had enough vehicles to last for 70 days. After that, they would run short.

“A work stoppage of three weeks or more,” Fiorani said, “would quickly drain the excess supply, raising vehicle prices and pushing more sales to non-union brands.”

Where things stand on Day 5 of auto strike: A new deadline, another strike delayed

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