The United Auto Workers union said on Friday that 97 percent of its members voted to allow strikes against General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellaants if the union and the companies cannot negotiate new contracts.
The result gives union president Sean Fine the power to ask workers to leave the job once existing contracts expire on September 14.
Strike authorization votes are usually a formality that passes large margins and does not guarantee strikes. But the vote comes as the newly revitalized UAW is taking a tougher line with automakers, and is part of a larger shift in organized labor.
General Motors, Ford, and Stellaants have had solid profits for about a decade. This emboldened Mr. Fine and his members to demand large wage increases, cost-of-living adjustments, and better pensions and health care benefits.
“This is our time to take back what we deserve,” he said in a Facebook Live broadcast on Friday. “We are united and we are not afraid,” he added.
Mr. Fine, narrowly elected president this year in the union’s first direct election of its senior leaders, seems to have united the union. He appeared at rallies with workers in Detroit on Wednesday, and in Louisville, Kentucky, on Thursday and Friday. About a dozen similar events are scheduled for the next two weeks. Such incidents have been rare in contract talks over the past 20 years.
“There is tension but there is excitement,” said Luigi Jukaj, vice president of UAW Local 51, at the Detroit rally. “If the company comes to the table and is fair, we will come to an agreement. If we have to strike, we are ready.”
Mr. Fine spoke to about 100 workers at that gathering from a pickup truck outside the Stellantis plant that makes the Jeep Wagoneer, a hugely profitable SUV.
“We’re not asking to be millionaires,” he said to loud cheers. “We just want our fair share.”
In a statement after the result of the strike vote was announced, Ford said it hopes to work with the UAW toward “creative solutions during this time when our dramatically changing industry needs a skilled and competitive workforce more than ever.”
This month, Mr. Fine sent companies a list of demands, including the possibility to work just four days a week and a 40 per cent pay increase, noting that the chief executives of General Motors, Ford and Stillants have received larger compensation packages over the past year. the past four years. New employees in auto plants start at about $16 an hour and over several years can build up to the $32 an hour earned by veteran workers.
General Motors, Ford and the Stilants have suggested that they might agree to some form of higher wages. A new indication of how the talks are going came Thursday, when a battery plant in Ohio jointly owned by General Motors and LG Energy Solution, a Korean battery maker, agreed to raise wages for the UAW’s 1,900 workers by an average of 25 percent.
Mr. Fine had repeatedly criticized factory wages, which started at about $16 an hour, as too low. The plant is covered by a bargaining agreement separate from that negotiated by the union for workers at factories wholly owned by General Motors. Wages there will now start at about $20 an hour.
The three manufacturers aim to minimize increases in labor costs in any new contract as they spend tens of billions of dollars on the massive shift to electric vehicles. The companies indicated that agreeing to all or most of Mr. Fine’s demands would put them at a competitive disadvantage against Tesla, the dominant electric car maker, and European and Asian automakers that operate non-union factories in the US.
GM said in July that it expects to earn more than $9.3 billion this year, nearly $1 billion more than previously forecast. Stellantis, which is headquartered in Amsterdam and owns Chrysler, Jeep, Ram and other auto brands, made 11 billion euros (about $11.9 billion) in the first half of this year, a record. Ford expects pre-tax earnings to reach $11 billion to $12 billion this year. The three companies make most of their profits in North America.
“Regardless of what other opinions may be, business profits enable future investments that support long-term job security and opportunity for all,” Gerald Johnson, executive vice president of global manufacturing and sustainability at GM, said last week in a video message to employees. . .
Typically, the UAW will name one company that they will focus on in the negotiations and make them a target to strike if they cannot reach an agreement. The Federation has yet to do so, although Mr. Vane has been the one who quarreled most publicly with Stellantis.
After Mr. Fine made his demands, Stellantis responded with proposals that would increase the amount workers contribute to the cost of health care, reduce company contributions to retirement accounts, and allow the company to temporarily close factories without notice.
In a Facebook video, Mr Fine angrily denounced Stellantis’ proposals and tossed a copy in the trash. “That’s where you belong, trash, because that’s the way it is,” he said.
Mark Stewart, Stellantis’ North American chief operating officer, said in a letter to employees that he was “incredibly disappointed” by Mr. Fine’s remarks. “Theatrics and personal insults will not help us reach an agreement,” said Mr Stewart.
Tensions between the UAW and Stellantis, which were formed in the 2021 merger between Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot SA, have been running high since the automaker shut down its Jeep plant in Illinois. One of Mr. Fine’s main goals is to convince the company to reopen the plant.