Photo: ELEONORE SENS / AFP / Getty Images
The United Auto Workers union announced its workers are going on strike against the "Big Three" automakers, General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis. It is the first time in history that workers for the three automakers went on strike at the same time.
Just after midnight on Friday (September 15), workers at a GM plant in Wentzville, Missouri, a Stellantis plant in Toledo, Ohio, and a Ford plant in Wayne, Michigan, walked off the job. Workers at other plants will continue to work without a contract.
The targeted strike currently involves about 13,000 of the UAW's 145,000 workers, but union officials said more workers will walk off the job the longer the strike lasts.
The big sticking point in the negotiations is pay, with workers demanding a 40% increase over four years. Workers are also fighting to regain many of the benefits they lost in the last negotiations when the automakers were struggling financially.
"We didn't want to be here. We want a fair agreement. We want fair economic and social justice for our members. That's what this is all about. And it's a shame," Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers Union, said while speaking at the Ford plant in Michigan.