The union has also been pushing for another benefit that's a blast from the past: job security guarantees that would continue to pay workers even if a plant is shut down. The union has expressed a strong preference for the guaranteed payments of a pension. Automakers say pensions and retirement benefits are simply too expensive they also make the case that some workers prefer 401(k)s to pensions, because they can be taken with you if you change jobs. On pensions and benefits for retired workers, the companies have not budged. But the union views the requirement to work for years before getting maximum wages – along with the fact that people hired since 2007 don't get pensions or retiree benefits – as a form of a "tier." On job security, retiree benefits and pensions, the sides remain far apart The companies do not consider this a "tier" system, since the pay is eventually equal, and they're offering to reduce the timeline to bridge the gap to four years. Now a new hire can work their way up to the same pay as their colleagues, over the course of eight years. Farley said on Wednesday Ford had presented four increasingly generous offers without any substantive counter proposal from the union.īack then, a "second-tier' employee would never earn as much as a "first-tier" one. But it's sure hard to negotiate a contract when there's no one to negotiate with."įord CEO Jim Farley speaks at the reveal of the new Mustang GTD at the 2023 North American International Detroit Auto Show in Detroit on Sept.
"In fact, the first time I even found out that Shawn Fain had seen our offer was tonight on Facebook Live," Farley told reporters at the Detroit Auto Show on Wednesday. At least one company says the union isn't holding up its side.įord CEO Jim Farley, with clear frustration, said his company had presented four increasingly generous offers without any substantive counter proposal from the union. Normally, over the course of a negotiation, two sides start far apart and trade offers to work toward somewhere in the middle. That's all very hypothetical for now, because there's no sign of a deal. Ford says the UAW hasn't been offering counter-proposals Even with a decent offer on the table, workers might suspect they could get better terms after striking. Some in the auto industry have wondered if the UAW's militant tone and emphasis on the power of strikes would make it harder to get any initial deal ratified this year. In 2021, workers at John Deere rejected two tentative agreements before finally approving a better deal. But any deal struck by the union leadership still has be ratified by the membership as a whole, and workers could choose to send their leaders back to the table to push for more. Fain has adopted a much more confrontational attitude towards automakers than previous UAW leaders.Ī tentative deal might not be the end of the storyĪ last-minute deal is entirely possible, with one or more of the companies. UAW President Shawn Fain talks with union members before marching in the Detroit Labor Day Parade in Detroit on Sept. The union also provided regular updates about what both sides had offered, atypical for a process often shrouded in secrecy. This time, it threatened to strike all three at once if they didn't each make a satisfactory offer. Typically it picks one company to hash out a deal with, possibly striking against them, and then once that's resolved, it pushes the other two companies to more or less match that deal. To begin with, the UAW has conducted these talks in an unusual way. The UAW says it's ready to strike as soon as the contract expires just before midnight on Thursday.īut the strike will be different this time. And come tomorrow night, if they force us, we're about to make it the Big Three's problem." The UAW plans to strike in an unprecedented way "They want to scare the American people into thinking the autoworkers are the problem.
"They could double our wages and not raise car prices and still make billions of dollars in profit," he said. He said while what the automakers are offering in response to union demands has improved, it still doesn't reflect the sacrifices of the autoworkers that made the companies' success possible.
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