Yahoo Finance UAW strikes: A Stellantis battery plant reveal, a General Dynamic strike vote, and, maybe, progress in the Big 3 talks
Here's what we have going on the labor front today.
More United Auto Workers (UAW) members indicate they’ll go on strike if needed at General Dynamics (GD). Meanwhile, GM in Canada gets a reprieve from Unifor members. And on the Stellantis (STLA) front: the company said it will expand its battery production plans in the US — a key point of issue as UAW contract talks continue.
As the current UAW strike against the Big Three (GM (GM), Ford (F), and Stellantis) enters a 27th day, more UAW members at other companies have been pushing for better terms. UAW members at Mack Trucks rejected a deal and went on strike just this week, and late Tuesday night UAW members at defense contractor General Dynamics voted to authorize a strike in case a new deal isn’t reached.
In a letter posted by UAW president Shawn Fain to General Dynamics union members, Fain said 97% of members voted to authorize a strike in case a new deal isn’t reached by the contract expiration deadline of 11:59 p.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 22.
General Dynamics employs around 1,100 UAW members at plants located in Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. If these workers eventually go on strike, they will join the approximately 4,400 Mack Trucks workers striking currently who are not part of the UAW’s Big Three stand up strikes. UAW actions against the Big Three involve around 25,000 striking auto workers at the moment.
Now GM has been given something of a reprieve, however, across the border. Canada’s Unifor auto union, after going on strike for about half a day, reached a tentative deal with GM.
GM agreed to terms similar to those Ford reached with Unifor, with the union using the Ford deal as a “pattern agreement” for negotiations. If the deal is voted through, Unifor’s 4,300 GM workers will get 20% base hikes in pay, reactivation of COLA benefits next year, wage progression reduced by half to four years, conversion of some temps to full time, and other concessions.
Is that progress? Maybe.
Last week, UAW president Fain did not expand strikes against the Big Three. He said a major concession was made by GM: The automaker supposedly said it would allow workers at joint-venture battery plants to unionize. This was a major move as it would likely mean Ford and Stellantis would have to agree to similar terms in the collective bargaining process as the entire industry transforms itself from gas-powered cars to electrified vehicles.
And only a few days later on Wednesday morning, Stellantis announced that it and battery partner Samsung SDI will invest over $3.2 billon to “co-locate” a new battery plant in Kokomo, Ind., alongside another gigafactory currently under construction.
Stellantis said this second “StarPlus” gigafactory will start producing batteries in 2027, and employ 1,400 workers; the first StarPlus gigafactory in Kokomo is expected to start production in Q1 of 2025.
This announcement will certainly not go unnoticed at UAW’s “Solidarity House” headquarters in Detroit, where Fain and his executive committee see new battery and joint-venture gigafactories as an existential threat to the union — if workers at those new plants can’t unionize, of course.
Next from Fain? Expect another UAW stand up strike update this Friday. He'll more likely than not put the spotlight on Stellantis’s latest battery plant move.
Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.
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