New Car Prices Up 34% in last Four Years. UAW Pay 6%

The UAW released a video this week asserting that Big Three CEOs make far more than their counterparts at rival automakers and can easily afford the union’s demands. The new video, “Competition,” shows that average pay last year for the CEOs at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis was $25 million – five times the $5 million average for their counterparts at other leading automakers.

The video also shows that Big Three price gouging, not UAW pay, has been responsible for rising car prices in recent years. Average new car prices went up 34% over the last four years while pay for UAW members rose just 6%. The cost of labor for the Big Three is ~4-5% of total operations. The video notes that Ford, General Motors and Stellantis could double UAW wages, not raise car prices and still make billions of dollars.

Reform UAW President Shawn Fain – the first one elected by all the members – narrates the video. “The Big Three want you to believe that what we are asking for is dangerous and unrealistic. What is truly unrealistic is to keep making record profits year after year and then think that the workers who made those profits are just going to settle for scraps. What is truly dangerous is for corporations and the billionaire class to continue making out like bandits while the working class gets left further and further behind.

“That is why these companies, and the corporate media are so desperate to try and convince the American people that unions are the problem. We are NOT the problem. This so-called ‘competition’ is the problem. Corporate greed is the problem. Our solidarity is the solution,” said Fain

Currently, ~34,000 UAW members are on strike against the Big Three. Members at six assembly plants and 38 parts distribution centers in 21 states have joined the walk out. If the automakers fail to make substantial progress in negotiations toward a fair contract, more locals will be called on to Stand Up and join the strike. Fain is addressing members today about next steps.