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. Continue reading
UAW Shifts Tactics – No New Strike Actions Today
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Shawn Fain in a Facebook Live broadcast this morning once again caught the Detroit Three automakers napping when he said “We’re entering a new phase of this fight, and it demands a new approach. We’re not announcing expansion of our strike, but we are prepared at any time to call on more locals to stand up and walk out… So tomorrow, I’m calling all of our UAW members and our allies to head to a picket line,” in a show of support for all workers.
Fain then praised union democracy. “The picket line is a sacred place. There’s a lot of long, dark nights and there’s some bright, joyful days. We reunite with old friends and we make new ones. We learn what it means to stick together through hard times… His ultimate point – as AutoInformed interprets it – is the automakers were gaming the UAW’s approach to 2023 bargaining and waiting until Fridays when strike actions were previously expanded to make another offer. When Ford did that last week, the UAW struck Kentucky Truck Plant, one that generates $25 billion in revenue a year. That’s $48,000 a minute. Now the UAW is changing the rules of the game. Continue reading →