Workers strike at all 3 Detroit automakers in a battle for a bigger share of industry profits
About 13,000 U.S. auto workers have stopped making vehicles and headed for the picket lines
DETROIT — About 13,000 U.S. auto workers stopped making vehicles and went on strike Friday after their leaders couldn’t bridge a giant gap between union demands in contract talks and what Detroit’s three automakers are willing to pay.
Members of the United Auto Workers union began picketing at a General Motors assembly plant in Wentzville, Missouri; a Ford factory in Wayne, Michigan, near Detroit; and a Stellantis Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio.
It is the first time in the union’s 88-year history that all three companies were targeted simultaneously — and the workers' action received support from President Joe Biden, who dispatched aides to Detroit to help resolve the impasse and said the Big 3 automakers should share their “record profits.”
The strikes will likely chart the future of the union and of America’s homegrown auto industry at a time when U.S. labor is flexing its might and the companies face a historic transition from building internal combustion automobiles to making electric vehicles.
If the strikes drag on, shortages could push vehicle prices higher and strain an economy already bruised by inflation. Walkouts may even become a factor in next year’s presidential election, testing Biden’s claim to be the most union-friendly president in American history.
“Workers all over the world are watching this,” said Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, a federation of 60 unions with 12.5 million members.
The union’s tactics have changed. While the UAW is striking all three automakers, led by its pugnacious new president, Shawn Fain, not all of the 146,000 UAW members at company plants are walking picket lines, at least not yet.
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