The United Auto Workers said Friday it has made progress in the negotiations with the Big Three carmakers, and didn’t announce any new plants that would expand its ongoing strike.
Nearly 34,000 workers at Ford Motor Co.
F,
General Motors Co.
GM,
and Stellantis NV
STLA,
are on strike, with the most recent labor-movement expansion hitting Ford’s highly profitable Kentucky pickup truck factory earlier this month.
There was “serious movement” in negotiations at GM and Stellantis, UAW President Shawn Fain said Friday in an address to the membership.
“The bottom line is we’ve got cards left to play and they’ve money left to spend. That’s the hardest part of a strike. Right before a deal, is when there’s the most aggressive push for that last mile,” Fain said.
Earlier Friday, GM made new proposal to auto workers, reinstating cost-of-living adjustments and offering compounded raises of about 25% over four years.
Auto workers started the strike at the stroke of midnight Sept. 14, walking out at one plant each of GM, Ford, and Stellantis NV
STLA,
The union expanded the labor action to more factories and facilities as the weeks went by.
Striking at all Big Three at once was a departure from the long-standing UAW tradition striking at one car company at a time, to save picket-line firepower and the strike fund.
During his address Friday, Fain vowed to intensify efforts to unionize at more auto plants.
“We are going to organize non-union auto companies like we’ve never organized before,” he said.
Tesla Inc.
TSLA,
has for years fended off efforts to unionize its factory in Fremont, Calif. Several foreign automakers have U.S. plants in the Southeast, where union traditions are not as the Midwest.