UAW holds off on expanding strikes against Detroit’s Big Three, cites progress with automakers

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain touted the union’s progress in contract negotiations with Detroit’s Big Three automakers on Friday in an address to members, and did not name any new targets in its ongoing strike against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.

Fain was expected to lay out the UAW’s next moves in his latest announcement on Facebook, after escalating the strike during his past two weekly addresses.

The UAW launched a simultaneous but limited strike against all three automakers on Sept. 15, and has vowed to increase strike targets at any automaker that is not making sufficient progress in contract talks from the union’s perspective.

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The union named new facilities to strike at against GM in both prior updates, but spared Ford in the first escalation and Stellantis dodged the second.

Fain signaled Wednesday that a single automaker would be spared from strike escalation this week, once again. In a message on X, formerly known as Twitter, he likened the Big Three’s CEOs to contestants on “The Bachelor,” teasing his Friday announcement and telling people to tune in and “see who gets the rose!”

Fain said Friday the UAW threatened GM this week with adding one of the company’s “biggest and most important plants” to the strike, and it “was that threat that brought GM to the table.”

He said GM has now agreed to include electric vehicle battery manufacturing facilities under its national master agreement with the union, saying with the move that the company has “leapfrogged the pack in terms of a just transition” to EVs.

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The UAW president pointed to progress at other automakers, too. He said Ford has boosted their wage increase offer to 23% over the life the four-year contract, while Stellantis and GM’s proposals are around 20%. The union is asking for raises of 40%.

“I wish I were here to announce a tentative agreement with one or more of these companies, but I do want to be really clear: We are making significant progress in just three weeks,” Fain said. “We have moved these companies further than anyone thought was possible.”

Currently, around 25,000 of the 150,000 UAW members employed by the Big Three are on strike, and Fain reiterated that the union is willing to expand the strike nationwide if talks drag on.

“The Big Three know we’re not messing around and they know if they want to avoid further strikes, then they’ll have to pony up,” Fain said.

“I’ve heard members who want to bring down the hammer, strike all the truck plants, hit the Big Three where it hurts – and there is a time and place for that,” he continued. “And believe me, if the Big Three don’t continue to make progress, that time’s going to be coming and real soon. We’re not going to wait around forever.”