On Sunday 15 September 2019 the UAW trade union called on its 46,000 members to commence strike action at General Motors (GM) facilities in a bid to unlock difficult multi-annual agreement negotiations. GM had been chosen as the prime auto-agreement negotiations counterparty because it is the biggest of the Big 3 (GM, Fiat Chrysler, and Ford) and has been extremely profitable ($27.5 billion over the last four years). The two other automakers would then be expected to follow the ‘template’ agreement from these negotiations. However negotiations got complicated with GM’s planned closure of four US-based factories, and UAW members were particularly concerned as the union’s goal is to keep as many jobs as possible in the US.
Initial negotiations failed and then over the weekend of 14-15 September UAW vice-president Terry Dittes called on the union’s 46,000 members employed across GM’s 31 sites to stop work, stating, “Today, we stand strong in front of management and say with one voice, we are standing up for our members and for the fundamental rights of working-class people in this nation.”
UAW is insisting on higher salaries for its members and in particular on narrowing the gap between longstanding employees and n
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