MINNEAPOLIS — An expanded strike by the United Auto Workers union is now set to impact plants in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
On Friday, UAW President Shawn Fain called on workers to walk out of 38 General Motors and Stellantis plants in 20 states at noon eastern Friday after the union and carmakers failed to make significant progress in their ongoing contract negotiations. The UAW’s contract expired at midnight on Sept. 14, and workers walked out of a Ford assembly plant near Detroit, a GM factory in Missouri, and a Jeep plant run by Stellantis in Ohio.
The latest strike update primarily impacts GM and Stellantis, who Fain said have rejected all of the union's job security proposals, profit-sharing proposals and proposals to convert temps.
Locations in Minnesota and Wisconsin included in the strike are:
- GM: Hudson Parts Distribution in Hudson, Wisconsin
- Stellantis: Plymouth, Minnesota
- Stellantis: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Fain said Ford was spared additional strikes because the company has met some of the union’s demands during negotiations over the past week.
"We are doing what we’re doing to get a fair contract. To raise the bar for workers across the country and fight against corporate greed," Brandon Campbell, director of UAW Region 4 said. "It's going to take the American consumer a little bit of compassion, a little bit of understanding and a little bit of fortitude to fight alongside us and not against us."
Plants that are already in strike will remain on strike. According to the Associated Press, up until Friday, the initial strike involved about 13,000 of the union’s 146,000 members.
Campbell said he believes there are 52 workers impacted in Plymouth and 82 impacted in Hudson. At those two facilities, workers pack parts and fulfill orders from car dealerships. He explained that manufacturers and dealerships order repair parts from these locations, so Americans who need their cars fixed during the strike might deal with delays and fewer available parts.
Other Stellantis locations included in Friday's strike expansion are located in Marysville, Center Line, Warren, Auburn Hills, Romulus and Streetsboro, Michigan; Commerce City, Colorado; Naperville, Illinois; Ontario, California; Beaverton, Oregon; Morrow, Georgia; Winchester, Virginia; Carrollton, Texas; Tappan, New York; and Mansfield, Massachusetts.
GM plants called to strike are in Pontiac, Belleville, Ypsilanti, Burton, Swartz Creek and Lansing, Michigan; West Chester, Ohio; Aurora, Colorado; Bolingbrook, Illinois; Reno, Nevada; Rancho Cucamonga, California; Roanoke, Texas; Martinsburg, West Virginia; Brandon, Mississippi; Charlotte, North Carolina; Memphis, Tennessee; and Lang Horne, Pennsylvania.
"As promised, we're expecting to stand up strike in response to the lack of response in bargaining with General Motors and Stellatnis," Fain said Friday. "We will shut down parts distribution until those two companies come to their sense and come to the table with a serious offer."
The UAW union is seeking big raises and better benefits from General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, and want to get back concessions that the workers made years ago, when the companies were in financial trouble.
According to the Associated Press, the union is asking for 36% raises in general pay over four years — a top-scale assembly plant worker gets about $32 an hour now. The union also demanded an end to varying tiers of wages for factory jobs; a 32-hour week with 40 hours of pay; the restoration of traditional defined-benefit pensions for new hires who now receive only 401(k)-style retirement plans; and a return of cost-of-living pay raises, among other benefits.
This is a developing story. KARE 11 will provide more details as new information becomes available.
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