As United Auto Workers (UAW) union members walked off the job at the beginning of a historic strike, hundreds of people gathered outside a Ford assembly plant in Wayne Michigan, including many union members and their supporters.
Following the failure of the union and members of the “Detroit Three” automakers, Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis, to reach an agreement on new contracts, the first ever simultaneous strike against all three automakers began early Friday.
Mike Lester, a supplier to the automakers who supports the unions said, “This is what a union looks like. It’s organized. We’re (here) to make sure … Ford pays their fair share to their employees.”
Ford Chief Executive Jim Farley warned on Thursday that the unions would “put us out of business,” if the automaker acquiesced to union demands for pay increases of 40%, an end to the tiered wage system which pays veterans more than new hires, and the return to defined benefit pensions.
UAW President Shawn Fain has complained that if Ford had curtailed stock buybacks and reduced dividends to shareholders, it could have funded better pay and benefits for its workers. In 2022, Ford reportedly returned $2.5 billion to its investors.
Fain and Debbie Dingell, a Democratic U.S. representative from Michigan, both visited the Wayne plant as the strike began, where 3,300 UAW members manufacture Ranger pickup trucks, and Bronco SUVs.
Dingell said, “I’m just here to support the workers.”
She added, “They want to see cost of living adjustments. They’re working on assembly line … and different people are working at different tiers, but doing the same job. So they want to get rid of the tiers and they want job security.”
If a deal cannot be reached, Fain has left the door open to more drastic actions, including full company-wide strikes.
One supporter of the union workers was a 38 year old GM veteran who chose to remain anonymous. He said he believed that the strike would not stop until the automakers gave in to the demands of the union.
He said, “We deserve what we deserve.”
