Fain’s ascent to the UAW’s top office has taken the entire auto industry by surprise.
....
The new president and his executive board, many of whom ran as part of the same reform-minded caucus as Fain, are negotiating new labor contracts for about 146,000 hourly workers at , and , the global car company that now owns Jeep, Ram and Chrysler.

The existing contracts expire Sept. 14, and if a deal isn’t reached by then, Fain has said he is ready to strike—potentially not just one automaker but all three.
....
Under Fain, the union has brought forward a set of demands that includes winning back benefits that workers gave up in past talks to help the companies survive.

Fain, who started his union career as an electrician at a Chrysler plant in Kokomo, Ind., is also pushing for a shorter, 32-hour workweek and a 46% hourly wage increase over the four-year contract, which would be the largest in recent memory.
....
Many in the industry worry he is setting workers’ expectations too high, which could make it difficult to get a deal ratified.

The White House, too, is on edge. Biden said last week that he was concerned about the possibility of a strike, which would be costly for the automakers and economically disruptive.

Jim Cramer, the host of CNBC’s investing show “Mad Money,” said the union’s demands were so aggressive they’d significantly weaken the U.S. auto companies. “This man studied Trotsky,” Cramer said during a broadcast this summer, referring to the Russian revolutionary.

When asked about Cramer’s comments, Fain said he didn’t know much about Trotsky and joked, sarcastically, how central Indiana is known as a “fertile ground for cornfields and communism.” "

https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/uaw-union-strike-shaw-fain-detroit-president-eb1bdd3f

On Sunday, September 3, 2023 at 11:06:18 AM UTC-4, ltlee1 wrote:
> Fain’s ascent to the UAW’s top office has taken the entire auto industry by surprise.
> ...
> The new president and his executive board, many of whom ran as part of the same reform-minded caucus as Fain, are negotiating new labor contracts for about 146,000 hourly workers at , and , the global car company that now owns Jeep, Ram and Chrysler.
>
> The existing contracts expire Sept. 14, and if a deal isn’t reached by then, Fain has said he is ready to strike—potentially not just one automaker but all three.
> ...
> Under Fain, the union has brought forward a set of demands that includes winning back benefits that workers gave up in past talks to help the companies survive.
>
> Fain, who started his union career as an electrician at a Chrysler plant in Kokomo, Ind., is also pushing for a shorter, 32-hour workweek and a 46% hourly wage increase over the four-year contract, which would be the largest in recent memory.
> ...
> Many in the industry worry he is setting workers’ expectations too high, which could make it difficult to get a deal ratified.
>
> The White House, too, is on edge. Biden said last week that he was concerned about the possibility of a strike, which would be costly for the automakers and economically disruptive.
>
> Jim Cramer, the host of CNBC’s investing show “Mad Money,” said the union’s demands were so aggressive they’d significantly weaken the U.S. auto companies. “This man studied Trotsky,” Cramer said during a broadcast this summer, referring to the Russian revolutionary.
>
> When asked about Cramer’s comments, Fain said he didn’t know much about Trotsky and joked, sarcastically, how central Indiana is known as a “fertile ground for cornfields and communism.” "
>
> https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/uaw-union-strike-shaw-fain-detroit-president-eb1bdd3f

Background on UAW's aggressive demand:

"OVER THE past four decades American bosses have grown unused to labour unrest. Ever since Ronald Reagan sacked thousands
of striking air-traffic controllers in 1981, shortly after being elected president (and despite once leading the Hollywood actors’ union),
American trade unions have been relatively meek. America experienced an average of 17 big work stoppages (affecting 1,000 workers
or more) a year from 2000 to 2022, down from 84 annually between 1977 and 1999. Union membership has fallen from a peak of 20m
members in 1979 to just over 14m last year, split evenly between the public and private sectors. Just 6% of private-sector workers belong
to a union these days, compared with more than 20% in the 1970s.

This year a confluence of tight job markets, accelerating technological change (think ChatGPT) and rising public support for unions (which
enjoy a record 67% approval rate among Americans, according to Gallup, a pollster) has emboldened workers. Strikes are proliferating. There
have been 16 big ones in the country in the first seven months of this year, up from 11 in the same period in 2022 and the most since 2005.
Hollywood writers and actors are in a months-long standoff with studios. On August 30th 99.5% of unionised American Airlines flight
attendants voted to go on strike. Workers at Detroit’s big carmakers are threatening to follow suit."
https://www.economist.com/business/2023/09/07/a-strike-at-chevron-shows-a-reinvigorated-union-movement

From elsewhere: Sep 8,2023
"(Reuters) -United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain said on Friday the union representing 146,000 workers
wants a deal to avoid walkouts at the Detroit Three automakers but expects to go on strike against all of them
next week if they do not improve their contract offers.

With contracts set to expire next Thursday at 11:59 p.m. ET (0359 GMT next Friday), Fain said the union had
rejected General Motors, Ford and Chrysler parent company Stellantis North America and remained far apart."

On Saturday, September 9, 2023 at 2:52:04 PM UTC, ltlee1 wrote:
> On Sunday, September 3, 2023 at 11:06:18 AM UTC-4, ltlee1 wrote:
> > Fain’s ascent to the UAW’s top office has taken the entire auto industry by surprise.
> > ...
> > The new president and his executive board, many of whom ran as part of the same reform-minded caucus as Fain, are negotiating new labor contracts for about 146,000 hourly workers at , and , the global car company that now owns Jeep, Ram and Chrysler.
> >
> > The existing contracts expire Sept. 14, and if a deal isn’t reached by then, Fain has said he is ready to strike—potentially not just one automaker but all three.
> > ...
> > Under Fain, the union has brought forward a set of demands that includes winning back benefits that workers gave up in past talks to help the companies survive.
> >
> > Fain, who started his union career as an electrician at a Chrysler plant in Kokomo, Ind., is also pushing for a shorter, 32-hour workweek and a 46% hourly wage increase over the four-year contract, which would be the largest in recent memory.
> > ...
> > Many in the industry worry he is setting workers’ expectations too high, which could make it difficult to get a deal ratified.
> >
> > The White House, too, is on edge. Biden said last week that he was concerned about the possibility of a strike, which would be costly for the automakers and economically disruptive.
> >
> > Jim Cramer, the host of CNBC’s investing show “Mad Money,” said the union’s demands were so aggressive they’d significantly weaken the U.S. auto companies. “This man studied Trotsky,” Cramer said during a broadcast this summer, referring to the Russian revolutionary.
> >
> > When asked about Cramer’s comments, Fain said he didn’t know much about Trotsky and joked, sarcastically, how central Indiana is known as a “fertile ground for cornfields and communism.” "
> >
> > https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/uaw-union-strike-shaw-fain-detroit-president-eb1bdd3f
> Background on UAW's aggressive demand:
>
> "OVER THE past four decades American bosses have grown unused to labour unrest. Ever since Ronald Reagan sacked thousands
> of striking air-traffic controllers in 1981, shortly after being elected president (and despite once leading the Hollywood actors’ union),
> American trade unions have been relatively meek. America experienced an average of 17 big work stoppages (affecting 1,000 workers
> or more) a year from 2000 to 2022, down from 84 annually between 1977 and 1999. Union membership has fallen from a peak of 20m
> members in 1979 to just over 14m last year, split evenly between the public and private sectors. Just 6% of private-sector workers belong
> to a union these days, compared with more than 20% in the 1970s.
>
> This year a confluence of tight job markets, accelerating technological change (think ChatGPT) and rising public support for unions (which
> enjoy a record 67% approval rate among Americans, according to Gallup, a pollster) has emboldened workers. Strikes are proliferating. There
> have been 16 big ones in the country in the first seven months of this year, up from 11 in the same period in 2022 and the most since 2005.
> Hollywood writers and actors are in a months-long standoff with studios. On August 30th 99.5% of unionised American Airlines flight
> attendants voted to go on strike. Workers at Detroit’s big carmakers are threatening to follow suit."
> https://www.economist.com/business/2023/09/07/a-strike-at-chevron-shows-a-reinvigorated-union-movement
>
> From elsewhere: Sep 8,2023
> "(Reuters) -United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain said on Friday the union representing 146,000 workers
> wants a deal to avoid walkouts at the Detroit Three automakers but expects to go on strike against all of them
> next week if they do not improve their contract offers.
>
> With contracts set to expire next Thursday at 11:59 p.m. ET (0359 GMT next Friday), Fain said the union had
> rejected General Motors, Ford and Chrysler parent company Stellantis North America and remained far apart."

GM Mexico's labor talk last year:
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/exclusive-new-gm-union-mexico-seeks-192-wage-hike-historic-talks-2022-04-26/

"GM builds the highly profitable Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra light-duty full-size pickups at Silao.
In the current plant contract, it said the wages range from 184.35 pesos to a maximum of 679.53 pesos
per day. In dollars, that's about $8.97 to $33.05 per day. In contrast, GM builds the same light-duty pickups
at Fort Wayne Assembly in Indiana and will start building the light-duty Silverado at Oshawa Assembly in
Ontario soon. GM builds its heavy-duty pickups at Flint Assembly and Oshawa.. At those plants, wages
range from $18 to $32 an hour."

The then new union representing about 6500 workers asked for 19.2% wage hike. After more than one month
of negotiation, the workers got 8.5% raise.
https://www.autonews.com/manufacturing/gm-agrees-85-percent-raise-new-mexico-union

On Sunday, September 3, 2023 at 3:06:18 PM UTC, ltlee1 wrote:
> Fain’s ascent to the UAW’s top office has taken the entire auto industry by surprise.
> ...
> The new president and his executive board, many of whom ran as part of the same reform-minded caucus as Fain, are negotiating new labor contracts for about 146,000 hourly workers at , and , the global car company that now owns Jeep, Ram and Chrysler.
>
> The existing contracts expire Sept. 14, and if a deal isn’t reached by then, Fain has said he is ready to strike—potentially not just one automaker but all three.
> ...
> Under Fain, the union has brought forward a set of demands that includes winning back benefits that workers gave up in past talks to help the companies survive.
>
> Fain, who started his union career as an electrician at a Chrysler plant in Kokomo, Ind., is also pushing for a shorter, 32-hour workweek and a 46% hourly wage increase over the four-year contract, which would be the largest in recent memory.
> ...
> Many in the industry worry he is setting workers’ expectations too high, which could make it difficult to get a deal ratified.
>
> The White House, too, is on edge. Biden said last week that he was concerned about the possibility of a strike, which would be costly for the automakers and economically disruptive.
>
> Jim Cramer, the host of CNBC’s investing show “Mad Money,” said the union’s demands were so aggressive they’d significantly weaken the U.S. auto companies. “This man studied Trotsky,” Cramer said during a broadcast this summer, referring to the Russian revolutionary.
>
> When asked about Cramer’s comments, Fain said he didn’t know much about Trotsky and joked, sarcastically, how central Indiana is known as a “fertile ground for cornfields and communism.” "
>
> https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/uaw-union-strike-shaw-fain-detroit-president-eb1bdd3f

Five Clues to Where the UAW Strike Is Headed Next
"1. A Ford deal first
The company likely to reach a new labor deal with the UAW first is Ford.

The UAW’s decision Friday to spare Ford while calling more strikes at the other two automakers signaled that a tentative agreement could be close, although both sides said significant gaps remain on key issues.

Ford and the UAW have historically had a relatively positive relationship, in part due to some key differences with crosstown rivals GM and Stellantis.. For one, Ford employs more hourly unionized workers in the U.S. than its competitors.

Ford also builds its brand around supporting its factory workforce. William Clay Ford Jr., the executive chair of the company and great-grandson of Henry Ford, plays ice hockey with UAW members.
....
2. The wild-card carmaker
The UAW could confront its biggest challenge at Stellantis, a company with a globe-trotting chief executive, Carlos Tavares, who has shown he is willing to play hardball in negotiations and has the leverage of a diversified manufacturing business that spans five continents.

Stellantis, created out of the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group in 2021, is the world’s fourth-largest automaker and is less reliant on North American than Ford and GM, which generate the bulk of their sales in the U.S.

Last year, it was the most profitable of the three car companies in North America—a change from Chrysler, which had historically been the smallest and most financially challenged of the Detroit rivals. That gives the union some leverage to argue that it can afford to give back more to the workers.

Still, Stellantis also has excess manufacturing capacity in Mexico and Canada, giving it flexibility to consider moving some work to those countries if labor costs in the U.S. get too high.
....
3. Parts suppliers
Automotive suppliers could be more vulnerable to a prolonged strike than the carmakers.

While rising car prices have fueled record profits at automakers, the same hasn’t been true for their parts suppliers. That is because parts makers sign up for long-term supply contracts at a fixed price, which means they have been squeezed by rising prices for raw materials and labor with little ability to pass along those higher costs.

“The supply base is not in good shape going into this,” said Sheldon Klein, a Troy, Mich., based attorney at law firm Butzel Long, who represents auto-industry clients.
....
4. Clues in UAW rhetoric
....
The union for the first time has a leader directly elected by its members—not by a group of local union leaders—and he has a reinvigorated labor movement at its back. It has also decided to ditch the traditional pattern-bargaining method of reaching a deal with one automaker first, followed by the other two. Instead, he is holding parallel talks with all three to keep the pressure on simultaneously.

Fain is keeping everyone on edge, and how the UAW capitalizes on this moment could have lasting implications for the U.S. auto industry for years to come.

5. New cars on dealership lots
he auto industry has been recovering from more than two years of severe new-vehicle shortages, which nearly wiped out dealerships’ inventories and resulted in American car shoppers paying top dollar.

The factory disruptions could send the market back into a vehicle famine, but not right away. GM, Ford and Stellantis have rebuilt their depleted stocks more quickly than most other carmakers, even though their inventories remain well below historical norms."