The United Auto Workers union isn’t backing down as it bargains for more compensation and better benefits in its new contracts with General Motors Co., Ford Motor Corp. and Stellantis N.V. Under the deft leadership of its president, Shawn Fain, and other officials, the union has thrown the three automakers off balance with a strike that began on Sept. 15.
As of Oct. 10, the number of UAW members on strike from their Big Three jobs stood at 25,000.
I’ve observed that the union’s bargaining strategy has three elements that match what Harvard Program on Negotiations researchers recommend: an emphasis on substance, processes affecting interpersonal relations, and the setup – or context.
Fain and his leadership team have gotten the upper hand in all three elements.
First, it framed the negotiations by publicizing its members’ demands at the very beginning of formal talks. From the start, the union has clearly argued that the automakers’ “record profits” in recent years meant that autoworkers deserve what it calls “record contracts” to compensate them for past sacrifices.
So far, it looks like the UAW is making gains on the substance of its demands. By Oct. 3, Ford was offering a 26% pay raise, up from about 15% before the strike, and the restoration of annual cost-of-living adjustments.
And on Oct. 6, Fain applauded GM’s acceptance of a key union demand that all workers at their electric-vehicle battery manufacturing plants have the same working conditions and compensation as those who are making vehicles with internal combustion engines.
Second, the union unilaterally changed the bargaining process. The UAW dispensed with the traditional handshake ceremonies with management. “There is no point in having some pomp and circumstance and some big ceremony acting like we’re working together when we’re not,” Fain told reporters.
Instead, the leadership held meet-and-greets with rank-and-file UAW members.
More significantly, the UAW is on strike for the first time against all three of the automakers, having abandoned its prior practice of targeting one company at a time. Bargaining simultaneously effectively pits them against each other.
One way Fain is doing that is by expanding picket lines in accordance with the progress or lack thereof each of the three automakers makes in meeting demands. Pressure on the companies is building with rolling deadlines at which additional strike sites are announced.
This strategy has led the companies to make concessions. Although the UAW is now seeking a 36% increase in pay, down from 46%, it has not ratcheted down many of its other demands.
Third, the union has successfully used social media to get its narrative across.
The UAW has repeatedly accused the companies of being greedy, often by pointing to what their top executives make: The CEOs of Ford, General Motors and Stellantis each received between $21 million and $29 million in compensation in 2022.
The union is relying on several hard-bargaining tactics: extreme demands, personal attacks, threats and warnings, rolling deadlines and holding unpredictable strikes.
Fain himself described the union’s initial demands as “audacious.”
On top of a roughly 46% wage increase, it sought the restoration of annual cost-of-living adjustments, retiree health care and defined-benefit pensions, the elimination of separate wage tiers for longtime and newer workers and increases in profit-sharing. The UAW also sought a 32-hour work week with pay for 40 hours of labor and the restoration of jobs banks – an abolished system that paid workers at closed factories who did community service.
Some analysts have estimated that accepting all of these conditions would more than double labor costs.
This unconventional approach has led the Big Three to make significant concessions in terms of raising pay for the lowest-paid workers.
At the same time, gaps do remain between the union’s demands and the companies’ offers.
I have little doubt that the parties will resolve these matters. And despite this high-stakes dispute, I believe it’s possible for the automakers to wind up with a win if they can accentuate the common interests that bind labor and management to their shared future success.
Marick Masters is a professor of business and adjunct professor of political science at Wayne State University. Distributed by The Associated Press.
