Detroit 3 push back on UAW strike messaging as deadline looms

The Detroit Three have begun pushing back on the UAW's messaging as the two sides race to reach an agreement before Friday, when the union said it will expand its ongoing strike.

Late Monday, Ford Motor Co. issued a lengthy statement fact-checking comments made by UAW President Shawn Fain, even as it said it's "working for a win-win" with the union.

Fain has made record profits and CEO pay core to his argument that union workers deserve hefty raises. Ford pointed out its 2022 earnings are not a record — they were higher in 2013, 2015 and 2016 — and that CEO Jim Farley's compensation rose less than what Fain has said.

Farley's compensation is up 21 per cent over the past four years, Ford said. Fain has lumped all three CEOs together, saying compensation is up 40 per cent since 2019, which is why his list of demands included a 40 per cent member pay raise.

Fain has also railed against stock buybacks, which he said are up 1,500 per cent over the past four years. Ford said it's only bought back shares twice, and at 80 per cent less volume than General Motors, to offset dilution from pay and debt.

Separately, General Motors CEO Mary Barra told CNBC late last week she was "frustrated"; the company's workers "didn't need to be on strike right now," she said.

She also defended her compensation package as mostly being based on performance.

Fain has said the Detroit Three CEOs have made their millions by exploiting workers at "poverty wages." Ford noted that current hourly employees are among the best paid manufacturing workers in the country, with average annualized compensation of $112,000 (all figures in USD), including wages and benefits. Its most recent offer, which the UAW rejected, would bring that average up to $133,000 in total compensation, including $92,000 in cash alone.

It also shared a number of opinion pieces arguing the union's demands would put the Detroit Three at a significant disadvantage to nonunion rival automakers such as Tesla Inc.

Meanwhile, Mark Stewart, North America COO of Stellantis, went on local and national television and radio shows Tuesday morning to defend the company's position.

He reiterated comments that Stellantis made a "very strong and competitive offer" before the deadline, which matched much of what the other two companies proposed, and clarified some recent details of the offer that emerged Monday.

The UAW has said Stellantis wants the unilateral right to close or sell off 18 facilities, including some assembly plants, powertrain plants and parts depots.

CNBC reported Monday that manufacturing facilities included in the proposal are Tipton Transmission Plant in Indiana; the partially decommissioned Trenton Engine Complex; the already idled Mount Elliott Tool & Die in Michigan; and the idled Belvidere Assembly Plant in Illinois. A Detroit warehouse, office space and the automaker's North American headquarters and technology centre, a 500-acre campus in metro Detroit, are also included in the plan, CNBC reported.

Under the Stellantis proposal, the idled Belvidere Assembly Plant would be turned into a parts megahub, 10 Mopar parts and distribution centres could be closed, and its North American headquarters in suburban Detroit could be sold, CNBC reported.

According to CNBC, discussions have also taken place about using part of Belvidere for electric vehicle battery components.

CNBC reported that a focal point of the plan is the possible closures of 10 Mopar units, which are spread across the country, to consolidate them into larger Amazon-like distribution centres.

CNBC reported that it's not guaranteed the facilities would close under a labour deal, but Stellantis is required to include potential closures or sales of any location where a UAW member works, a company source told the outlet. CNBC pointed out that the Detroit Free Press reported in 2022 that the company could lease a portion of the headquarters complex.

Speaking Tuesday on WWJ-AM (950) in Detroit, Stewart said the plans for its headquarters were about repurposing underutilized buildings and not about moving out.

"This is our North America headquarters, it will be our North America headquarters, but like everyone in a hybrid working environment ... we have a lot of facilities in Auburn Hills we're not using today, so we're looking at other use cases," he said. "We're certainly not leaving this footprint in any shape, form or fashion."

Stewart told reporters Saturday that its plans for Mopar wouldn't reduce jobs.

Stewart said the company needs to make investments in Mopar, but it doesn't make sense to do so for some facilities because they aren't in the right locations. Stewart said Stellantis is looking at its distribution chain and its ability to "get things to our customers faster and at the best cost structure from a transportation standpoint."

"The vast majority of that proposal, it's about modernizing our operations, a lot of it in Mopar, enabling us to run our PDCs, our part distribution centres in a really efficient manner [and], at the same time, preserving the same number of jobs," Stewart told reporters Saturday.

"There's no job elimination with that. We have a lot of older PDCs which need to be modernized and a lot of the buildings they're in, many of which are rented, are not the right ones for what we can do with today's racking, storage and all the technologies that have really developed.""

Fain announced in a Monday evening video that the automakers have a deadline of noon Friday to make "serious progress" in negotiations before he expands the "stand-up strike."

Fain didn't say how many additional plants would join the work stoppage, which began Sept. 15. His comments suggested that the UAW could decide not to add plants even without deals in place by Friday, so long as the union is satisfied that the talks are productive.

About 13,000 workers at three plants — one each from General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis — are on strike and would become eligible for strike pay from the union on the day of Fain's next announcement.

After the strike began, Ford laid off about 600 additional workers in Michigan as a consequence of its reduced production capacity, and GM has said it will need to lay off about 2,000 workers in Kansas as early as this week.