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The United Autoworkers officially clinched tentative agreements with GM and Stellantis, officially ending a six-week strike that affected the Big Three U.S. automakers and sent nearly 50,000 workers to the picket lines. UAW reached a tentative deal with Ford on October 25. Days later, the UAW reached a tentative agreement with Stellantis, the automaker that owns Jeep, Ram and Chrysler. GM followed October 30.
The result for the UAW can only be described as a triumph. Workers will see record pay raises, the return of cost-of-living adjustments and the end to a tiered wage system — to name just a few of the bigger concessions that automakers made.
On top of that, UAW successfully pushed the automakers to make more investments in plants. For instance, GM’s tentative agreement includes about $13 billion in investments U.S. operations, including future EV plants.
You would be mistaken to think the UAW is now going off to revel in its victory. UAW President Shawn Fain has brought up Toyota — and the company’s decision to raise wages for its non-union workers — and Tesla several times in the past week. Once the Big Three’s bargaining agreements are ratified, expect UAW to direct its efforts towards Tesla, Toyota and all those joint venture battery factories popping up in the emerging Battery Belt.