The social conflict at Ford is hardening. The American automobile manufacturer, affected like its competitors General Motors and Stellantis since mid-September by a large strike, confirmed this Monday the temporary dismissal of hundreds of additional employees as a result of this social movement.
United States: 25,000 auto workers are now on strike
« Our production system is highly interconnected, which means that the UAW’s targeted strike strategy has knock-on effects on sites not directly affected by the work stoppage. “, said the group. “ Around 330 employees were asked not to come to work “, Ford said. These ” referrals » are effective from September 30 for the Chicago, Illinois site and October 2 for the Lima, Ohio site.
The work stoppage at a Ford plant in Chicago directly affects ”, in the words of the manufacturer, the operations of a stamping plant, also located in Chicago, and an engine manufacturing site in Lima. The latter two in fact provide spare parts to supply the production of the first.
Several waves of layoffs already observed
These 300 “temporary dismissals” are in addition to the 600 people already temporarily dismissed for lack of activity by Ford since September 15, at the start of the strike movement. Likewise, Stellantis and General Motors also cut staff at several sites for the same reasons. These partial layoffs, if they can be justified by the real drop in industrial activity, also constitute a strong argument – even a threat – for manufacturers to convince the unions to hasten the end of the social movement.
Initially, the UAW called on nearly 13,000 of its 146,000 members within the three manufacturers to stop work. Gradually, some 5,600 were added a week later due to lack of progress in the negotiations, then an additional 7,000 the following week. Today, nearly 25,000 workers have stopped working to follow the strike. Despite the last call on Friday, the majority of the 146,000 unionized staff within the three major manufacturers, however, continue to work at their jobs.
Discussions continue
According to a source close to the negotiations, discussions continued on Monday with the three manufacturers in what increasingly looks like a standoff. The issue is now being scrutinized beyond the bastions of manufacturers, all the way to the White House. The strikers received support from President Biden himself who visited one of their Michigan pickets last week.
Biden and Trump vie for support for auto strike one year before US elections
The head of state publicly maintained that the union could legitimately demand a salary increase of around 40% over the duration of the new agreement, i.e. four years, because of the profits made by the manufacturers. Declared presidential candidate in 2024, former President Donald Trump also visited the region, where he held a public meeting on a spare parts manufacturing site, which does not belong to any of the three major manufacturers and which does not include a union.
2023-10-03 04:00:00
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