UAW members practice picketing: As deadline nears, autoworkers are 'ready to strike'

As UAW members marched on Detroit’s east side Wednesday under an overcast sky following earlier rains, their chants and signs echoed many of the same themes that union leadership has been preaching for months.

“Equal work for equal pay. All the tiers must go away.”

“Record profits. Record contracts.”

It was a stream of members wearing red, the color of solidarity, and marching near Stellantis’ Detroit Assembly Complex-Mack plant. It was also the first of three practice pickets announced by the union this week as the United Auto Workers union continues bargaining with Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Stellantis, which owns the Jeep, Ram, Chrysler, Dodge and Fiat brands. Pickets are also scheduled on Thursday and Friday near Ford’s Kentucky Truck and Louisville Assembly plants, respectively.

Talks have been publicly testy, with lots of rhetoric and messaging that the union is prepared to strike if key demands aren’t met. The contracts are in effect until 11:59 p.m. Sept. 14.

Fain emphasizes what UAW is asking for ahead of deadline

UAW President Shawn Fain led a brief rally before members began marching, just after the sounds of Eminem’s very pointed “Not Afraid” echoed across the parking lot where members had gathered.

Fain assured the crowd that the picket and other actions would lead to a great contract, and he hit on many of the points for which he has come to be known, such as blasting the extreme concentration of wealth globally among only a couple of dozen billionaires and pushing back against Stellantis’ demands for “economic realism.”

Everyone should have a pension, Fain said, and work-life balance should matter.

To the criticism that the union is expecting too much with its “40%” pay increase, a reference to contract demands, Fain countered that CEOs have seen comparable increases in pay.

“We’re not asking to be millionaires. We’re just asking for our fair share so we can survive,” he said.

UAW rank and file 'ready to strike'

Before and after Fain spoke, members who talked to the Detroit Free Press, a part of the USA Today Network, highlighted their own challenges.

Andrea Harris, 42, of Detroit, a repair tech at the Mack plant, said she’d come out for the rally and picket “for better wages for my family.”

Harris said she had initially been a supplemental worker at the plant, where she has been for almost three years, but had been fortunate to be rolled over into permanent status after a few months. She described a grueling pace that left her legs injured and required hospitalization at one point. She said the line moves constantly.

“We’re ready to strike. We’re tired,” she said.

Rick Larson, 59, of Macomb Township, is a pipefitter at the Mack plant and said this is his first time going through contract negotiations. He acknowledged he’s “a little scared.”

Larson doesn’t want to be out on strike for long if it comes to that, but he said it would be worth it if the result is a good contract. He predicted that a strike would be over in a week or so. The union just has to stay resolved, he said.

The rally even attracted UAW members who aren’t autoworkers. Dennis Bryant was on a 15-minute break from his job at a Michigan Department of Health and Human Services office nearby. He said he’d stopped over in support of his union brothers and sisters in getting a fair contract.

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Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Become a subscriber.