The United Auto Workers’ historic “Stand Up Strike” came to an end on Monday, October 30, after UAW negotiators reached tentative agreements with the “Big Three” largest automobile manufacturers in the US, Stellantis, Ford, and General Motors. Following a strike that began in waves on September 15, workers have secured major victories, ensuring that their wages will rise to over USD 40 per hour over the life of the new contracts (if ratified by UAW members).
In the three new TAs that have been won, UAW leaders have deliberately set the contract expiration dates to April 30, 2028, ensuring that they can strike on International Workers’ Day, May 1. The UAW is encouraging workers across the country to do the same. This is a strategic move to have workers “flex our collective muscles,” the UAW said.
“One of our biggest goals coming out of this historic contract victory is to organize like we’ve never organized before,” said UAW President Shawn Fain after announcing the Ford TA. “When we return to the bargaining table in 2028, it won’t just be with a Big Three, but with a Big Five or Big Six.”
The UAW had secured a tentative agreement with Ford on October 26, which provides gains valued at over four times the gains of the previous Ford contract in 2019. UAW leaders secured their TA with Stellantis only two days later. Through this agreement, the UAW won the reopening of the idled Belvidere plant, the shuttering of which had devastated that working class Illinois community. 1,200 workers were displaced as a result of Belvidere’s closure, scattering workers all over the country.
“We got everyone who lost their job at Belvidere put back on temporary layoff, meaning they’ll get sub-pay and healthcare until their job’s back in Belvidere,” said UAW Vice President Rich Boyer in an announcement. “Under our contract, members from Belvidere who have been scattered across this country will have the right to return back to Belvidere.”
The union also says that two plants which Stellantis has promised to close will not only remain open, but add jobs.
“We have won product commitments that will save all these jobs at Trenton Engine and double the workforce at Toledo machining…altogether we have won over 19 Billion in new investment in the United States,” said Boyer.
Base wages for UAW workers will increase 25% through April 2028. At Stellantis, wage increases from the entirety of 2001 until 2022 have only amounted to 23%. Temporary workers, the lowest paid rung of autoworkers, will see their wages increase 168%.
The General Motors TA, announced on October 30, is similar to the Ford and Stellantis agreements in that it also contains 25% pay increases, includes cost of living allowances, or COLA, which tie wage increases to inflation, and kills tiers in the workforce which have divided UAW workers for years. Compounded with COLA, the starting wage will increase by 70% to over $30 an hour. GM also agreed to make five payments of USD 500 to current retirees and surviving spouses.
Workers at Ultium Cells and GM Subsystems LLC, plants which manufacture electric car batteries, will also be included in the contract. According to the UAW, “Both of these groups have been left out of the Master Agreement, and have been told they would never come in.” This is the result of a major victory while the Stand Up Strike was still taking place back in early October, when GM agreed to place electric battery manufacturing under the national master agreement. This was a massive step forward in winning climate change policy that takes the working class into account.
“This contract is about more than just economic gains for autoworkers. It’s a turning point in the class war that has been raging in this country for the past forty years. For too long it’s been one-sided and working class people have been losing,” announced the UAW. “That’s why this contract is more than just a contract. It’s a call to action to workers everywhere to organize and to fight for a better life.”
