Sources: GM Strike Looks “Very Likely” – UAW Endorsement of Biden Hinges on His Role in Contract Talks

Shawn Fain speaking at his first bargaining convention as UAW President (AP)

By: September 8, 2023

Folks, 

E ai, gente, Tudo Bem? Greetings from Rio de Janeiro, where Payday is wrapping up the end of a documentary shoot down here. (Big thanks to all who donated). 

We will be back next week in the US to cover potential strikes at the Big Three automakers. Donate to help us cover these labor struggles. 

Sources: GM Strike Looks “Very Likely”

With the contracts at all three automakers expiring in less than a week on Thursday, September 14th, it increasingly looks like a strike at General Motors appears likely. 

After more than a month of not responding to contract offers from the UAW, GM responded with their first counterproposal this week. UAW president Shawn said that the offer was  “an insulting proposal that doesn’t come close to an equitable agreement for America’s autoworkers.”

(For a breakdown of the differences on the proposal, check out the UAW’s latest analysis here)

Interviews by Payday Report with sources from various factions inside the UAW, including those, who have questioned the leadership of the recenly elected Fain, show that there is an increasing consensus that a strike at General Motors is “very likely”. 

“I just don’t see how it is avoidable at this point,” one top UAW leader told Payday Report. “General Motors has signaled they wanna play hardball and Fain wants to strike to consolidate his grip on the leadership of the UAW”. 

Biden Working to Cut Deal to Avert Strike 

Earlier this week, President Joe Biden said that he saw a strike at the Big Three automakers as “unlikely”. Currently, the Biden Administration is working to cut a deal between the Big Three automakers and the UAW to avert a strike.

 Earlier this year, Biden was successful in cutting a deal that averted strikes at both UPS and on the West Coast Ports. Now, Biden is hoping for success once again in brokering a deal to avert a strike at the Big three automakers. 

The UAW has yet to endorse BIden. Earlier this week, UAW President Shawn Fain said that the union’s endorsement would depend upon how the Biden Adminsitration conducted itself during contract between between the union and the automakers. 

“I think our strike can reaffirm to [Biden] of where the working-class people in this country stand and, you know, it’s time for politicians in this country to pick a side,” Fain said on CNBC this week. “Either you stand for a billionaire class where everybody else gets left behind, or you stand for the working class, the working-class people vote.”

For more, check out CNBC. 

2019: Payday Covered GM Strike in 6 States – Help Us Do It Again

In 2019, when UAW went on strike at General Motors, Payday filed nearly 2 dozen dispatches from 6 states. 

Our coverage was recognized by the New York Times and the Columbia Journalism Review. Payday Report intends once again to lead UAW strike coverage, but we need your help to do it. 

Donate to help us cover the contract fight and potential strike at the Big Three automakers. Please, if you can, sign up as one of our 754 recurring donors. 

Alright yinz, that’s all for today. Keep sending tips, story ideas, and comments to [email protected]

Love & Solidarity, 

Melk

About the Author

Mike Elk
Mike Elk is an Emmy-nominated labor reporter and alumni of the Guardian. In addition to filing nearly 2,000 stories from 46 states, Elk traveled with Lula from Sáo Bernando do Campos all the way to the Oval Office in the White House. Credited by the Washington Post for being the first reporter to track the strike wave systematically, Elk started Payday Report using his NLRB settlement from being illegally fired for union organizing in 2015. He lives in his hometown of Pittsburgh and works frequently in Rio de Janeiro, where he attended college at PUC-Rio. He speaks both Portuguese and Pittsburghese fluently. His email is [email protected]