UAW sets new deadline of Sept. 22 for 'serious progress' on Big Three negotiations
On day 4 of UAW strike, workers resolute for new deal with Big Three, despite uncertainty
Sarah Walker says the uncertainty is significant. Striking workers here are part of the first phase of protest against the Big Three but Ford recently told 600 other Michigan Assembly employees not to show up for work because the components they make need to be painted and the paint team is out picketing.
FOX 2 (WJBK) - The United Auto Workers have set a new deadline for strike negotiations with Big Three of noon on Friday, Sept. 22.
In a new Facebook video posted Monday, UAW President Shawn Fain said that if "serious progress" is not made, more Locals at plants will be called on to walk out.
"That will mark more than a week since our first members walked out," he said. "It will mark more than a week of the Big Three failing to make progress in the negotiations toward reaching a deal that does right by our members.
"Autoworkers have waited long enough to make things right at the Big Three. We are not waiting around and we are not messing around."
Fain said that in the meantime, the current strike walkouts will continue as more Locals called on, will be asked to join them.
"Noon on Friday, Sept. 22 is a new deadline. Either the Big Three get down to business and work with us to make progress in negotiations, or more locals will be called on to Stand Up and go out on strike," he said.
Related: UAW strike against Big 3 is a 'combustible dilemma' says economy researcher
Currently, three different plants have walked out including Ford's Michigan Assembly in Wayne, the Toledo Stellantis plant and the General Motors plant that builds SUVs, in Missouri.
Fain said that the Stand Up Strike is a new approach which targets select locations as the UAW strikes all three automakers simultaneously for the first time.
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"This is our generation's answer to the movement that built our union. The sit-down strikes of 1937," Fain said. "Then as now, we face massive inequality across our society. Then as now, our industry is rapidly changing and workers are being left behind. Then as now, our labor movement is redefining itself."