Here & Now

UAW Strike of Big Three Auto Manufacturers Expands

Frederica Freyberg:

The United Auto Workers union today expanded the nationwide picket line against the country’s three largest car manufacturers. It’s been two weeks since UAW first walked off the job to strike General Motors, Ford and Chrysler parent company Stellantis. It’s been one week since the auto parts makers joined them, including two Wisconsin plants in Milwaukee and Hudson. Marisa Wojcik has more.

Group:

No contract. No parts.

Joe Neu:

Nobody’s ever done this in the history of the UAW, put all three out.

Marisa Wojcik:

In weekly waves, United Auto Workers are joining the picket line, striking the country’s three car manufacturing giants.

Steve Frisque:

Notified my members that morning at approximately 9:00 that get ready to go. We’ll be walking at 11:00 and that’s what we did.

Marisa Wojcik:

Steve Frisque is the president of UAW Local 722 at a GM facility in Hudson. His members who voted 97% in favor to strike stand with auto workers across the country with the ultimate goal of renegotiating 146,000 contracts. For members, the purpose is simple.

Worker:

Striking for our rights.

Marisa Wojcik:

One major demand is a 36% wage increase and cost of living adjustments.

Steve Frisque:

I actually make less money today than I did when I hired in at General Motors in 1986.

Marisa Wojcik:

Depressed wages hit workers hard amidst soaring inflation.

Steve Frisque:

A lot of them either have to work the overtime and a lot of them have second jobs because they just — they can’t survive on that amount of money.

Marisa Wojcik:

Another primary demand is an end to the two-tier system.

Steve Frisque:

They can start people at lower wages and they would never actually get hit full wage like the legacy employees did. It’s dividing the workforce and it has caused animosity between workers.

Marisa Wojcik:

The union says how they got here dates back to 2009, when Ford, Chrysler and General Motors faced bankruptcy. A federal bail-out saved them from complete collapse.

Steve Frisque:

One of the conditions of that bail-out bill was that the union had to re-open the contract and sacrifice a lot of things that we had negotiated, and now that these companies are making, the three of them have made a quarter of a trillion dollars the last 10 years in profits.

Doug Frump:

It has to come back around. We gave when they were bankrupt, when they were folding, going down the tubes. We gave. Now it’s time to give a little bit of that back. That’s all we ask.

Joe Neu:

We produce millions of dollars in profits per month out of here.

Marisa Wojcik:

Joe Neu is the president of UAW Local 75, which represents workers at a Chrysler facility in Milwaukee, a location now at risk of closure.

Joe Neu:

Any time you’re on a chopping block, you got to watch.

Marisa Wojcik:

A common theme among these union veterans is fighting for the next generation.

Doug Frump:

I’m fighting for these young people with young families.

Steve Frisque:

And that’s what we’re doing, bringing these younger kids up to learn how to do these things so that when we’re gone, they can take over.

Marisa Wojcik:

While negotiations have been ongoing, an end doesn’t appear to be in sight as the union expanded strikes Friday to 25,000 people. The UAW strike mirrors the national resurgence for unions across the country.

Steve Frisque:

You’re seeing a lot of people organizing now. People are tired of it and they’re fighting back and that’s a good thing because we needed that to happen in this country.

Doug Frump:

If it wasn’t for the union, you wouldn’t have 40-hour work weeks. You wouldn’t have paid holidays. You wouldn’t have eight-hour workdays. The union fights for everybody, whether they know it or not, because what we do drives the community, it drives the area.

Marisa Wojcik:

Reporting for “Here & Now,” I’m Marisa Wojcik.