The UAW turned the 2023 labor negotiation with Detroit-Three auto makers on its ear Saturday, unsurprisingly announcing a deal with Stellantis and very surprisingly a strike expansion at GM. (Matthew Hatcher / AFP via Getty Images)
Ford Motor and Stellantis have reached deals with the United Auto Workers union. That leaves General Motors in the crosshairs, and the battle is already escalating.
Saturday night, the UAW announced workers would go on strike at another
General Motors
(ticker: GM) plant hours after the union announced it had reached a tentative agreement with
Stellantis
(STLA).
UAW workers are now on strike at GM’s Spring Hill, Tenn., plant, which makes the Cadillac XT5, XT6, the all-electric Cadillac Lyriq, and the GMC Acadia.
About 3,900 people work at the plant; most, but not all, are UAW employees. The expansion brings the number of striking GM workers to about 18,000, or roughly 40% of the total UAW workforce at the auto maker.
“We are disappointed by the UAW’s action in light of the progress we have made,” GM told Barron’s in an emailed statement. “We have continued to bargain in good faith with the UAW, and our goal remains to reach an agreement as quickly as possible.”
What led to the escalation isn’t immediately clear. The UAW didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Investors expected the next announcement to be an agreement, not a strike expansion.
Ford Motor
(F) and the UAW announced a tentative agreement Oct. 25. That, essentially, set a template for settlement. The union and the auto makers both knew what was acceptable.
The Ford agreement includes a general wage increase of roughly 25% over the life of the four-year-plus deal, including some 11% in year one. The Stellantis agreement contains similar provisions, including 25% wage increases through April 2028, according to the union.
Stellantis will also restart an idled plant. “We have saved Belvidere [Illinois],” said UAW Vice President Rich Boyer in a recorded message on Saturday night. “In addition to the vehicle commitment, Stellantis will also be adding over a thousand jobs at a new battery plant in Belvidere.”
Winning jobs associated with the electric-vehicle transition has been a priority for the union in 2023.
The Saturday Stellantis agreement wasn’t a surprise. The GM strike expansion is.
It doesn’t mean GM is in for a materially longer strike than the other two. The template is still set for a settlement following deals from two of the three auto makers, though there might be more the union is looking for.
Investors might not like it if GM doesn’t have an agreement by Monday. The labor unrest has weighed on shares of GM and Ford. Through the end of Friday’s trading, GM and Ford shares were down 29% and 34%, respectively, since the start of July when contract issues came to the forefront. The
S&P 500
is down about 7% over the same span.
Shares of Stellantis, a more global company, are up about 3% over that time.
The drop in share prices can’t be blamed entirely on the strike. Ford stock dropped 12% on Friday after reporting disappointing third-quarter earnings.
But ending the strikes sure can’t hurt.
Write to Al Root at [email protected]
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