UAW will not expand strikes at Detroit automakers after last-minute GM proposal

DETROIT – The United Auto Workers will not expand strikes against the Detroit automakers this week amid progress in the talks, including General Motors agreeing to cover battery cell workers under the company’s national agreement.

This is the first week since targeted strikes by the UAW started on Sept. 15 that the union will not expand the work stoppages at GM, Ford Motor or Chrysler-parent Stellantis.

Fain said the union was planning to shut down GM’s Arlington Assembly plant that produces highly profitable full-size SUVs until a last-minute proposal by the company to include the automaker’s battery cell workers under its national agreement.

“Just that threat has provided a transformative win,” Fain said during an online broadcast Friday. We’ve been told for months that this is impossible … and now we’ve called their bluff.”

GM was not immediately available to comment regarding the battery plant workers

Electric vehicle battery plants have been a major point of contention in this year’s talks between the union and the three Detroit automakers. Each automaker has formed joint ventures with battery makers to manufacture EV batteries in the United States — a move the union has characterized as a plan to shut it out of the new factories, many of which are under construction now.

Officially, because they’re owned by joint ventures, the battery plants aren’t covered by the automakers’ agreements with the union. The automakers have said that because of that status, the plants shouldn’t be a factor in contract negotiations with the union.

But the UAW has made a “just transition” — meaning, a plan to protect their members as the industry shifts to electric vehicles — a centerpiece of this year’s negotiations, something that has frustrated the automakers. Ford CEO Jim Farley said last week that the UAW…