STREETSBORO, Ohio (WJW) – The ongoing United Auto Workers strike against the “Big Three” automakers could be nearing an end.
After the UAW reached a tentative agreement with Ford, sources are telling multiple news outlets that General Motors and Stellantis have made similar offers to union workers.
The offer from Ford still has not yet been voted on by the rank and file, but would include a 25% wage increase.
So far, the UAW, GM and Stellantis are not publicly commenting, but it appears they are ready to offer a similar deal, hoping to bring autoworkers back to the assembly line.
A handful of striking workers from UAW Local 573 walked the picket line Friday evening.
For more than a month, roughly 40 union members have been off the job at the Stellantis Mopar parts distribution center in Streetsboro.
“A lot of sacrifice, a lot of long hours on the picket line and we feel that, in the end, it’s going to be worth it for all our members, especially the ones who are coming along in the future,” said Jerry Ellis, who has worked at the plant for 30 years.
Hope may be on the horizon.
From what some workers are hearing and what multiple news outlets are reporting, Stellantis and General Motors have offered striking workers a similar offer to a tentative deal that Ford reached with the UAW earlier this week.
That offer, which has not yet been ratified, includes a 25% wage increase, cost of living adjustments and at some plants, the elimination of salary tiers, where workers with less time on the job make significantly less than those with more seniority.
“We are glad about that because it’s been a long four and a half weeks we’ve been out here,” said Ellis.
“I’m in the second tier, so I’m working next to guys that are doing half the work that I’m doing, that are getting twice as much as the pay that I’m not getting,” said striking worker Ladaryon Williams.
Williams has worked at the Streetsboro plant since 2016, four years as a temporary worker. He says he welcomes an end to the strike, if a fair deal is worked out.
But, says he is prepared to stay on the picket line for longer if necessary.
“Ford, with them taking that, I don’t feel like we need to take it just because they took a 25% deal. I feel like we deserve more and we should get that,” said Williams.
The UAW strike began at targeted plants at all three automakers on Sept. 15.
It now includes more than 45,000 workers from General Motors, Ford and Stellantis at eight assembly plants and 38 parts/distribution centers around the country.
Ford has said the work stoppage has cost the company $1.3 billion, while GM says they have lost about $800 million.
“It’s a sacrifice, but it’s worth it,” said Williams.
No word on when an official announcement will come from the United Auto Workers or either company, but national UAW president Shawn Fain is expected to update his members on the deal with Ford on Sunday.
