UAW ‘Freedom is a necessary means to conclude contracts’, 350,000 strikes by UPS unions
Sean Payne, chairman of the National Auto Workers’ Union, started a “contract campaign,” saying, “True freedom is to fight with the necessary means to sign a contract,” and 350,000 union members of UPS, a world-class delivery company, went on strike for 10 days.
Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers, told the UAW's 150,000 members in Detroit in a Facebook video about contract negotiations that began this week: "If you truly value your freedom, do it by all means necessary." You have to fight for your freedom. How far are you willing to go to get the contract you deserve?"
Chairman Payne visited Washington and told officials supporting the UAE campaign, including Senator Bernie Sanders, that the UAW demanded that Detroit automakers, which receive billions of dollars in federal subsidies to produce electric vehicles, should pay more for workers at electric-car battery factories. Reuters reported on the 13th that it had amplified the position of the contract.
Payne, who was first elected and inaugurated in a direct vote by union members, is introducing political campaign tactics to the union executive.
"He asked UAW members to sign the card with their email address and phone number," said Reuters. revealed
Payne's strategy is tested by three Detroit automakers with contract expirations and renewals at stake.
The union went on strike against GM after GM refused to agree to a contract by the deadline, and the six-week strike cost GM hundreds of millions of dollars and put a heavy financial strain on UAW members.
"After the strike, the unions stepped up strike funds, and negotiations are taking place this year at a time of low unemployment," analysts said. The strike by the U.S. auto workers' union also escalated the strike at the Teamsters of United Parcel Service (UPS), the largest delivery company, and the Hollywood writers' and actors' unions in the film industry were also emboldened to negotiate contracts.
For American automakers, as the union management goal is to increase the flexibility of the workforce in addition to abundant federal subsidies and strengthening management profits, Japan's Toyota, Korea's Hyundai Motor Company, and Tesla's electric car are leading the way.
"The shift from internal combustion engine vehicles to electric vehicles with supercomputer data processing means that Paine and his successors will have to move beyond traditional car factories," said Peter Berg, professor of industrial relations at Michigan State University. The ability to form joint ventures with a semiconductor plant, an electric vehicle (EV) plant in California, etc. will be very important to the union," he told Reuters.
UPS's 10-day strike could be "one of the most costly in at least a century," with work disruptions in excess of billions of dollars, the Institute for Strategic Analysis of the Economic Impact of Labor Behavior said on Wednesday.
Estimates by Michigan-based Anderson Economic Group (AEG) included $4 billion in lost UPS customers and more than $1 billion in direct wage losses.
UPS, with its 340,000 union members, handles about a quarter of all parcel deliveries in the United States and serves nearly every city and town in the country.
In previous strikes, a significant portion of the shipments were transferred to FedEx, and this time Amazon delivery was added.
The deadlock in negotiations between UPS and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union is a pay rise for part-time workers who make up half of the workforce.
The union, Teamsters, has said it will go on strike if the current contract is not ratified before midnight on its expiration date.
"Permanent part-timers are particularly frustrated because they earn slightly more than new hires whose wages have skyrocketed in a tight labor market," Reuters said.
"When we entered the negotiations, I was told it was crazy to raise the expectations of our members so high," Payne said on Facebook. announced on the 12th.
Payne told the UAW's 150,000 members, "In the contract negotiations that began this week, we can reverse 20 years of wage and retiree benefits concessions, stop additional plant closures, and pay new hires 44% less than veteran workers." could end the seniority-based, tiered compensation system,” Reuters reported.
The American Actors Guild announced on the 13th that it would go on strike from the 14th, demanding improvement in treatment of major production companies and artificial intelligence (AI) regulations.
The actors' union strike is the first in 43 years since 1980, and about 160,000 people, including Hollywood actors, are members of the union.
The Writers Guild of America started the strike in May, with about 1,500 members in January, and the Writers Guild strike is the first in 63 years since 1960.
The Actors Union criticized the movement of production companies forcing AI to learn their acting, saying, "The lives of actors are facing an existential crisis with the advent of streaming (internet video distribution) and AI." You can scan it and use it forever without consent or compensation."
Due to strikes by the writers' union and the actors' union, screenwriters and actors no longer participate in filming and publicity activities for movies and dramas.