America’s big car firms face lengthy strikes

The caruawGMUAWgmuawisi industry faces unprecedented upheaval as the importance of the internal-combustion engine, which has defined it for more than a century, declines and that of battery power, which will define its future, rises. The latest reverberation of this historic shock is now rippling through the four-yearly contract negotiations between Detroit’s “big three” carmakers and its biggest trade union. On September 15th, for the first time ever,members of the United Auto Workers () began simultaneous industrial action against Chrysler, General Motors () and Ford. (Chrysler is part of Stellantis, whose biggest shareholder part-owns ’s parent company.) The union’s tactical change foreshadows a protracted stand-off, the stakes of which are high for union and carmakers alike.In the past the renegotiated its contract with one of the big three, with the other two usually falling into line with any agreements. In 2019 the renegotiation happened at , which reached a deal with the union only after a six-week strike by 48,000 workers had cut production by 300,000 vehicles, costing the company $3.6bn in net profit. Even though this time the industrial action is affecting all three companies, it is more targeted. The three factories affected so far together employ only 13,000 of the ’s 146,000 members who work at the Detroit trio. As a result, reckons Evercore , a bank, only up to 20,000 vehicles might be lost in the first week of the strike.