The UAW continues to talk a big game despite holding targeted strikes that aren’t too painful. As part of this effort, they’ve released a new video designed to put pressure on Ford, GM, and Stellantis.
The clip is called “Corporate Greed” and it’s designed to show how “UAW members were left behind as the Big Three funneled their extreme profits to CEOs and wealthy investors.” The video claims that over the past four years, profits have gone up 65% while CEO pay has climbed 40%. The union goes on to say “Big Three spending on stock buybacks is up 1,500%.”
More importantly for union members, the clip says autoworker wages are only up 6% despite inflation soaring 20%. Of course, that’s what the union agreed to last time around.
More: United Auto Workers Begin Strike At Ford, GM And Stellantis Plants
Interestingly, the video says average new car prices are up 34% as automakers are “price gouging the hell out of the American consumer.” However, this appears to ignore changing consumer preferences as well as the death of slow-selling sedans and hatchbacks, such as the Chevrolet Spark that was made in South Korea.
UAW President Shawn Fain said, “They pretend that the sky will fall if we get our fair share of the quarter of a trillion dollars the Big Three has made over the past decade. They want to say that our righteous fight for a higher quality of life for the working class would wreck the economy. We’re not going to wreck the economy, we’re going to wreck their economy because it only works for the billionaire class.”
Despite the chest-thumping, there’s not much pressure on automakers as the union is only striking at GM’s Wentzville Assembly, Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant, and Stellantis’ Toledo Assembly Complex. This has limited the pain, but the union has threatened that strikes could spread if “automakers fail to offer fair contracts going forward.”