Leaked messages from an aide of United Automobile Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain unveil the union’s strike strategy against Detroit’s ‘Big Three’ automakers, revealing a planned infliction of “reputation damage and operational chaos” at General Motors Co. GM, Ford Motor Co. F, and Stellantis NV STLA, Axios reported.
The messages, shared in a private group chat on X, formerly known as Twitter, were first reported by the Detroit News. The screenshots from UAW communications director Jonah Furman have sparked outrage and accusations of bad-faith bargaining from the automakers.
One of the text messages read, “(I)f we can keep them wounded for months they don’t know what to do. The beauty is we’ve laid it all out in the public and they’re still helpless to stop it.”
The messages, which shine a light on the union’s hardball tactics, are likely to further erode trust at the bargaining table, rendering a deal more elusive. This comes as the union prepares to expand its strike to more factories on Friday.
Furman, in the messages, discusses the union’s “Stand Up” strategy. The approach involves striking at select plants and keeping the companies guessing, with a bid to keep them “wounded for months.”
Notably, Furman is a former reporter at Labor Notes and a national labor organizer for Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign.
In response, GM stated that it is “clear that the UAW leadership has always intended to cause months-long disruption.”
Ford’s chief communications officer, Mark Truby, expressed disappointment in the situation.
As it stands, Fain, who ran as a reformer, has been employing aggressive tactics in the current round of bargaining. The simultaneous strike at all three automakers currently involves about 10% of the UAW’s 146,000 workers employed at GM, Ford, and Stellantis.
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