The United Automobile Workers (U.A.W.) union is planning to extend its influence to nonunion automakers such as Toyota (NYSE:TM), Honda (NYSE:HMC), and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), following significant wage and benefit improvements secured from Detroit automakers Ford and Stellantis (NYSE:STLA). This strategy was announced by U.A.W. President Shawn Fain during a Facebook (NASDAQ:META) live-streamed speech on Monday, marking a renewed effort to unionize plants of foreign-owned automakers and Tesla's nonunion factories in California and Texas.
Despite previous unsuccessful attempts at unionizing Southern auto plants, the U.A.W. has made progress with smaller component plants in the South and workers at heavy truck manufacturers like Mack and Freightliner. The recent tentative contract agreement with Ford Motor (NYSE:F), achieved through a pattern bargaining strategy, promises increased wages and benefits for Ford's 57,000 U.A.W. workers. The new benefits include two weeks of paid family leave and paid leave for jury duty.
Similar negotiations with Stellantis resulted in an agreement to reopen an idled plant in Belvidere, Ill., and maintain operations at an engine plant in Michigan and a machining factory in Ohio. The tentative agreement with Ford also includes significant wage increases, with most workers expected to earn an hourly wage of $40.82 by the end of the four-and-a-half-year term, marking a 25% increase from the current top wage of $32 an hour.
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