The United Auto Workers union is on day 7 of its strike, and only one day is left for the Detroit Three plants to negotiate the demands before the UAW expands the strike.
Shawn Fain, the UAW president, will host a Facebook live event Friday, and he is expected to call on more members to join the already 12,700-worker strike if the union’s needs aren’t met before 10 a.m. Friday, The Detroit News reported.
Sources close to negotiations say there’s little chance of reaching a deal before then, per Axios.
The continued strike “is fueling worries about prolonged industrial action that could disrupt production and ripple through the supply chain and dent U.S. economic growth,” according to Reuters.
On Wednesday, Stellantis, formerly known as Chrysler, joined with General Motors and Ford by furloughing some employees at other factories attempting to offset the effects of the strike, per Reuters.
What happens next with the UAW strike?
The union will either continue to increase the number of walkouts at engine or transmission plants, disrupting the supply chain, or it could punch into the industry’s most profitable sector by going straight for the factories that manufacture pickup trucks, per Axios.
Automakers argue the wage and benefits demands would place them “at a competitive disadvantage,” NPR reported. Meanwhile, members of the UAW say “the current demands represent a long-overdue redressal for all the concessions the union made to prop up the automakers just before and after the 2008 recession.”