UAW International President Shawn Fain spoke on Facebook Live Friday morning to give an update on the union's negotiations with Ford, GM and Stellantis.
He announced two more plants would join the strike at noon Friday: the GM Lansing Delta Township assembly plant and Ford's Chicago assembly plant. No local plants were impacted by the latest decision.
You can watch the update in the player below:
Last week, the union announced that the Stellantis distribution center in Streetsboro was joining strike efforts. Workers at the Jeep plant in Toledo are also striking.
UAW Local 573 represents 114 members at the Stellantis facility in Streetsboro, according to Unionfacts.com.
It is unknown if any other local facilities will be joining the strike.
The UAW’s contract with the automakers expired at midnight on Sept. 14, and workers walked out of a Ford assembly plant near Detroit, a GM factory in Wentzville, Missouri, and a Jeep plant run by Stellantis in Toledo, Ohio. The initial strike has involved about 13,000 of the union’s 146,000 members
The union is pointing to the companies’ huge recent profits as it seeks wage increases of 36% over four years. The companies have offered a little over half that amount. The UAW has other demands, including a 32-hour work week for 40 hours of pay and a restoration of traditional pension plans for newer workers.
The companies say they can’t afford to meet the union’s demands because they need to invest profits in a costly transition from gas-powered cars to electric vehicles.
