UAW strike to begin at 3 plants if no deals by midnight

The UAW will target Ford’s Michigan Assembly, top left, GM’s Wentzville Assembly, bottom left, and Jeep’s Toledo Assembly Complex.

The UAW will strike three Detroit 3 truck assembly plants at midnight — one each at Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Stellantis — if no tentative agreements are reached by the 11:59 p.m. deadline, President Shawn Fain said late Thursday.

The sites in the first round of Fain’s planned “stand-up strike” are:

• GM’s Wentzville Assembly plant near St. Louis, where it builds the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon pickups and Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana vans.
• Ford’s Michigan Assembly plant west of Detroit, which builds the Bronco and Ranger.
• Stellantis’ Toledo Assembly Complex in Ohio, which builds the Jeep Gladiator and Wrangler.

The three plants employ about 13,000 hourly workers, or about 9 percent of the UAW’s Detroit 3 membership.

Meanwhile, Ford said in a statement that the union responded with a “substantive counterproposal” around 8 p.m. Thursday but that the two sides remained far from a deal.

“Unfortunately, the UAW’s counterproposal tonight showed little movement from the union’s initial demands submitted Aug. 3,” it said in a statement. “The union made clear that unless we agreed to its unsustainable terms, it plans a work stoppage at 11:59 p.m. eastern.”

It said the union’s demands would more than double its current labor costs of roughly $64 per hour.