Dive Brief:

• United Auto Workers members employed by General Motors, Ford and Stellantis voted to authorize a strike if the sides can’t make a deal, the union said Friday.
• The UAW said 97% of its 150,000 members at the Big Three approved a potential strike, but it's still finalizing the vote count. 
• The UAW’s 4-year labor agreement with the Big Three expires Sept. 14. A strike could result in billions in combined losses for GM, Ford and Stellantis.

Dive Insight:

Amid the electric vehicle transition, the union is demanding an end to tiered wages and benefits, cost-of-living allowances, the return of defined benefit pensions and retiree healthcare, the ability to strike against plant closures, retiree benefit improvements and more paid time off.

The UAW’s proposed labor agreement would cover roughly 150,000 hourly workers at GM, Ford and Stellantis. The top pay for UAW members is currently around $32 an hour. But the new proposal would increase top hourly wages to roughly $47, a jump of nearly 46%.

UAW members made several labor concessions following the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent bankruptcies of GM and Chrysler — now part of Stellantis. But the Big Three automakers made almost $250 billion in profits from 2013 to 2022, according to the UAW. Now, autoworkers want a larger slice of that pie and are prepared to strike to get what they want. 

“Our union’s membership is clearly fed up with living paycheck-to-paycheck while the corporate elite and billionaire class continue to make out like bandits,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement. “The Big Three have been breaking the bank while we have been breaking our backs.”

Earlier this month, the White House released a statement urging both sides to find common ground before the UAW contract expires next month.

Ultium, the EV battery joint venture between GM and LG Energy Solution, agreed Thursday to increase wages by an average of 25% for nearly 1,100 workers at its battery plant in Ohio. It’s the first EV battery plant organized by the UAW and is covered under a separate agreement.