UAW shifts strike strategy
UAW President announced no new strikes
TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain took to Facebook Live today to announce a new strike strategy. Instead of calling more workers to walk off the job and onto the picket lines on Fridays, a pattern of his since the strike started 29 days ago, he’ll now be announcing strikes sporadically,
“When I tell all of you members to be ready to stand up and strike, I mean it,” Fain said. “We’re not waiting until Fridays anymore.”
Fain debuted the new strategy Wednesday when he shut down Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant.
“Ford thought they could till Friday morning, and then just make a better offer,” he explained. “They stopped being interested in reaching a fair deal now, and only became interested in gaming our system of announcing strikes on Fridays.”
Fain says the Kentucky plant is one of Ford’s most profitable, generating $25 billion a year.
“Rain, sleet or snow, we’re going to stay out here as long as it takes to make sure these workers win a fair contract,” said Tim Smith, the UAW Region 8 Director, from the picket lines in Kentucky.
Ford released a statement calling the Kentucky shutdown “grossly irresponsible,” but “unsurprising.
“Ford has not come to the table to meet our demands, so therefore, my brothers and sisters are out here in solidarity to stand up for what they are fighting for for them and their families.”
Toledo Assembly Complex workers were among the first to stand up and strike in September, but they say their morale is high, and they’re standing behind Fain’s strategy.
“I feel like what he is doing literally throws a shuffle card out there for them, so they don’t know what’s going on or what’s going to happen or are we striking on Friday or not?” TAC striker Rosaleana Jackson said. “I agree with everything that he says. I’m standing 100% behind him on the things that he does and the things that he chooses for us.”
“If we gotta stand out in the cold, we will stand out in the cold for that because we deserve what we are worth,” Jackson said.
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