By David Shepardson and Joseph White
WASHINGTON/DETROIT -The United Auto Workers (UAW) union went on strike at Chrysler-parent Stellantis's largest assembly plant on Monday, hitting the automaker's profitable RAM 1500 pickup truck production in a major expansion of the more than month-old strike.
The UAW, which is striking the three big Detroit automakers, blamed the latest walkout by 6,800 workers at the Michigan plant on Stellantis having the "worst proposal" on the table on wage increases, temporary worker pay and conversion to full time status as well as cost-of-living adjustments.
More than 40,000 union members working at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis are now on strike since the walkouts began on Sept. 15 - about 27% of the automakers' total workforce - part of an unusual campaign of simultaneous strikes against the Detroit Three automakers.
Stellantis officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
The union has demanded a 40% wage hike, including a 20% immediate increase, improvements in benefits, as well as covering EV battery plant workers under union agreements.
The UAW's move against Sterling Heights is similar to its recent walkout from Ford's Kentucky Truck assembly plant, its most profitable single operation globally.
"Expanding it to the pickup trucks is really at the heart of what these companies produce," said Tim Ghriskey, a senior investment strategist at Ingalls & Snyder, which has owned auto stocks in the past.
"Labor is asking for so much. It's really hard for the automakers to roll over to all of it and if they do roll over, it will punish the stock. It's a very sticky situation."
The UAW and the automakers are also bargaining over future wages and unionization policies for electric vehicle battery plants planned by joint ventures of the automakers and their South Korean battery partners.
Those talks are complicated, because the ventures are separate companies and the automakers do not have to cover them under their master UAW contracts under U.S. labor law.
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain met workers at the plant as they left, shaking hands and handing out picket signs, according to a union post on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.
Fain on Friday warned of more walkouts at U.S. truck and SUV factories unless the automakers improved wage and benefit offers, insisting companies could afford more than the record packages on the table.
He said the Detroit Three had converged on a 23% wage hike offer and made progress on other issues but told UAW members "there is more to be won". GM and Ford say additional cost-of-living increases already take their total compensation offers to a hike of over 30%.
Fain has acknowledged some UAW members want to vote on the offers in hand but last week urged them not to give in to "fear, uncertainty, doubt and division" that he said were sowed by the companies.
Fain also told UAW members the talks were nearing an end.
"That's the hardest part of a strike," he said. "Right before a deal is when there's the most aggressive push for that last mile. "
Arthur Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University, said the latest move by UAW was good news suggesting a deal could be close and that among the automakers Stellantis was the tougher one to close out a deal with.
"It's good news they did not say, 'We're not even close. We're going to strike GM and Ford,'" Wheaton said.
Bill Ford, company chair and great-grandson of founder Henry Ford, has warned the strike was taking a toll on the automaker and the U.S. economy. After five week of strikes, the economic losses for the auto industry had crossed $9.3 billion, Anderson Economic Group LLC estimated on Monday.
Stellantis shares were up 1.5% in Milan trading. Ford was down about 1% in New York while General Motors dropped 0.2%.
(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington, Joe White and Ben Klayman in Detroit and Abhijith Ganapavaram in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Deepa Babington)
