Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is talking with the United Auto Workers and her state’s biggest automakers in an effort to stave off a strike, which is where she worries the negotiations over a new labor contract are headed.
“Any casual observer would recognize that there’s reason to be concerned about where it’s headed,” Whitmer said in an interview Thursday in Tokyo. Her trip is designed to promote commercial ties with Japan and visit companies important in the auto industry, including Toyota Motor Corp. and its two biggest suppliers, Denso and Aisin.
Whitmer said the union and Detroit’s legacy automakers — Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Stellantis NV — should be able to forge a deal ahead of a Sept. 14 deadline that allows the companies to stay profitable while also boosting hourly employees’ pay.
“I’m talking with the leadership of the Big Three as well as the leadership of the UAW, hoping that they stay at the table and come up with an agreement that supports workers and averts a strike,” she said, noting it was “unclear” what more the state could do.
A strike by the 146,000 hourly workers at GM, Ford and Stellantis would cause an economic loss of more than $5 billion after just 10 days, according to a study by Anderson Economic Group, a Michigan-based consulting firm. That would fall heaviest on Michigan, which is highly dependent on the auto industry and related businesses for investment and jobs.
The union is demanding, among other things, a 46% pay raise across the board, as well as a 32-hour work week with 40 hours of pay. The carmakers say that would cost each of them more than $80 billion over four years and wipe out profits.
GM on Thursday provided a counteroffer to the UAW that includes a 10% wage increase for most employees. Ford last week proposed a 9% wage increase over four years.