WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday called for union auto workers and Detroit’s Big Three automakers to come together on a new agreement before their contracts expire next month.
“I’m asking all sides to work together to forge a fair agreement,” Biden said in a statement as talks continued between the United Auto Workers (UAW) and Ford, General Motors and Stellantis’ Chrysler unit.
“As we move forward in this transition to new technologies, the UAW deserves a contract that sustains the middle class,” Biden said in the statement released by the White House.
The union represents 150,000 U.S. hourly workers at the three automakers and has not ruled out striking at all of them if new contracts are not reached by a Sept. 14 deadline.
UAW President Shawn Fain briefed Biden last month on the negotiations and met with U.S. lawmakers as the union pushes for higher wages and benefits. He has also criticized some of the Biden administration’s electric vehicle policies, and the union so far has not endorsed Biden’s re-election bid.
Biden, a Democrat, campaigned on union support and has weighed in on labor talks in the railroad industry and other sectors.
Addressing climate change is also a key part of his agenda. “I support a fair transition to a clean-energy future,” he said on Monday.
UAW is seeking to include workers at joint-venture vehicle battery plants in its contracts.
Fain said the union appreciated Biden’s support.
“As the president said, the UAW helped build the middle class and we are fighting for contracts that will bring prosperity back to working-class communities that have been struggling for far too long,” Fain said in a statement.
GM said it will “bargain in good faith” with the union.
“We agree it is critical for all sides to work together on a fair labor contract – a contract that provides job security and supports good wages and benefits for our team members while enabling companies to compete successfully domestically and globally,” it said in a statement.
Ford said it looked “forward to working with the UAW on creative solutions during this time when our dramatically changing industry needs a skilled and competitive workforce more than ever.”
Stellantis said it “remains committed to working constructively and collaboratively with the UAW to negotiate a new agreement that balances the concerns of our 43,000 employees.”
Shares of the automakers were nearly flat on Monday.
A strike would hit earnings at each affected automaker by about $400 million to $500 million per week of production, Deutsche Bank analyst Emmanuel Rosner said in a research note on Monday.
The union’s proposals for wage increases, cost-of-living adjustments and elimination of a tiered wage system also carry costs for automakers, Rosner noted.
Deutsche Bank estimated that total incremental contract costs to the three automakers combined in the “higher probability” scenario would be $3.6 billion in the first year and total $23 billion in the four years of the contract.
(Reporting by Ben Klayman in Detroit and and Susan Heavey in Washington; Additional reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; Editing by Caitlin Webber, Matthew Lewis, Alistair Bell and Cynthia Osterman)
