Wearing a hoodie emblazoned with the letters FIOM, the name of Italy's largest industrial union, UAW President Shawn Fain announced in a YouTube video from Detroit's Solidarity House that there would be no new stand-up strikes called for Friday Oct 13, but stated that the union had entered "a different phase" of the job action that has sent over 30,000 auto workers at Detroit's Big Three auto companies, Ford, GM, and Stellantis, to the picket lines.
"We aren't just escalating our strike on Fridays," stated Fain, "We are prepared at any time to call on more locals to stand-up and walk out."
Commenting on the UAW's Wednesday job action of walking out at Ford MoCo's massive Kentucky Truck Assembly factory in Louisville Kentucky, Fain accused Ford of gamesmanship instead of bargaining "in good faith."
"They thought they had figured the rules of the game, we changed the rules," referring to the Union's evident strategy of announcing new walkouts only on Fridays in the last 4 weeks.
Fain also touted the success of the historic job action against all three auto manufacturers by noting that despite not getting tentative agreements from any of the auto companies the union had been offered bigger wage increases in this negotiation than had been in the last 15 years.
"The problem is clear, and the money is there."
On Ford's reaction to the strike called Wednesday in Kentucky, stating no more money could be given without putting economic hardship on the company, Fain said that the Kentucky Truck Assembly makes $25 billion a year, or $48,000 a minute from producing heavy duty Ford F150 and large SUVs. " That plant, if it could stand alone, would rank in the Fortune 500."
Fain noted there would be no extension of the strike to another auto plant today.
"Tomorrow I ask every union member...head to a picket line. Celebrate with these striking members who are leading the way."