The UAW union launched simultaneous strikes at three Detroit Three factories

The automakers have offered up to 20% wage hikes, without key benefits demanded by the union.

Ford said the UAW’s latest proposals would double its U.S. labor costs and make it uncompetitive against Tesla (TSLA.O) and other nonunion rivals.

Stellantis said it had immediately gone into “contingency mode” and would take structural decisions to protect the company and its North American operations, without elaborating.

Nearly half the 12,700 striking workers are at the Stellantis plant, although management has been preparing: a parking lot of finished Jeeps is more than a mile long outside the factory.

GM said on Thursday the UAW wage and benefits proposals would cost the automaker $100 billion, but did not elaborate.

Fain has rejected the automakers’ assertions, saying the companies have spent billions on share buybacks and executive salaries.

While Biden is pouring billions in federal subsidies into expanding electric-vehicle sales, this shift could threaten combustion powertrain jobs. The UAW has not endorsed his re-election.

Biden’s likely opponent, former president Donald Trump, on Friday criticized the shift to EVs as a job-killer for the UAW.

There’s been a long-term decline in job quality over the past 40 years, which Bahn attributes to the decline in worker bargaining power. “When workers have less bargaining power, employers take advantage of that and make jobs worse,” she said.

Ultimately, as the industry shifts to electric vehicles, the union says there needs to be a just transition from current manufacturing jobs to battery-powered EVs, and workers are worried the switch to electric vehicles could cost jobs. This kind of aggressive bargaining and push to have worker’s voices heard could help labor have more of a say in that transition, labor advocates say.

Following is an excerpt from Fain’s prepared remarks describing the status of negotiations. You can view the remarks as delivered at the UAW’s Facebook and YouTube channels:

“As you know, we gave our Members Demands to the company two months ago. They wasted a whole month failing to respond. But there has been movement. In particular, we’ve made real progress at Ford. We’re not there yet, but I want you to see the direction that Ford is going, and what we think that means for our contract fight.

At Ford, Rawsonville Components and Sterling Axle employees will now be on the same wage scale as assembly workers. We have eliminated that entire wage tier. At Ford, we have officially reinstated the COLA that was suspended in 2009.

UAW family, many people said this couldn’t be done, but we just did it. We have also won, for the first time in our history, the right to strike over plant closures during the life of our agreement. I don’t have to tell you that this is an important victory in our fight to save our jobs, keep families together, and keep our communities from being gutted.

At Ford we’ve also won additional job security for our members in the event of indefinite layoff. If that happens, our members, including temporary workers, will now receive income security for up to two years, with healthcare.

We have moved Ford off of their concessionary formula to cut profit-sharing, and instead won an enhanced profit-sharing formula that would have resulted in a 13.3% increase for the average employee in payouts last year.

We have won the immediate conversion of all current temps. And all temps will have profit-sharing after 90 days service. And there are no concessions on the table.

All that represents serious movement on tiers, on COLA, on pay, and on job security. To be clear: we are NOT done at Ford. We still have serious issues to work through. But we do want to recognize that Ford is serious about reaching a deal.

At GM and Stellantis, it’s a different story.

We have won a serious victory at CCA and GMCH and have killed those two wage tiers. Those workers will now be on the same wage scale as assembly workers. Their first offer was a 0% raise for those workers. But without COLA and without strong Job Security, those gains are not protected.

Both companies are still offering a deficient COLA that is projected to provide ZERO increases over the next four years. Both companies have rejected all of our job security proposals.

Both companies have rejected our profit-sharing proposals. Both companies have rejected our proposals to convert temps.

So today, at noon Eastern time, all of the parts distribution facilities of General Motors and Stellantis will Stand Up and Strike. We will strike 38 locations across 20 states, across all 9 regions of the UAW.

At General Motors, we call on the CCAs at Pontiac, Willow Run, Ypsilanti, Davison Road, Flint, Lansing, Cincinnati, Denver, Hudson (Wisconsin), Chicago, Reno, Rancho Cucamonga, Fort Worth, Martinsburg, Jackson, Charlotte, Memphis, and Philadelphia to Stand Up and go on strike.

At Stellantis, we call on the parts distribution centers at Marysville, Centerline Packaging, Centerline Warehouse, Sherwood, Warren Parts, Quality Engineering Center, Romulus, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Denver, Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland, Atlanta, Winchester, Orlando, Dallas, New York, and Boston to Stand Up and go on strike.

The plants that are already on strike will remain on strike, Local 2250 at GM Wentzville, Local 900 at Ford Michigan Assembly, and Local 12 at Stellantis Toledo Assembly. We invite and encourage everyone who supports our cause to join us on the picket line, from our friends and families up to the President of the United States.

The way you can help is to build our movement and show the companies that the public stands with us and stands with our elected national negotiators.

As promised, we are expanding the Stand Up Strike in response to the lack of progress in bargaining with General Motors and Stellantis. We will shut down parts distribution until those two companies come to their senses and come to the table with a serious offer.”