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Work has been stopped at three plants owned by General Motors (GM), Ford, and Stellantis in the United States.
It all started after labour contracts expired on Thursday night. As per the United Autoworkers Union (UAW), the firms had not put forward acceptable offers.
The fight threatens to trigger higher prices for buyers and major disruption for the motor industry giants.
The UAW’s president Shawn Fain in an interview said that it was now up to the companies to resolve the dispute. “When they start taking care of their workers it will end,” he said.
The strike started at midnight Eastern time (04:00 GMT) at GM’s Wentzville, Missouri mid-size truck plant, Ford’s Bronco plant in Michigan, and the Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio owned by Stellantis.
Other facilities will continue to operate, the UAW said but it did not rule out broadening the strikes beyond the initial three targets.
On the other hand, the White House said that President Joe Biden had spoken on the phone with Mr Fain about the negotiations but provided no further details.
The union had sought a 40% pay increase for its roughly 140,000 members over four years, noting a comparable rise in pay for company leaders.
Other demands included:
- A four-day working week
- The return of automatic pay increases tied to inflation
- Stricter limits on how long workers can be considered ‘temporary’ staff who do not receive union benefits
A 10-day strike could the three firms nearly $1bn (£800m) and workers almost $900m in lost wages, according to estimates by the Anderson Economic Group.
The last time the car industry faced a strike was in 2019, when workers at GM walked off the job for six weeks.
UAW participants are due to receive $500 in weekly strike benefits from the union, but that would still be significantly less than her wages, she said.
