UAW's clash with Big 3 automakers shows off a more confrontational union as strike deadline looms

The demands that a more combative United Auto Workers union has pressed on General Motors, Stellantis and Ford -- demands that even the UAW's own president calls 'audacious' -- are edging it closer to a strike when its contract ends Sept. 14.

A 46% pay raise. A 32-hour week with 40 hours of pay. A restoration of traditional pensions.

The demands that a more combative United Auto Workers union has pressed on General Motors, Stellantis and Ford -- demands that even the UAW's own president calls "audacious" -- are edging it closer to a strike when its contract ends Sept. 14.

The automakers, which are making billions in profits, have dismissed the UAW's wish list. They argue that its demands are unrealistic at a time of fierce competition from Tesla and lower-wage foreign automakers as the world shifts from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles. The wide gulf between the sides could mean a strike against one or more of the automakers, which could send already-inflated vehicle prices even higher.

A potential strike by 146,000 UAW members comes against the backdrop of increasingly emboldened U.S. unions of all kinds. The number of strikes and threatened strikes is growing, involving Hollywood actors and writers, sizable settlements with railroads and major concessions by corporate giants like UPS.

Shawn Fain, the pugnacious new leader of the UAW, has characterized the contract talks with Detroit's automakers as a form of war between billionaires and ordinary middle class workers. Last month, in an act of showmanship during a Facebook Live event, Fain condemned a contract proposal from Stellantis as "trash" -- and tossed a copy of it into a wastebasket, "where it belongs," he said.

Over the past decade, the Detroit Three have emerged as robust profit-makers. They've collectively posted net income of $164 billion over the past decade, $20 billion of it this year. The CEOs of all three major automakers earn multiple millions in annual compensation.

Speaking last month to Ford workers at a plant in Louisville, Kentucky, Fain complained about one standard for the corporate class and another for ordinary workers.