ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Nearly 4,000 United Auto Workers in Wentzville, Missouri could walk out on the job this week unless a deal is reached.
Time is of the essence as the United Auto Workers and the "Big Three" U.S. automakers in Ford, General Motors and Stellantis negotiate a new labor contract, which expires at 11:59 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 14.
Contract negotiations have been tense and a potential strike looms, one that could impact around 146,000 workers throughout the country, including 4,000 in Wentzville, Missouri alone.
UAW Local 2250 president Katie Deatheridge says they are waiting and preparing for a strike.
"It's not looking well, we'll say that," say Deatheridge, "We'll coming down to the deadline here. At a local level, we are hitting and waiting."
Among the list of demands the workers want include an immediate pay raise of 20%, followed by another four raises at 5% each. Altogether, hourly pay would increase by 46% spanning the four-year contract.
Workers are also demanding for a shift back to pensions, reinstated cost-of-living adjustments, a 32-hour workweek and elimination of compensation tiers, among other things.
Bloomberg Reporter David Welch told Total Information A.M. that even if a potentials strike lasts only a week and a half, it could cost all three motor companies billions of dollars.
"If (the workers) go out of all three companies, it would be a loss of $5.6 billion after only 10 days," said Welch, You stretch that out and obviously it will get much worst."
Welch says that the ripple effect of a strike stretches pretty far from not just the automobile industry.
"Steel and aluminum pricing, that all goes down with a strike," said Welch, "Some factories will have to cut workers off and slow production. This can have a far reaching impact."
