TOLEDO, Ohio - A Toledo grocery store parking lot was full of Jeeps and Fords on Tuesday morning in a show of strength by auto workers on strike from Stellantis's nearby Jeep plant.
The nearly week-old United Auto Workers strike against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis is viewed as a signal of the strength of the U.S. labor movement that has garnered national support from Americans. Ledesma was hitching a ride in a 2021 Jeep Wrangler for the journey. Her colleague Roxanne Stadtfeld, 58, of Monroe, Michigan, said she earns $19.28 an hour and supplements her income by delivering food for DoorDash.
UAW leaders say they deserve a greater percentage of company profits, while executives fear squeezed margins as a result of higher labor costs and lower-profit electric vehicles. Some 12,700 of the UAW's 150,000 total members who work at the Big Three are on strike, but more could walk off the job in coming weeks if progress is not made.