Striking UAW Workers Are Losing the Race Against Inflation
Past wage increases have failed to keep up with surging cost-of-living expenses
UAW members and supporters on a picket line outside the Ford Motor Co. Chicago Assembly Plant in Chicago on Sept. 30.
Photographer: Taylor Glascock/BloombergWith the United Auto Workers strike entering its sixth week, the ongoing dispute has underscored a widening disparity between stagnant wages and ballooning living costs such as housing, college tuition, and basic necessities like food and gas.
Under the most recent contract, a newly hired full-time production employee at Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co., and Stellantis NV earns an hourly wage of about $18 — rising to a top rate of around $32 in as little as four years on the job. Adjusted for inflation, these hourly wages are lower than in previous decades, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of wage and inflation data.