"Our Teamsters will not cross strike lines." Teamsters vow not to cross UAW picket lines if the union strikes auto companies at midnight
If, as is expected, the United Auto Workers (UAW) goes out on strike against the Detroit Three automakers at midnight tonight, they will do so with the full support of the Teamsters, which vowed not to cross any UAW picket lines.
Truck drivers who haul vehicles plan to stand with UAW members if they strike, which means not delivering vehicles for Ford Motor Co., General Motors or Stellantis-owned Jeep, Ram, Chrysler, Dodge and Fiat, reported the Courier Journal on Thursday.
“The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, including our members in the carhaul industry, stand in solidarity with the United Auto Workers to get the best contract possible from America’s biggest automakers,” stated Teamsters President Sean O’Brien in a release on the union’s website.
“You can be sure there is no division in America’s labor movement today,” O’Brien said. “And you are urged to remember that Teamsters don’t cross picket lines.”
"We are 100% supportive of UAW workers and Shawn Fain's positions," Kevin Moore, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 299, which represents 5,000 members and most freight car haulers told the Courier Journal. "Our Teamsters will not cross strike lines."
As the UAW’s contracts expire at 11:50 pm on Thursday (Detroit time), if there are no contracts negotiated, the UAW is planning “targeted walkouts at strategic locations in several states in a play to both maximize the union’s strike fund and sow chaos at the companies,” according to Bloomberg.
Dubbing it the “Stand-Up Strike,” UAW President Shawn Fain explained the strategy on a Facebook Live video Wednesday evening.
If there were no contracts in place, Fain explained, members would strike the auto companies, but would not all be walking off the job at once.
Rather, according to Fain, members at selected plants would be walking out, while others remained working and, the remaining plants’ memberships should be ready to strike on short notice.
“It is unlike anything we have ever done,” Fain explained to viewers.
