The United Auto Workers could expand their strike on Friday if Ford, General Motors and Stellantis don’t improve upon their offers, UAW president Shawn Fain said late Monday in a Facebook video.

Almost 13,000 UAW workers walked out at a GM assembly facility in Wentzville, Mo.; a Ford assembly plant in Wayne, Mich.; and a Stellantis factory in Toledo, Ohio last Friday after its four-year-old contract expired.

What You Need To Know

  • UAW President Shawn Fain said in a video the union could expand its strike Friday

  • He is calling on the Big Three Detroit automakers to improve upon their offers

  • Almost 13,000 workers began striking at three factories owned by Ford, General Motors and Stellantis on September 15

  • The strike could expand at Noon ET on Friday, Sept. 22

“We’ve been available 24/7 to bargain a deal that recognizes our members’ sacrifices and contributions to these record profits,” Fain said in the video. “Still the Big Three Failed to get down to business.”

In July, Fain presented each of the car companies with a list of ten demands, including a 40% wage increase, cost-of-living adjustments, defined pension benefits for all workers, the right to strike over plant closures and more paid time off to be with families.

Ford and General Motors have offered a 20% wage increase. Stellantis has offered 21%. The UAW has rejected their offers. Fain met with Ford, General Motors and Stellantis again over the weekend and on Monday, but no deal was reached.

As part of the union’s stand up strike strategy to “keep hitting the company where we need to, when we need to,” Fain has asked the UAW’s 150,000 members to be ready to strike if called to do so. Fain said a strike expansion could begin at Noon Eastern Time Friday if the companies “have not made substantial progress toward a fair agreement.”

Fain also appeared to pan former President Donald Trump's planned visit to Detroit next week to meet with striking auto workers instead of attending a planned Republican presidential debate.

“Every fiber of our union is being poured into fighting the billionaire class and an economy that enriches people like Donald Trump at the expense of workers," Fain said in a statement to multiple news outlets after the visit was announced. "We can’t keep electing billionaires and millionaires that don’t have any understanding what it is like to live paycheck to paycheck and struggle to get by and expecting them to solve the problems of the working class.”