Yesterday, the Detroit News got hold of some leaked messages from a group chat on X. The messages, which belonged to a close aide to UAW leader Shawn Fain, appear to spell out the union’s strategy in the current negotiations.

…a close aide to Fain writes that union negotiators are using bargaining sessions to inflict “recurring reputations damage and operational chaos” on the Detroit automakers. “(I)f we can keep them wounded for months they don’t know what to do. The beauty is we’ve laid it all out in the public and they’re still helpless to stop it.”

The explanation from Jonah Furman, one of the union’s communications directors whose messages were confirmed by The News, continues: “And creating compression points of national attention for them to do the right thing is way different than just waiting for a month for the next offer. Plus, we’re breaking pattern and they’re bargaining against each other for the first time in 70 years.

“And we can calibrate it exactly to their moves at the table. If Ford and GM won’t move, but Stellantis will, we can spare them”

Three points to note about this. First, it sounds like the UAW had no intention of resolving this quickly or negotiating in good faith. The bargaining sessions are simply a place to inflict damage and chaos. The goal seems to be to make this drag on “for months.”

Second, the goal is to play the Big Three off one another, sparing whoever caves first from further pain. More on that in a moment.

Third, did these notes really leak or is this part of the plan as well? The car companies have all announced their disappointment:

GM said in a statement that it’s “now clear that the UAW leadership has always intended to cause months-long disruption, regardless of the harm it causes to its members and their communities.”…

Ford’s chief communications officer, Mark Truby, said in a statement: “It’s disappointing, to say the least, given what is at stake for our employees, the companies and this region,”…

A Stellantis spokesperson said: “These reported comments made by the UAW communications director are incredibly disturbing and strongly indicate that the UAW’s approach to these talks is not in the best interest of the workforce. We are disappointed that it appears our employees are being used as pawns in an agenda that is not intended to meet their needs.”

Are they really surprised? I sort of doubt it. The quotes might be a bit embarrassing but the strategy they outline really wasn’t much of a secret. Jump forward to today’s deadline and what the leaks described is precisely what the UAW is announcing publicly today. Ford gave the most ground in negotiations so Ford is being given a pass as the strike expands.

UAW President Shawn Fain announced 38 new sites across the country that will be struck at noon Friday as an expansion against the union’s one-week-old action against Detroit Three automakers.

Fain said the union has made good progress with Ford Motor Co. this week, but General Motors and Stellantis “will need some pushing.”

For that reason, he said, “At noon eastern time today all parts distribution centers at GM and Stellantis will be on strike. We will be everywhere from California to Massachusetts and we will keep going and keep expanding the Stand Up Strike as necessary.”

The first week of the strike only involved three locations but that added up to around 13,000 workers. The new announcement adds 38 locations but only about 5,600 more workers. As mentioned, all of the new strike locations are parts distribution centers. So while the number of people called to strike is relatively small today, the impact on the companies could be significant. GM and Stellantis are probably going to have to shut down other sites and announce more layoffs soon simply because those sites can’t get parts.

By negotiating against all 3 companies at once, the UAW has put itself in the position of police officers who arrest three crooks and talk to each of them separately to see who will squeal first. We’ve all seen this sort of thing on television, i.e. ‘whoever talks first gets the deal.’ It’s a smart strategy and it sounds like it is working to some degree. So long as the UAW has a uniform list of demands and the car companies are negotiating separately, the union can exploit those differences.

If the Big Three were smarter, they would try to condense this into a single negotiation. Actually, I have no idea if that’s even legal but it would put them in a more even position at the bargaining table and prevent them being played against each other.

Here’s the announcement from Shawn Fain. There’s a real sense from him that they have momentum on their side and a favorable outcome is inevitable. But at this point they haven’t achieved much of anything except some agreements in theory with Ford. The strike is certainly hurting the Big Three but it’s also hurting all of the people out of work who are only getting $500 a week from a strike fund plus those being laid off. The longer this takes the more misery there will be for both sides.

Update: I noticed this in the video above but forgot to mention it. Fain has invited Joe Biden to join the UAW picket line.

Shawn Fain, the United Automobile Workers president, escalated pressure on the White House on Friday with a public invitation to President Biden to join workers on the picket lines in their growing strike against the nation’s leading automakers.

“We invite and encourage everyone who supports our cause to join us on the picket lines, from our friends and family all the way to the president of the United States,” Mr. Fain said in a speech streamed online…

The U.A.W. has broken with other major unions in so far declining to endorse Mr. Biden’s re-election bid.

I’m not sure what is holding Biden back. He has made this his brand. Walking a picket line would make him a hero on the left. People who would object are probably already not planning on voting for him. The fact that he hasn’t done it yet must mean the White House sees something in the polls that worries them. It wouldn’t play well with some constituency they are still counting on I guess. But honestly I wouldn’t be surprised to see Biden do it sometime soon.