STREETSBORO, Ohio — The United Auto Workers strike is almost six weeks old, and the union expanded its strike earlier in the week after GM’s third quarter earnings report came back better than expected.

What You Need To Know

  • Stellantis workers have been on strike for 33 days now
  • Workers on strike say they think they could be on strike until 
  • The UAW has not reached an agreement with the big three automakers
 

Kelly Monegan has been a Stellantis employee for 26 years, and her boyfriend, Gavin Kunckle, joined her on the picket lines when he is not striking at his own plant in Michigan.

At this point, the two of them are not sure how long this could last.

“But even if we were to get a tentative agreement, they’re going to keep us out until it passes," Monegan said. "And if they throw out an agreement that doesn’t even address the issue of the pensions or tiers, or any of the things we’re striking on, which doesn’t seem like they’re really moving, they haven’t even met us half way yet. We’re not even to the middle."

Kunkle is among the newer strikers. Six-thousand and eight-hundred workers at his Stellantis plant went on strike Monday. Workers who have been getting just $500 dollars per week from the union for nearly five weeks said the money is running thin. 

“It’s really starting to hit a lot of my co-workers, that have small families and still have mortgages and car payments and things like that," Monegan said. 

But as the strike lingers on, the question becomes which side gains more of an advantage the longer it lasts. Juscelino Colares, a business law professor at Case Western Reserve University, said it is still too early to tell.

He said the question will be which runs dry first: the union's funds or the automakers’ inventory. From the union’s perspective, it is a matter of balancing the short-term challenges with the long-term benefits of getting a deal that they feel is fair.

“My dad hasn’t had an increase in his pension since 2007. He retired in 2003. He’s 79 years old and he had to leave his home because they couldn’t afford to live in their home anymore," Monegan said. "But yet they’re saying that they don’t want to increase the pension. They haven’t even had a cost of living increase. Nothing."

And while it is money that usually talks, it may not be the only variable for these workers who know the colder weather is not far off, which means picketing will become that much tougher.

“Really we have a lot but whatever you wanna bring by but firewood would be. Upcoming cold weather we’re gonna need firewood obviously because it’s gonna be cold,"Keith James, a strike captain at the Streetsboro Stellantis plant.