IT ALL STARTED WITH A HANDSHAKE, OR at least it was supposed to. For as long as anyone can remember, contract negotiations between the United Auto Workers and Detroit’s Big Three have kicked off with a ceremonial handshake between union leaders and the CEOs of GM, Ford, and Chrysler (now Stellantis). A genial show of decorum. This past July, though, Shawn Fain, the newly elected president of the UAW, wanted to set a different tone.
Standing in front of a news camera outside a plant before a meeting with CEOs, Fain announced he was snubbing the traditional make-nice. “We don’t see a reason to shake hands,” he said before cataloging what he decried as two decades’ worth of unfair contracts, abusive treatment, and gross inequity. Leaning forward, in sharp-rimmed glasses and a buzz cut, Fain continued, growing visibly more agitated as he went on. “I hear some of the CEOs talk about ‘Our workers are like family.’ That’s nothing but a lie.”
As an opener to a parley it was, to borrow a rather less cordial than the auto executives were used to.
