The United Auto Workers has launched a historic strike against the Big Three U.S. automakers. At midnight, about 12,700 workers committed to a work stoppage at three locations: a GM factory in Missouri, a Stellantis complex in Ohio and a Ford assembly plant near Detroit, Michigan. The union says up to 146,000 workers could ultimately join the strike unless auto executives end a two-tier system for wages and benefits and agree to improve pensions and working hours. Joining the picket lines was Michigan Congressmember Rashida Tlaib, whose father was a longtime assembly line worker at Ford and a UAW member.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib: “Now we got tiers. We don’t got cost of living adjustment, which has been part of every UAW contract since 1948 until 2009, when they said, 'Look, we'll sacrifice. We’ll take a hit so we can keep you all afloat.’ Now that they need help to stay afloat, the Big Three is literally turning their backs on them. They’re making record profits. It’s about time to reward the very people for the reason they were even able to, again, survive, again, the Great Recession.”