NEGOTIATIONS between the United Auto Workers (UAW) union and employers have continued over the weekend to end the historic strike against the Big Three motor manufacturers.

The talks are taking place despite threats to lay off non-striking workers at General Motors and Ford.

After the strike began on Friday, Ford told about 600 workers not to come into work and GM told some 2,000 workers at its car plant in Kansas that they are likely to be laid off because of a lack of parts due to a nearby plant being on strike.

Ford said in a statement: “Our production system is highly interconnected, which means the UAW’s targeted strike strategy will have knock-on effects for facilities that are not directly targeted for a work stoppage.”

UAW president Shawn Fein said: “Let’s be clear: if the Big Three decide to lay people off who aren’t on strike, that’s them trying to put the squeeze on our members to settle for less. 

“With their record profits, they don’t have to lay off a single employee. In fact, they could double every auto worker’s pay, not raise car prices, and still rake in billions of dollars. Their plan won’t work.” 

Mr Fein sad: “The UAW will make sure that any worker laid off in the Big Three’s latest attack will not go without an income. We’ll organise one day longer than they can, and go the distance to win economic and social justice at the Big Three.”

UAW says GM, Ford and Stellantis (formerly Chrysler), should raise the wages of workers by the same 40 per cent that the company chief executives have received over the last four years.

In the same period car workers have received 6 per cent pay raises.

The UAW president has also argued against employer claims that increasing would increase the costs of vehicles and put the Big Three at a disadvantage against foreign competitors with lower-cost workforces in the race to transition to electric vehicles.

Mr Fein said: “In the last four years, the price of vehicles went up 30 per cent. Our wages went up 6 per cent, the chief executives got 40 per cent.” 

He said: “There were billions of dollars in shareholder dividends. So our wages aren’t the problem.”

Figures such as Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson have voiced their support for the UAW.

US President Joe Biden also said on Friday that he understood “workers’ frustration” in the face of the record profits made by the manufacturers.