| A story the magnitude of the United Auto Workers strike against the Big Three automakers is a lot like covering a massive storm system – you know it’s coming but you can’t know how it’s going to unfold. “Planning for something like this can be both easier and harder than just a regular breaking news item that has no forewarning,” said Shannon Murphy, the editor who oversees MLive’s statewide news coverage. “We had time to get our team in place, brainstorm story ideas, write plenty of stories in advance. But we also had a lot of ‘what ifs.’” When the contract for nearly 150,000 UAW workers nationwide expired at 11:59 p.m. Sept. 14, workers walked out of one facility each of Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, with the GM facility based in Michigan. But last week, 38 more plants went on strike, 13 of them in Michigan. All of the additional strike locations belong to GM and Stellantis. Union leaders indicated Ford was spared in the expansion because negotiations have been positive with that automaker. A lot of our news team’s preparation for the strike, when it seemed inevitable, was writing about the issues at the core of union demands – to regain benefits lost in past negotiations, close the gap between executive and blue-collar pay, and fundamentally change work conditions. For example, the union is demanding a 32-hour work week. Once the walkouts began, MLive took to the picket sites, interviewing striking workers, union leaders and other supporters about their demands and how the strike is affecting their lives. “One of the best things about MLive is our flexibility for pulling people together from various newsrooms and departments when needed,” Murphy said. “For the first walkout, we only needed our team in Detroit. When more plants walked out a week later, we had our core team ready – and had expanded – to have robust coverage in Flint, Detroit, Lansing and Ypsilanti.” Murphy and her coverage team can’t know when this strike ends. The last time the UAW struck, in 2019 against GM, the walkout lasted six weeks and cost the company an estimated $4 billion. In addition to covering the ongoing negotiations, MLive will cover breaking news developments on the ground – such as the visits this week by President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump – as well as issue stories, such as this piece by reporters Lindsay Moore and Alyssa Burr on the role of electric vehicles in negotiations. “Michigan is heavily investing in its auto future with new battery plants and competing for EV projects against the less-unionized South,” noted Moore. “The EV transition is largely fueling Michigan’s momentum toward being a tech hub as well.” Information from the closed-door negotiations is limited to daily briefings and social media posts from UAW President Shawn Fain and his lieutenants, and from statements issued by the automakers. But there is an undercurrent of commitment and solidarity from the workers on walkout, Murphy said. “A lot of UAW workers said they liked Fain’s approach and spoke about the big wage disparities between newer and veteran workers. They also talked about how they were the ones that helped the Big Three out during the recession in 2008-09, and now the auto companies need to show them the same respect.” The strike has obvious economic impacts on the workers and the automakers – furloughs and layoffs have begun at auto plants, and parts will begin to dry up for production facilities and auto service centers. But the outcome of the negotiations will have broader effects well into the future. “I think we could see a shift in the labor movement,” Murphy said. “If Fain and the UAW are successful in getting most of their demands met, it would be a big boost for unions everywhere. We’ve already seen an increase in successful union organization at places like Starbucks; this could give labor leaders the push to get even more organized.” These are some of the “what ifs” that Murphy alluded to earlier. MLive will cover those, along with all the “what is” and “what it means” as this historic strike continues. ### John Hiner is the vice president of content for MLive Media Group. If you have questions you’d like him to answer, or topics to explore, share your thoughts at [email protected]. | 