This is the best summary I could come up with:

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As the first-ever democratically elected leader of the UAW, Fain, a long-time union member himself, has taken a more confrontational approach to negotiations than his predecessors — including filming himself throwing Big Three automaker proposals in the trash.

He has repeatedly doubled down on the union’s key economic demands – including 40% pay raises he says would be in line with CEO wage increases, the restoration of pension and retiree healthcare and cost of living adjustments.

General Motors attempted to head off a strike with a down-to-the-wire offer on Thursday afternoon, a proposal CEO Mary Barra called a “compelling and unprecedented economic package.”

“It addresses what you’ve told us is most important to you, in spite of the heated rhetoric from UAW leadership,” Barra said in a statement about GM’s latest offer, which would raise wages by 20% over the length of the contract.

Ford sources told reporters on Thursday that meeting the UAW’s demands in full would completely halt new production due to much higher labor costs.

“They don’t have exceptional leverage because there’s a lot of competition,” said Harry Katz, a professor of collective bargaining at Cornell University, referring to automakers’ ability to shift production to the non-union South or abroad.

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