With Detroit’s carmakers and the union representing their labor force at odds over a new contract, autoworkers began targeted walkouts in mid-September and expanded them over the following weeks. The United Auto Workers’ fiery new president, Shawn Fain, argues that the automakers have had it too good at labor’s expense in recent years. In negotiations for a four-year contract with the three largest US legacy carmakers, he’s demanding pay raises and the return of benefits conceded in the years before and after the 2009 recession. He also wants to ensure good wages and benefits for workers making electric vehicles.

In the first agreement with an automaker, the UAW and Ford reached a tentative deal on Oct. 25 over a new four-year, eight-month contract. Ford agreed to a record 25% hourly wage increase with cost-of-living allowances, which would bring the total increase to roughly 33%. Top pay would be more than $40 an hour, the union said. But other contract details were unknown, including whether the new contract would cover workers at Ford’s four planned plants to make batteries for electric vehicles.