DETROIT — In the days before the UAW called a historic strike against the Detroit 3 last week, the result of the automakers' contract negotiations shifted from seeming unpredictable to looking unavoidable.
From the outset, the union's first-year president, Shawn Fain, had shaken up the normally confidential bargaining process — skipping the traditional handshakes, publicizing formerly closed-door proceedings and mobilizing his membership through social media broadcasts and in-person rallies.
But in public and in private, executives from the automakers suggested last week — sometimes not so subtly — that Fain didn't necessarily want to reach a deal before sending thousands of workers onto picket lines.