Union wage increases always impacted the economy. It increased the cost of goods and brought non union wages up a notch.
I worked in a union shop back in the early 70's and the union contract called for an automatic yearly increase in wages based on the cost of living index.

The union shop I worked for eventually folded up into bankruptcy about ten years after I left.

I started working there for $2.00 an hour until I was eligible to join the union. It gave the factory  time to asses your work value to the company in the event  they wanted to send you out the door.

Believe or not this isn't the first time one of the big three auto companies' union went on strike. But it is the first time all three went out together. In the past one of the big three companies was targeted to negotiate a pattern-setting agreement.

In 1978 Chrysler was the target company and to avoid a strike, Lee Iacocca gave the UAW everything they asked for. A year later Chrysler was facing bankruptcy and Iacocca was asking Congress for bailout. The contract was renegotiated with no wage increases and no cost-of-living adjustments. When that contract was up in 1983, Iacocca pleaded poverty but after the UAW signed the agreement, Lee boasted he was willing to give them a $1 an hour raise. The Canadian UAW demanded the $1 an hour in their separate contract negotiations, got it, and the American Chrysler workers got it too.

It wasn't until 1986 when the Chrysler autoworkers got back some of what they gave up and wasn't until 1994 when they finally caught up the Ford and GM. So basically, this strike is about getting back what the auto workers gave up over 10 years ago.