How Elon Musk could win the UAW strike

The UAW ’s work stoppage offers yet another massive headache for the Big Three automakers.

A generous settlement with the U.S. auto giants could compound Detroit 's problems by widening the gap in labor costs between the auto giants and Tesla 's non-union factories.

Elon Musk has already won a number of early skirmishes with the White House , including by getting several other big automakers to adopt Tesla 's charging technology.

Ford estimates that its labor costs are already 25 percent higher than Tesla ’s, when accounting for wages and benefits.

Under the UAW proposal, that gap would grow to 67 percent , according to people at Ford who were granted anonymity to discuss internal projections.

Tesla is notoriously anti-union and has clashed with UAW in the past.