As negotiations begin this month between American automakers and the United Auto Workers on a critical four-year labor agreement, cool heads and open minds must prevail.

Far too much is at stake for Detroit’s big three auto giants — General Motors, Ford and Stellantis — for the 150,000 UAW members who work for them and for communities like ours to risk fruitless talks, or, worse, a crippling nationwide strike in September. Pompous grandstanding, militant threats and counterproductive posturing should have no seats at the bargaining table.

Unfortunately, talks with General Motors began on a sour note last week when UAW President Shawn Fain abandoned decades of tradition by refusing to begin negotiations with a simple symbolic handshake with a GM official as a sign of harmony that both sides will engage in fair and objective gives and takes.

“I’ll shake hands with the CEOs when they come to the table with a deal that reflects the needs of the workers who make this industry run,” he said defiantly. What’s more, he already has vowed that UAW members will strike when their current contract expires in mid-September if their demands are not met.

Such militancy is a vast departure from UAW leadership’s more cooperative demeanor with management at the last several sets of four-year contract talks. It also sets the stage for contentious and unproductive negotiations this time around.

We hope, therefore, that as talks progress, Fain and other union leaders at the table will tone down their harsh rhetoric and tune up their collective collaboration.

All of which is not to say that the UAW does not have legitimate concerns and issues that deserve discussion and resolution at the bargaining table. After all, the auto industry finds itself in a period of unprecedented and costly retooling, most notably in its ever-accelerating transformation from gasoline-powered vehicles to electric-charged vehicles. That impact on workers is immense.

Simply stated, it means more legacy plants are closing, costly EV and EV battery plants are opening, and far fewer workers are needed to assemble products. Ford Motor Co. estimates labor reduction at 30 percent.

It’s therefore easy to see why job security tops the list of issues UAW seeks to resolve over the next two months.

The future for workers at EV and battery plants — such as Foxconn and Ultium Cells in the Valley — rises as another paramount issue that will generate much discussion and debate at the talks.

Fain already has cited the Lordstown Ultium plant — a joint venture between GM and LG Energy Solution — as a poster child for worker mistreatment from greedy corporate meanies. He called the $16.50 per hour starting rate “poverty wages” and accused the sprawling 2-year-old plant as having “horrifying health and safety conditions.”

Meanwhile, industry executives have taken a far less bellicose posture. For its part, Ford Motor Co. said in a statement: “We look forward to working with the UAW on creative solutions during this time when our dramatically changing industry needs a skilled and competitive workforce more than ever.”

Similarly, Ultium Cells has said it is “committed to the collective bargaining process and will work in good faith with the UAW.”

That’s the attitude that should frame negotiations moving forward. After all, failure to produce a fair and equitable contract for both sides almost assuredly would launch a massive nationwide strike, much larger than the six-week strike by 50,000 GM workers in 2019 when contract talks dissolved. That strike ended when UAW members agreed to wage growth for members and permanent closing of three plants, including the GM Lordstown Assembly Plant, for the company. GM said that strike cost it $3 billion.

Today, GM says it must cut $2 billion from its operating costs over the next two years to remain competitive in the growing electric market.

From a more parochial perspective, our Valley already has been through its fair share of ups and downs in its burgeoning reputation as “Voltage Valley.” With production and momentum building at Ultium Cells, Foxconn and their suppliers, labor turmoil this fall could torpedo growth and put a significant dent in our slowly recovering local economy.

Balancing the needs of GM and other domestic automakers against the wish list of the UAW will be no easy feat, to be sure. That’s why both sides must plow through negotiations with a will to succeed and a vow that failure must not be an option.