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The impact of the strike launched by the Detroit-based United Auto Workers (UAW) against the Big Three U.S. automakers is spreading as the strike enters the sixth day.
General Motors (GM) Company is idling its Fairfax plant in Kansas, where 2,000 hourly employees work, as a result of the impact of the UAW strike at its Wentzville Assembly Plant in Missouri.
“It is unfortunate that the UAW leadership’s decision to call a strike at Wentzville Assembly has already had a negative ripple effect, with GM’s Fairfax Assembly plant in Kansas being idled today and most of its represented team members leaving the plant as there is no work available,” the Detroit News quoted GM as saying in a statement Wednesday.
The layoff is due to a shortage of stamped parts supplied by Wentzville’s stamping operations to Fairfax. Employees will not receive supplemental pay from GM while they’re laid off.
Ford Motor Company and Stellantis NV face the same problem.
Stellantis on Wednesday said it was immediately laying off 68 workers at its machining plant as a result of the UAW’s strike at its Toledo Jeep plant in Ohio. Hundreds more at the Toledo machining facility could be laid off soon if the strike does not stop.
The automaker further anticipates another estimated 300 layoffs at Kokomo Transmission and Kokomo Casting plants in Indiana, according to a statement sent by Stellantis spokesperson Jodi Tinson.
Ford already temporarily laid off the rest of the 600 workers at its Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne last Friday.
Unifor, a union representing the Big Three U.S. autoworkers in Canada, and Ford had struck a tentative agreement Tuesday night in the 24-hour extended negotiations after their previous contract expired at Monday midnight, averting a strike for the Dearborn-based automaker.
The deal between Unifor and Ford put additional pressure on the UAW’s negotiations with the Big Three U.S. automakers, which had yielded no significant breakthroughs by Wednesday.
UAW had reportedly been negotiating with all three automakers simultaneously for significantly higher pay and new benefits. Particularly, it called for protections for workers with traditional auto jobs as companies increasingly invest in EV production.
UAW President Shawn Fain insisted that the 20-percent not-compounded wage increases offered by automakers are “not enough” after what the union sacrificed during the bankruptcies of GM and Chrysler LLC, now part of Stellantis. He particularly targeted GM CEO Mary Barra, who made nearly $29 million in 2022, saying the ratio of Barra’s compensation to that of a median employee is estimated to be 362 to one.
The UAW originally requested 40 percent not-compounded or 46 percent compounded wage increases, which have dropped to 36 percent. The union also demands an end to wage tiers.
If the union does not see serious progress in negotiations with Ford Motor, Stellantis NV, and GM, it will spread the strike to more plants Friday, said Fain in a video released late Monday on YouTube.
It’s clear the Big Three U.S. automakers and the UAW are far apart in talks, the Detroit News quoted Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University. Unless the union pulls back on some of its demands, getting a deal with GM will be difficult, he said.
(With input from Xinhua)
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