Dive Brief:
- Production shut down at General Motors’ Arlington Assembly Plant in Texas after 5,000 United Auto Workers members walked off the job Tuesday.
- The strike at GM’s largest and most profitable plant stopped production of the automaker’s full-size SUVs, including the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, GMC Yukon and Yukon XL, and Cadillac Escalade and Escalade XL.
- The UAW announced the work stoppage shortly after GM reported earning $3.6 billion during the third quarter of 2023 and one day after the 6,800 UAW members struck Stellantis’ Sterling Heights Assembly Plant in Michigan, which produces the popular Ram 1500 pickup.
Dive Insight:
After striking Ford’s truck plant in Kentucky, the UAW has targeted GM and Stellantis’ highly profitable pickup truck and full-size SUV plants to pressure them to improve their labor proposals.
“Another record quarter, another record year. As we’ve said for months: record profits equal record contracts,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement. “It’s time GM workers, and the whole working class, get their fair share.”
The UAW said it decided to strike the Arlington Assembly Plant because GM’s latest offer is worse than Ford’s. According to the union, it includes a two-tier wage structure, the worst 401(k) contribution offer among the Detroit Three automakers and inadequate cost-of-living adjustments.
GM disputed the UAW’s characterization of its latest offer, noting that most UAW members employed by GM would earn more than $40 per hour, or about $84,000 annually, by the end of the proposal’s term.
“The offer on the table is the most significant that GM has ever proposed to the UAW,” GM said in a statement.
More than 45,000 UAW members are striking the Detroit Three as labor negotiations between the automakers and union enter week six. Unionized autoworkers have walked off the job at eight assembly plants and 38 parts distribution centers in 22 states since the strike began Sept. 15.
GM said Tuesday the UAW strike has cost the automaker approximately $800 million to date.
