2023-10-24 17:08:20
The United Auto Workers union dealt its most serious blow yet against General Motors in its five-week strike when 5,000 members walked off the job at a plant in Texas.
Arlington Assembly makes GM’s highly profitable full-size SUVs: Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, GMC Yukon and Cadillac Escalade.
The targeted strike at GM’s largest plant comes just hours after the company reported its third-quarter earnings, which grew last quarter despite the strike.
“Another record quarter, another record year. As we’ve been saying for months: record profits equal record contracts. It’s time for GM workers and the entire working class to get their fair share,” said UAW President Shawn Fain.
General Motors said it achieved those gains despite losing $200 million during the first two weeks of the strike, and then an average of $200 million per week in costs during the first three weeks of this month. With Arlington on strike, those weekly losses are likely to increase by more than 50%.
GM said there was no reason to extend the strike and that the union and the company were making progress at the negotiating table.
“We are disappointed by the escalation of this unnecessary and irresponsible strike,” the company statement said. “It is hurting our team members who are sacrificing their livelihoods and having a negative ripple effect on our distributors, suppliers and the communities that depend on us. “Last week, we submitted a comprehensive offer to the UAW that augmented the already substantial and historic offers.”
GM says it has offered the UAW a record contract with a 23% pay scale increase over the life of the contract that extends through 2028, along with cost-of-living adjustments to protect workers from price increases and higher contributions to your retirement accounts.
“It’s time for us to finish this process, get our team members back to work, and get on with the job of making GM the company that will win and provide great American jobs for our people for decades to come,” said the company.
But Fain had told members last week that despite record offers from GM, as well as Ford and Stellantis, the companies could afford to offer more to members.
He said the union needed more from the companies to make up for past concessions the union gave in contracts in 2007 and 2009, when everyone was losing billions, and GM and Stellantis’s predecessor, Chrysler, were headed toward bankruptcy and bankruptcy. federal bailout.
While the extension of the strike came without warning, it is not a total surprise. The UAW had already eliminated the most profitable Ford and Stellantis plants.
Earlier this month, Fain told members the union was ready to expand the strike to the Arlington plant, and suspended those plans when the company gave in to a key union demand over work to be done at the plants. batteries for electric vehicles that have recently been opened. or are under construction.
That deal kept Arlington workers on the job for another 18 days through Tuesday. But the union said Tuesday that GM is now behind Ford’s offers on the table and needs to extend the strike to increase pressure on the company.
“GM’s latest offer does not reward UAW members for the profits they have generated,” the union statement states. “It is clear that GM can afford a record contract and do more to repair the damage caused by years of falling real wages and standards in the Big Three.”
The UAW began the strike on September 15 with a strike at an assembly plant at each company. But the union left open the option of expanding the strike, one plant at a time, as a way to increase pressure on the companies.
Tuesday’s announcement marks the fifth time the union has increased the scope of the strike.
Source: CNN
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