The ongoing strike by the United Auto Workers has cost General Motors Co. $200 million and the Detroit automaker has established a $6 billion line of credit, according to a filing Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
GM’s move came on the 20th day of the union’s unprecedented strike against it and crosstown rivals Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis NV.
GM is the only automaker yet to be spared in one of the union’s strike expansion announcements as part of its targeted plant strike strategy. Since Sept. 15, the union has initiated work stoppages at GM’s midsize truck plant in Wentzville, Missouri, all of the automaker’s parts distribution warehouses and its Lansing Delta Township plant that produces Chevrolet Traverse and Buick Enclave SUVs.
The $200 million cost to GM is as of late September. Before the strike, Ford also set up a line of credit of $4 billion to bolster its financial flexibility in case the union called for a work stoppage.
Today, 25,300 UAW members are on strike while the union battles all three companies for significant wage increases, the end to a tiered-wage structure and other demands. The union has expanded its strike against the automakers each week since it began. As of early Wednesday, it was unclear if the union would expand the strike again by the end of the week but it’s clear the companies and union remain far apart on major economic issues.
Ford workers on strike have stopped production at the Michigan Assembly Bronco and Ranger plant in Wayne and at the Chicago Assembly plant that makes the Ford Explorer and Lincoln Aviator. Ford has been spared from one of the union’s strike expansions, the one that took down all of GM’s and Stellantis’ parts warehouses.
Ford on Tuesday said it made its seventh and “strongest” offer to the union.
The automaker’s current offer includes product commitments for every UAW-represented plant in the United States, an increase in starting pay for temporary workers to $21 per hour, conversion upon ratification of all temporary workers with at least three months of continuous service and a wage increase of “more than 20%.”
It also includes the restoration of cost-of-living allowances, the elimination of wage tiers that currently have workers at components plants on different wage scales than assembly plant workers, reducing by “more than half” the time it takes workers to reach the top of the wage scale.
Stellantis last week was spared from more of its plants joining the strike since it made a new offer to the union right before UAW President Shawn Fain announced new targeted plants.
The Jeep and Ram maker made progress in talks with the union on areas including cost-of-living adjustments that had been suspended in 2009, the right not to cross a picket line, the right to strike over product commitments and plant closures, and an outsourcing moratorium.
Workers at Stellantis’ Toledo Jeep plant in Ohio and all of the automaker’s parts warehouses remain on strike.
___
© 2023 www.detroitnews.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
