UAW strikes at General Motors plant in Texas as union goes after automakers' cash cows
First it was Ford, then Stellantis, and now a General Motors factory has been added to the growing list of highly profitable plants where the United Auto Workers union is on strike
DETROIT — First it was Ford, then Stellantis, and now a General Motors factory has been added to the growing list of highly profitable plants where the United Auto Workers union is on strike.
On Tuesday, about 5,000 workers walked out at GM's factory in Arlington, Texas, that makes big, high margin SUVs such as the Chevrolet Tahoe and Cadillac Escalade.
The strikes in Texas, as well as at the largest Ford factory in the world in Louisville, Kentucky, and a Stellantis plant that makes lucrative Ram pickups in Michigan, are aimed at getting the companies to capitulate to union demands for richer wages and benefits than the automakers so far have offered.
But judging from statements out of Detroit, the companies are at or near the limit on how much they're willing to budge to end a series of targeted strikes now involving 46,000 workers that began on Sept. 15. About 32% of the union's 146,000 members at the companies are on strike, and the automakers are laying off workers at other plants as parts shortages cascade through their systems.
In announcing the Arlington strike, UAW President Shawn Fain noted that GM posted big earnings on Tuesday, yet its offer to the union lags behind Ford, preserving a two-tier wage structure and offering the weakest 401(k) contribution of all three automakers.
“It’s time GM workers, and the whole working class, get their fair share,” Fain said.
But GM CEO Mary Barra told investors on the company's earnings conference call that the automaker already has made a record offer and won’t sign a contract that jeopardizes
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