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Vehicles brought in for repairs are inspected at the General Motors Co. (GM) assembly plant in Arlington, Texas, USA, on Thursday, March 10, 2016.
CNN –
The United Auto Workers union suffered its worst attack yet on General Motors in its five-week strike when 5,000 members walked off their jobs at a plant in Texas. Arlington Assembly builds GM’s highly profitable full-size SUVs, the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, the GMC Yukon and the Cadillac Escalade.
The targeted strike at GM’s largest plant comes just hours after the company announced third-quarter earnings, which rose last quarter despite the strike.
“Another record quarter, another record year. As we’ve been saying for months: record profits mean 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 made those profits despite losing $200 million in the first two weeks of the strike and averaging $200 million in costs per week in the first three weeks of this month. With the Arlington strike, those weekly losses will likely increase by more than 50%.
GM said there was no reason to extend the strike and that the union and company were making progress at the negotiating table.
“We are disappointed by the escalation of this unnecessary and irresponsible strike,” the company’s statement said. “It harms our team members who sacrifice their livelihoods and negatively impacts our vendors, suppliers and the communities that rely on us.” Last week, we made a comprehensive offer to the UAW, adding to the already extensive and historic offers expanded.”
GM says it offered the UAW a record contract with a pay scale increasing 23% over the life of the contract through 2028, along with cost-of-living adjustments to protect workers from rising prices and higher contributions to their retirement accounts.
“It’s time for us to complete 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 employees for decades to come.” said the company.
But Fain told members last week that despite record offers from GM, as well as Ford and Stellantis, the companies could afford members more. He said the union needed more from the companies to make up for previous concessions the union made in contracts in 2007 and 2009, when they were all losing billions and GM and Stellantis predecessor Chrysler were headed toward bankruptcy and a federal bailout .
Although the extension of the strike came without notice, it is not a complete surprise. The UAW had already dismantled the most profitable plants at Ford and Stellantis.
Earlier this month, Fain told members that the union was prepared to expand the strike to the Arlington plant, putting those plans on hold when the company gave in to a key union demand regarding work at its recently opened electric vehicle battery plants under construction.
That agreement kept Arlington workers on the job for another 18 days, through Tuesday. But the union said Tuesday that GM is now falling short of Ford’s offers and that it needs to extend the strike to increase pressure on the company.
“GM’s latest offer fails to reward UAW members for the gains they make,” the union’s statement said. “It is clear that GM can afford a record contract and can do more to repair the damage caused by years of declining real wages and declining standards in the Big Three.”
The UAW began the strike on September 15 with strikes at one assembly plant at each company. However, the union left open the option of expanding the strike to one plant at a time to increase pressure on companies. Tuesday’s announcement marks the fifth time the union has expanded the scope of the strike.