PONTIAC, Mich. (WXYZ) — Nearly 45,000 UAW members are now on the picket lines after the union called an additional 5,000 workers to walk off the job at GM's Arlington, Texas assembly plant Tuesday.
The Texas plant is the largest General Motors plant and its biggest money maker. The facility is where the automaker produces the Chevy Tahoe, Chevy Suburban, GMC Yukon, and the Cadillac Escalade.
The surprise move comes just 24 hours after the union called nearly 7,000 workers to strike at Stellantis’ largest plant in Sterling Heights.
"Am I surprised that Shawn Fain put one of the most productive plants out? Nope! I’m saying go for it. Hell yeah," said Judith Rice as she stood on the picket line outside of GM's customer care and aftersales plant in Pontiac. "Take it out because maybe they’ll get the lessons."
Rice says she's been working for General Motors for 10 years. She believes it will take striking at least one more Big Three plant before they get a contract they believe is fair.
"I’m disappointed in General Motors. We were on strike in 2019. They had four years to plan for this and think it through," said Rice."It’s discouraging that we have to fight this hard like this for the middle-class America."
The strike has had monumental impacts on automakers so far. Tuesday morning General Motors posted its quarter 3 numbers where they report seeing $200 M in impacts as a result of the strike. The automaker says so far in Q4, they estimate an additional $600 million in impacts.
They went on to say with every week the strike continues, they anticipate $200 million in additional impacts. However, those numbers were calculated before the union expanded the strike to another GM plant Tuesday. GM says the additional weekly costs are likely much bigger now.
General Motors released the following statement following the strike expansion:
"We are disappointed by the escalation of this unnecessary and irresponsible strike. It is harming our team members who are sacrificing their livelihoods and having negative ripple effects on our dealers, suppliers, and the communities that rely on us.
Last week, we provided a comprehensive offer to the UAW that increased the already substantial and historic offers we have made by approximately 25% in total value.
It is time for us to finish this process, get our team members back to work and get on with the business of making GM the company that will win and provide great jobs in the U.S. for our people for decades to come."
-Liz Winter
General Motors spokesperson
"GM will never get most of that money back and as bad as $200 million a week is, it might not be the big damage. The big damage might be if the car companies and the UAW are not competitive with car makers that are not UAW unionized," said Erik Gordon who is a professor at the University of Michigan.
Gordon says if automakers lose their ability to compete, it could mean the loss of tens of thousands of jobs.
"When the strike ends, its effects won’t end. What we’re likely to see is something we’ve seen before. A smaller U.S. auto industry. We’re likely to see more cars from outside the U.S., more cars made in the U.S., but not at UAW plants," said Gordon.
Workers say they're hopeful they're much closer to a deal.
"I’m hoping that next week we’re going to be voting and then we’ll be back to work so we can get these parts out to people," said Rice.
