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The current strike by the United Auto Workers is costing the three Detroit-based automakers millions of dollars, but General Motors would likely be the hardest hit so far.
UAW members have been on strike for more than three weeks against automaker Ford, GM and Jeep Stellantis, heavy not easy wage increases, an end to the tiered wage formula and more job security in the age of electric vehicles, among other key issues.
The UAW, led by President Shawn Fain, is adopting a new strategy as the union advances for the first time in all three corporations at the same time. It has announced three specific paint stoppages since the strike began on Sept. 15, and GM is the only company to have been attacked three times. Meanwhile, Ford and Stellantis were only attacked twice each.
GM narrowly avoided a fourth strike on Friday by belatedly offering Fain’s weekly update to members. The union president did not add new strike targets, even though he is willing to halt production at GM’s successful SUV plant in Arlington, Texas. In the face of this threat, Fain said, the UAW won a victory in union representation of long-life battery plants.
“Today, under the risk of a monetary first hit, (GM) has outperformed the rest in terms of a just transition” to electric vehicles, Fain told members in a live broadcast Friday.
The UAW’s demands “would ultimately be a torpedo for the long-term business models” of Detroit automakers, especially when it comes to electrification, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said in a recent note.
This is a risk for CEO Mary Barra’s company, which will invest a whopping $35 billion in the technologies of the future, adding electric vehicles, in the coming years.
The company has also been slow to launch a full assortment of truly affordable electric vehicles. GM recently canceled a plan to ditch the Bolt EV and EUV, long the company’s only affordable electric option. Meanwhile, rival Tesla has been cutting costs on its most popular models throughout the year in a bid to devour electric vehicle market share.
It’s also the second time in four years that GM has gone on strike. The current paint strike has already cost GM more than $200 million, and it may last much longer.
“Obviously, higher prices from hard work can have an effect on margins, but until we ratify a deal, we don’t know what it will be,” GM spokesman Jim Cain wrote in an email to Insider. to locate compensation. “
Cain also pointed out the strain that a more powerful UAW contract can put on the industry as a whole (by increasing average wages and for everyone), which can replace the competitiveness equation.