DETROIT (AP) 鈥� The United Auto Workers union turned up the heat on General Motors as 5,000 workers walked off their jobs Tuesday at a highly profitable SUV factory in Arlington, Texas.
The walkout comes one day after the union went on in Sterling Heights, Michigan, north of Detroit.
The additional plants further escalate a labor dispute that's in its sixth week and now has about 46,000 union workers walking picket lines. Rhetoric from both sides illustrates how far apart they remain on what each considers fair wage and benefits offers as the union and automakers hold firm to their positions.
The addition of the Arlington plant, which makes big truck-based SUVs such as the Chevrolet Tahoe, GMC Yukon and Cadillac Escalade, came just after GM announced strong third-quarter financial results. The SUVs are among GM's most profitable vehicles.
The company on Tuesday for the quarter, down 7% from a year ago. But the company reported strong demand and prices for its vehicles.
UAW President Shawn Fain noted that GM beat Wall Street expectations yet its offer lags behind Ford, preserving a two-tier wage structure and offering the weakest 401(k) contribution of all three of the automakers at 8%. 鈥淚t鈥檚 time GM workers, and the whole working class, get their fair share,鈥� Fain said.
GM CEO Mary Barra said on Tuesday's earnings conference call that the company already has made a record offer and won鈥檛 agree to a contract that jeopardizes the company鈥檚 future.
Barra said GM鈥檚 record offer rewards employees but doesn鈥檛 put the company or UAW jobs at risk. 鈥淎ccepting unsustainably high costs would put our future and GM team member jobs at risk, and jeopardizing our future is something I will not do,鈥� she said in a statement.
On the picket line in Texas, Ethan Pierce, a material handler with more than 23 years at GM, said workers sacrificed, making concessions to help save GM when it was in dire financial trouble around the 2008 U.S. financial crisis. 鈥淲e started asking for some of our stuff back. They didn't want to give it to us,鈥� Pierce said.
Now, with inflation driving up prices, workers are struggling, he said. Among the sticking points is GM's refusal to let workers go on strike over plans to close factories, Pierce said. 鈥淚f you're being treated unfairly, sooner or later you have to stand up,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hen we get treated better, everybody else gets treated better.鈥�
GM said that it's disappointed in the escalation at Arlington strike, calling the strike 鈥渦nnecessary and irresponsible.鈥� The strike is harming employees and will have 鈥渘egative ripple effects on our dealers, suppliers, and the communities that rely on us.鈥�
Automakers have and blamed walkouts for the job cuts. And shares of General Motors Co. are down more than 14% this year, touching lows Tuesday that haven't been seen since 2020 during the pandemic, when the company's sales growth tumbled almost 11%.
Last week GM made an offer that increased its previous one by about 25% in total value, the company said.
In a note to shareholders Tuesday, Barra said GM has made a record offer to the union that will raise top factory pay to or roughly $84,000 per year in four years.
The company also said the strike is expected to cut pretax earnings by $800 million this year, and another $200 million per week after that. And those estimates were made prior to the Arlington strike, GM said.
Thomas Kochan, a professor of work and employment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the escalation means the negotiations are at a pivotal point.
鈥淭he pressures for reaching an agreement that everybody can live with are immense on both the company and the union,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he effects of an expanded strike across the three companies and prolonged over time would be profound, and would have very serious negative effects on the companies and on the workforce.鈥�
The companies, he said, are close to the limits on their offers and the union is close to what it legitimately can expect to get.
鈥淭here comes a time where the parties have to have very private conversations in negotiations,鈥� Kochan said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 time for the public rhetoric to stop.鈥�
He said both sides have to test whether an agreement is possible. 鈥淭hey are professional negotiators and should be able to find the point where both parties can live with a new agreement.鈥�
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AP Chief Photographer for Texas Julio Cortez contributed to this report from Arlington, Texas.
Tom Krisher, The Associated Press
