General Motors has laid off more employees as a result of the United Auto Workers union’s strike, bringing the company’s total tally of workers furloughed in connection with the work stoppage above 2,100.
The UAW is waging a simultaneous yet limited strike against all Detroit’s Big Three automakers, but GM is the only company that has not been spared so far in the union’s incremental strike escalations.
The union’s strike began on Sept. 15, starting with a Ford plant in Michigan, a GM plant in Wentzville, Missouri, and a Stellantis plant in Ohio. Then on Sept. 22, the UAW targeted 38 parts distribution facilities for GM and Stellantis. In the third round on Friday, workers at GM’s assembly plant in Lansing, Michigan, and Ford’s assembly plant in Chicago walked off the job.
Hours later, GM said it would be forced to furlough 130 workers at its Parma, Ohio, metal center and 34 from its Marion, Indiana, metal center.
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“The UAW leadership’s decision to call a strike at GM Wentzville Assembly, and now GM Lansing Delta Township Assembly, continues to have negative ripple effects,” the company said in a statement. “Beginning Monday, October 2nd, a portion of GM’s Parma Metal Center and Marion Metal Center represented workforce will have no work available. The affected team members are not expected to return until the strike has been resolved.”
“We have said repeatedly that nobody wins in a strike, and this is yet another demonstration of that fact,” the statement continued. “We will continue to bargain in good faith with the union to reach an agreement as quickly as possible.”
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GM previously laid off around 2,000 workers following the first strike round, saying the strike at its Wentzville facility had forced it to shut down its Fairfax, Kansas, plant due to a parts shortage.
Last month, Stellantis laid off roughly 370 workers as a result of the strike, and Ford temporarily furloughed 600, according to Forbes.
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Ford executives warned Friday in a media briefing that a prolonged work stoppage at its assembly plants would not only hurt the company, but could lead to as many as 500,000 workers at suppliers being laid off.
Reuters contributed to this report.