These GM Plants Are Potential Bottleneck Strike Targets
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As negotiations between the United Auto Workers union or UAW and the Big Three automakers – GM, Stellantis, Ford – move into the final week before the September 14th deadline, several important GM facilities could be targeted in a bottleneck strike.
Using a bottleneck strike against GM and the other companies, Automotive News reports, could put intense pressure on the automakers while helping conserve the UAW’s $825 million strike fund.
In a bottleneck strike, only key factories where high-value components are produced would be targeted, rather than a general strike by all of the UAW’s approximately 150,000 members among Big Three employees. By targeting plants that produce components for the most profitable models of GM, Ford, and Stellantis, the strike would have a disproportionate impact on the Big Three.
Meanwhile, fewer workers would be on strike and receiving the $500 weekly strike pay provided by the UAW. By conserving strike pay funds, the plan for a simultaneous strike against all three companies would be more viable and the strike could be sustained for a longer period of time. The strike would have a downstream effect as other plants were idled with essential components unavailable.
Automotive News identifies Romulus Powertrain plant in Michigan as one potentially juicy target. Romulus produces the GM 10-speed automatic transmission, which provides cog swaps in a number of The General’s top nameplates, including the Chevy Silverado, the Chevy Tahoe, the GMC Sierra, the GMC Yukon and the Cadillac Escalade. It also produces V6 engines used to motivate the Chevy Blazer, Chevy Camaro, and several Cadillac crossover models.
Another target might be the GM Toledo Powertrain plant in Ohio, which produces a variety of transmissions and recently received a $760 million investment to tool up for production of EV drive units for several GM Ultium-based trucks, including the Chevy Silverado EV, GMC Sierra EV, and GMC Hummer EV.
The third possible GM facility that might be targeted with a bottleneck strike is Marion Metal Center, a metal stamping operations in Marion, Indiana producing steel and aluminum parts for the Buick, Cadillac, Chevy, and GMC brands.
The possibility of a bottleneck strike at GM and other automakers remains speculative at this point, with the UAW providing no details of its strike strategy. Recent remarks by the aggressive new UAW president Shawn Fain potentially hint at a more selective application of pressure than a simple general strike.
Fain used a recent Facebook livestream to assure UAW members “we have a plan.” He went on to say that “come September 14th, if these companies don’t deliver, they’re going to see that plan unfold.”
Notably, however, a bottleneck strike might be open to legal challenges from the Big Three. Union locals are only allowed to strike over local issues, not overall issues affecting the whole union. GM and the other automakers could potentially have the strike declared illegal if they could prove this rule applied to the attempted bottleneck labor stoppage.
Meanwhile, a former GM executive says meeting all of the UAW’s demands – including a 46 percent pay raise and a 32-hour work week – would bankrupt the Big Three. Top GM executives also recently revealed the UAW has presented a list of nearly 1,000 demands during the current contract negotiations.
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Retirees use to get $500 Christmas bonus and COLA. That’s long gone! No one currently working does not care until they retire then say, “Oh, we should have added raises for retirees in contract!”
– I’m UAW 1853 Retiree
You don’t work anymore and you want a a raise and Christmas Bonus? Bonus for what exactly? While you’re at it, how about 16-18 paid holidays and vacation time too? C’mon man…
You can’t be serious your opinion is the same as management view your concerns, you got to profitability on the back of retirees, something was taken from them just like the concessions your talking about!
Get back to us when the CURRENT workers get a pension, cola, no tiers and a better payrate.
We have zero pension at gmch Lockport. At least you have something. Be thankful.
It’s like negotiating with terrorists. No wonder so much manufacturing gets done in other countries.
They should get paid what they are worth, but the mindset of striking where it hurts the company the worst to get what you want is brutal.
I worked for a company where they did a partial strike, and the company decided to lock everyone out until negotiations were done. If the company was going to suffer, so was every employee until the contract was signed.
Negotiations happened faster after that. If the company is going to lose money, so are the employees. Seemed fair actually.
I don’t like working for unions, but some industries don’t give the option. I personally have never seen a high enough raise to pay for the missing paychecks of being on strike.
I can’t imagine still being anti-union in 2023 considering how bad things are in the job market these days.
As unions have died off in this country, wages have not kept up with inflation and manufacturing continues to move overseas and turn to full automation. It’s flies in the face of the idea that unions are job killers.
The “unions are the root of all evil” mindset is the most successful anti-worker propaganda of the past 40+ years.
That’s cute you think lack of unions is what is keeping wages down, instead of lack of competition.
(Don’t get me wrong, I’m not on GM’s side in this, they need to pay more in this economy)
There are industries that have a union monopoly (such as Canadian healthcare and education systems) that also haven’t kept up with inflation.
When the only thing driving up wages is the unions “negotiation tactic” and not other companies that could pay more, the union doesn’t have much leverage to bargain…and workers don’t have options to leave for a better company cause they are all basically the same.
There is a constant battle between union and non union for workers and that drives up wages.
Just my observation.
And what about the big salaries of the Union exec, what do they do for employees, how do some of the imported brands continue to assemble and manufacture in NA without unions.
I say to the unions if you have such a good message to sell, why are there auto factories out there without a union.
Because the anti-union foreign car companies boost their pay and benefits to be competitive with unionized auto companies in order to fend off union organizing attempts by the UAW and other unions ar those non union plants. Individuals at those non union plants should be thanking the UAW for raising their standard of living and wages without ever shelling out a penny to receive it.
Makes you wonder..If that is why union leaders negotiate for big “bonuses”? The union gets an extra cut on every one. But a fixed amount on labor rates.
Why do you think there are few cities with more than one car factory. Keeps employees from moving en masse!
What do you think higher demanded wages, such as the demands that the UAW is pushing, will do to companies? They will find ways to automate processes to eliminate payroll costs and they will consider moving operations to cheaper countries like Mexico and SE Asia. Why do you think GM has moved assembly operations to Mexico, S Korea, and China? There was a movement to give fast food workers $15 per hour…so some of the fast food restaurants around me started putting in automated kiosks to take orders and then reduce the size of the staff. Kiosks and robots do not ask for 46% pay increases, do not need healthcare, do not ask for reductions to 32 hour workweeks, and retirement pensions. There will come a time where labor costs will make products unaffordable and cause companies to go bankrupt. The UAW is accelerating the inevitable.
Labor costs are 3-5% of the cost of the vehicle….the big 3 has made $250 Trillion $$ since the bailouts!!!
Incorrect. That’s final assembly only. Total labor costs reflect 15-20% of the vehicle once you consider labor and transportation of sub assembly’s. Engines don’t just frown on trees after all. Production margins are thinner than you think. Your also forgetting the power bill, raw material costs and maintenance before getting into corporate jobs. Remember Ford’s been in the red the last 2 years, and GM is only able to pocket less than 5% of total revenues last year.
Quarter of a Trillion is $250 Billion dude. 😂
Maybe you like earning less and would rather toil at a Kia plant for $20 bucks an hour. I guess you relate to shareholders instead of other workers.
Unions built booming great America 1950-70 & shareholders weren’t the only consideration. Taxes out of Republicans back then would make Bernie blush yet GM still was the global top brand. MAGA people make me laugh because you can’t have ‘greatness’ until returning to post war policy.
I don’t like politics that unions bring into the workplace, much like you calling out “MAGA people” in a post about a company fighting a union.
I choose a slightly lower wage to have options, choice and better work atmosphere. Smaller non union companies where the employer cares about the staff instead of constantly fighting the greed of the union.
And modern OSHA rules have taken the safety argument away from the union advantage.
I actually like the unions because they make us look like good value 😉
Wow. Most people in my county would love to make 20$/hr. Count your blessings UAW. They might not be long for this world.
Regardless of the outcome from this negotiation, the damage is done. No sensible long-term investor is going to back GM or other unionised automakers. The unions drove the companies to ground and they again will. The real bailout was of the unions who should have lost all pension claims etc. The shareholders actually lost everything.
And what about the big salaries of the Union exec, what do they do for employees, how do some of the imported brands continue to assemble and manufacture in NA without unions.
I say to the unions if you have such a good message to sell, why are there auto factories out there without a union.
Hold that Line
The Big 3 Autoworker has bailed them out since 2009. Time for the real Workers of the Big 3 piece of the PIE. No more Garbage Contracts!!!
I’ve never been a union worker but did work beside union workers. Also made more than the union worker who had to pay union dues who had overpaid union management! Unions had a positive impact on safety and benefits years ago but have gone too far with their demands today and in my opinion hurt the workers! Tomg
Sounds more like extortion.
I’ve been retired for 20 years and GM has never increased My retirement and union has never fought for us for the GM retirees.
Unfortunately many pensions don’t go up with inflation. I think that’s why there are so many elderly greeters at walmart where I live. (I know it is with some I’ve talked to them)
From my experience with unions is that they fight mostly for their own management salaries first, but use the employees as the bargaining tool. It’s frustrating.
Good example of what I mean is Canadian health care. If the government cuts their budget, they lay off nurses. ( and loudly say the govnt fired all the nurses, not their own union deciding to get rid of them so management keep their high salaries)
They have never EVER gotten rid of management. Usually when they hire those same nurses back, they hire more management to go along with the “new hires”
In GM’s case, both the union and GM are not acting in good faith from what I see.
(Also, didn’t that union have major corruption issues recently? Shouldn’t that affect their negotiations?)
They had how many years to plan for retirement?
Hard to plan for cost of living quadrupling from when they retired to now. Cost of living in Canada is brutal right now. In the last 10 years or so, utilities and food have doubled, and rent has more than tripled. That makes fixed income retirees hard pressed to make it.
I’m not saying I want to pay more for a truck so their pension gets better, but at the same time I understand their concerns.
(also simply blaming them for not planning their retirement without looking at factors such as catastrophic inflation is a little ignorant. There are people still working struggling to make payments even though they were living within their means 5 years ago.)
About the bottleneck strategy. Anyone remember Delco’s Needmore Rd. plant in Dayton, or Flint Pressed Metal in the mid 1990s? Shut GM down with Local strikes. Didn’t happen right away, but they are not a bottle neck anymore. And where did the work go? Not across the road.
Short term strategy is politically popular and an easy sell. Very little review of past success and failure.
GM Retirees I heard $500.00