UAW takes out GM's profit-rich Arlington, Texas, SUV plant on 40th day of strike

The United Auto Workers expanded its walkout against General Motors Co. on Tuesday, taking down the automaker's profit-rich full-size SUV plant in Arlington, Texas, and adding to mounting strike-related losses at the Detroit automaker.

Workers at GM's Arlington plant build the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, the GMC Yukon and Yukon XL and the Cadillac Escalade and Escalade-V, some of the company's most expensive vehicles.

GM on Tuesday reported its third-quarter earnings, which beat Wall Street expectations, with a net income of $3 billion on revenue of $44.1 billion. The company said the strike had cost it $200 million in the quarter that ended after September and $800 million in total so far. Prior to the Arlington walkout, GM said the strike was costing it $200 million per week.

"Another record quarter, another record year. As we've said for months: record profits  equal record contracts." UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement. "It’s time GM workers, and the whole working class, get their fair share."

The expansion adds another 5,000 UAW members to the union's unprecedented simultaneous strike against GM and its crosstown rivals Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis NV.

"We are disappointed by the escalation of this unnecessary and irresponsible strike," GM said in a statement sent by spokesperson David Barnas. "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."

The walkout happened on the 40th day of the targeted plant strike against the Detroit Three automakers — the total length of the union’s national strike against GM in 2019. It came a day after the union called out 6,800 workers at Stellantis’ most profitable plant, Sterling Heights Assembly Plant, home of the Ram 1500 pickup truck.

The union previously had threatened to have the workers at the Arlington plant walk out weeks ago, but a last-minute move by GM on Oct. 6 to include Ultium Cells LLC battery-plant workers in its master agreement resulted in the union holding off on a strike there. Ultium is GM’s joint venture with LG Energy Solution.

GM for the first time publicly acknowledged the offer on Tuesday. CEO Marry Barra during an earnings call said Ultium leadership is negotiating with the UAW to have its own agreement, but GM "did put an offer on the table that would put Ultium Cells under the scope of the master agreement."

Now, the largest plants at all three companies are on strike. At Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant, which makes the Super Duty pickups, Expedition and Lincoln Navigator, 8,700 workers went on strike on Oct. 11.

The strike began Sept. 15 at a single plant owned by each of the Detroit Three in Michigan, Ohio and Missouri. It now has expanded to around 45,000 members at eight assembly plants and 38 Stellantis and GM parts distribution centers across the country.

GM made a new offer last week that it characterized as a 25% increase in value over its previous "historic" proposal. It had upped its general wage increase to 25% compounded over the four-and-a-half-year agreement (23% not compounded) and agreed to a $21 per hour wage for temporary employees.

But it still fell behind Ford Motor Co. in other areas. GM was proposing a three-year wage progression to top pay for current employees, but four years for new hires, while Ford had dropped the timeline to three years for all. The union also said there were some tweaks still to be made around cost-of-living adjustments at GM with Ford agreeing to COLA as it was before being suspended in 2009. The union also wants workers to have the ability to strike over plant closures.

"It is time for us," the GM statement said, "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. 

Workers at GM's Wentzville, Missouri, midsize truck plant have been on strike since Sept. 15, when the union's contract expired with GM, Ford and Stellantis.

GM's parts warehouses were added to the strike target list on Sept. 22. The UAW on Sept. 29 added the Lansing Delta Assembly plant, home of the Chevrolet Traverse and Buick Enclave SUVs.

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