GM CEO Mary Barra criticizes UAW strike expansion

General Motors CEO Mary Barra on Friday criticized the UAW’s decision to expand a strike against the Detroit 3, saying “it’s clear that there is no real intent to get to an agreement.”

Barra’s statement Friday followed the union’s decision earlier in the day to expand the strike to two more plants, including GM’s Lansing Delta Township assembly plant in Michigan, which builds the Chevrolet Traverse and Buick Enclave large crossovers.
 
“Since negotiations started this summer, we’ve been available to bargain 24/7 on behalf of our represented team members and our company,” Barra said in a statement. “They’ve demanded a record contract – and that’s exactly what we’ve offered for weeks now: a historic contract with record wage increases, record job security and world-class health care. It’s an offer that rewards our team members but does not put our company and their jobs at risk. Jeopardizing our future is something I will not do.”

GM on Friday also said the ongoing strike will result in the layoffs of more than 160 employees starting Monday at two stamping plants in Ohio and Indiana.

A portion of the UAW-represented work force at GM’s Parma Metal Center in Ohio and Marion Metal Center in Indiana “will have no work available” as of Monday, the automaker said in a statement. Of the affected employees, 130 work at Parma and 34 are in Marion, GM said.

“The affected team members are not expected to return until the strike has been resolved,” GM said in a statement, adding that the workers will not receive supplemental unemployment benefits.

The UAW on Friday added Lansing Delta Township and a Ford Motor Co. plant in Chicago that builds the Ford Explorer and Lincoln Aviator to the strike, which began Sept. 15. The two plants add 7,000 hourly workers to the walkout, for a total of about 25,000.
 
UAW-represented workers also are on strike at a Stellantis plant in Toledo, Ohio, a Ford plant near Detroit and a GM factory in Wentzville, Mo., as well as at 38 parts distribution centers in 20 states operated by GM and Stellantis.
 
“It is clear Shawn Fain wants to make history for himself, but it can’t be to the detriment of our represented team members and the industry,” Barra said in a statement, referring to the UAW president. “Serious bargaining happens at the table, not in public, with two parties who are willing to roll up their sleeves to get a deal done. The UAW is pitting the companies against one another, but it’s a strategy that ultimately only helps the non-union competition.”
 
She continued: “We need the UAW leadership at the bargaining table with the clear intent of reaching an agreement now. For them to do otherwise is putting our collective future at stake.”
 
In a post on X, the social media platform formerly called Twitter, the union responded to a story about Barra’s criticism by saying she “did not show up to bargaining this week” but did not dispute any of her comments.

Fain told reporters earlier Friday that workers do not enjoy being on strike and would rather be doing their jobs.
 
“We’re not out here to grab headlines. This isn’t fun to us,” Fain said at the picket line near the Lansing Delta Township plant. “We’re not out here just for the heck of it. We’re out here because GM and the three companies screwed around for over seven weeks and didn’t get into bargaining with us.”
 
He added: “We’re going to be out here as long as we have to be. We don’t want to be out here. We want to be in the plant working, making our product and taking care of our workers.”

GM said its Parma Metal Center stamps parts for vehicles built at the Wentzville, Fairfax and Delta Township factories that are offline. About 130 of a total 960 employees are affected. Marion Metal Center stamps parts for vehicles built at Wentzville, it said, and 34 of 717 employees will be affected.
 
The automaker said it has tried to move employees who work in production operations and support roles to other areas within the plants, “but the upstream production impact from the strikes has reached a point where there is now no work available for these employees.”
 
The Ohio and Indiana workers are the latest at the Detroit 3 to be laid off since the strike began two weeks ago. About 2,000 UAW-represented employees were affected when GM idled its Fairfax Assembly plant in Kansas because it couldn't get stampings made at Wentzville.
 
Stellantis said 68 employees at its Toledo Machining Plant in Perrysburg, Ohio, were temporarily laid off because the strike shut down its nearby Jeep plant. It also planned to lay off 300 employees at transmission and casting plants in Kokomo, Ind.
 
Ford laid off 600 workers in the stamping portion of its Michigan Assembly Plant that were not part of the strike by assembly workers there.