GM Strike Risk at 12-Year High With Weekend Deadline Approaching
Union leaders from General Motors Co. factories across the country are flying into Detroit this weekend to either agree to take a proposed labor contract offered by the automaker to their members for a vote, or go on strike. For United Auto Workers union rank-and-file emboldened by a U.S. president whos criticized the company for closing plants and cutting workers, there are at least even odds for GMs first walkout in a dozen years.
Over the past four years, American consumers bought record numbers of new vehicles and GM posted best-ever profits to match. The UAW wants a greater share in the spoils and to secure work for at least one of the four U.S. plants GM marked for closure last November.
Union membership expectations are very high given how well GM has been performing, Kristen Dziczek, vice president of the industry and labor economics group at the Center for Automotive Research said. On a call with investors hosted by UBS Securities analysts this week, she said theres a greater than 50% likelihood of a strike and risk that the production halt could last several weeks.
The UAW is furious over GMs decision to idle the Chevrolet Cruze compact car plant in Lordstown, Ohio, and schedule the end of production at another factory in Hamtramck, near Detroit, for January. Two transmission plants -- one in a Detroit suburb and another near Baltimore -- have shut down. President Donald Trump has weighed in by publicly calling for GM Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra to open the Lordstown plant or sell it.
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-11/gm-strike-risk-at-12-year-high-with-weekend-deadline-approaching?srnd=premium