UAW Strike Begins as Workers Walk Out of GM’s Wentzville Plant

For now at least, the UAW has only walked out of one GM plant, and it isn’t affecting Corvette production yet.

For weeks to this point, the United Auto Workers (UAW) union and the Detroit Big 3 automakers – Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis – have been in negotiations as each side tries to hammer out a new contract. However, with new president Shawn Fain promising that the union was intent to get what it wanted, a strike always seemed to be a bit inevitable, particularly over the past couple of weeks as each side went back and forth with counterproposals that were far off. Now, the UAW is officially on strike as the 11:59pm deadline passed without a deal Thursday night.

At the moment, the UAW is utilizing its targeted strike approach, with workers from just one plant from each automaker walking out on the job. For GM, that plant is the Wentzville, Missouri facility, which produces the Chevrolet Colorado, GMC Canyon, Chevrolet Express 2500 and 3500, and the GMC Savana 2500 and 3500.

Perhaps more notably, this marks the very first time in the UAW’s 88-year history that it has walked out on all three automakers at the same time. At the moment, it’s unclear if the union plans to strike at any additional plants, but the targeted approach is one that Fain hinted at using just this week.

Now, the question becomes – how long will it take for both sides to reach an agreement? Strikes are obviously costly for both sides, with the union having to dole out pay to striking workers and automakers dealing with lost production – a problem that become even more concerning given the fact that inventory hasn’t quite recovered from years of supply chain constraints. If the strike goes on long enough, inventory could plummet and prices could rise, after they just began to fall somewhat through the first half of 2023. As for the UAW, it has $825 million in its strike fund, which would be used up in around 11 weeks if all of its 146,000 workers ultimately walked out.

The main sticking point in these discussions remains pay – the most recent counterproposal from the UAW saw the union reduce its demands from 46 percent in total compensation to 36 percent, but that’s still a substantial gap compared to GM and Ford’s latest offer of 20 percent, while Stellantis is offering 17.5 percent.

The union is also seeking the return of cost-of-living pay raises, an end to wage tiers, a 32-hour week with 40 hours of pay, the restoration of traditional pensions for new hires (who currently receive only 401k-style retirement plans), and pension increases for retirees. While automakers have largely agreed to most of these terms, the four-day workweek remains controversial, though it’s unclear – at least for now – if pay increases are indeed the biggest sticking point in these discussions.

Photos: Chevrolet, UAW

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