UAW Walks Out at GM Plant

Automaker is the only company struck without a new deal
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 29, 2023 3:10 PM CDT
UAW Walks Out at GM Plant
Tim Smith, UAW Region 8 director, stands outside with other workers while picketing near the General Motors plant in Spring Hill, Tenn.   (Nicole Hester/The Tennessean via AP)

General Motors and the UAW planned to resume negotiations Sunday, hours after the strike was broadened to include the automaker's Spring Hill Assembly plant in Tennessee. The union reached a tentative agreement on terms Saturday with Stellantis, and the Detroit Free Press reports that UAW President Shawn Fain planned to update members on that deal Sunday night on Facebook Live. That leaves GM the only one of the three Detroit automakers struck without a deal. Analysts said the pressure on the company just increased.

"Striking the Spring Hill facility is the knockout punch to GM," said Erik Gordon, a business professor at the University of Michigan. "GM either will concede what it has to reach a deal or will shut down production, with conceding being more likely given the car companies' pattern of concessions this year." The walkout Saturday evening adds nearly 4,000 workers to the 18,000 already striking at GM factories in Texas, Michigan, and Missouri, per the AP. GM said it was disappointed with the UAW's decision "in light of the progress we have made." In a statement, Fain criticized what he called "GM's unnecessary and irresponsible refusal to come to a fair agreement." (More UAW strike stories.)

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