UAW expands strike with 5,000 people, shutting down biggest GM plant

The United Auto Workers strike has expanded by another 5,000 people, this time at General Motors’s Arlington Assembly in Texas.

The expanded strike on Tuesday will shut down production at GM’s biggest plant, where the automakers’ most profitable vehicles, such as the Chevy Tahoe and the Chevy Suburban, are built. The stand-up strike, which is defined as an unannounced walkout, comes after GM grossed $10 billion in profits over the past nine months, with UAW claiming GM has failed to reward UAW members for the profits they have generated.

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

Paul Sancya/AP

The additional 5,000 people striking on Tuesday brings the UAW’s strike to over 45,000, with the strike occurring since Sept. 14. The strike organized by UAW is against the three biggest automakers in the Detroit area: GM, Ford, and Stellantis.

The UAW’s stand-up strikes are a new form of striking for it as they involve unannounced walkouts compared to when the UAW previously gave a deadline to allow the automakers time to make a deal. However, previous deadline warnings failed to create deals that met the UAW’s requests, with the organization opting to do surprise walkouts since Oct. 11.

Automakers are still attempting to come to an agreement with the UAW as the strike is about to turn 6 weeks old come Thursday. Last week, Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford asked the UAW to work with the company to reach a deal.

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“The UAW’s leaders have called us the enemy in these negotiations,” Ford said. “But I will never consider our employees as enemies. This should not be Ford versus the UAW. It should be Ford and the UAW versus Toyota and Honda, Tesla, and all the Chinese companies that want to enter our home.”

Last month, GM CEO Mary Barra slammed Fain for wanting to make “history for himself” at the expense of the auto industry. She also accused Fain and other UAW leaders of dragging their members into a “long, unnecessary strike to further their own personal and political agendas.”