General Motors Plant to Idle Due to UAW Strike

General Motors (GM) has announced that its Fairfax Assembly plant in Kansas will idle production early next week as a result of a shortage of stampings made at the Wentzville Assembly plant in Missouri, which went on strike on Friday.

Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant Impacted by Strike

Ford Motor Co. has informed about 600 workers at its Michigan Assembly plant near Detroit not to come to work on Friday due to the impact of the UAW strike. The affected employees include those in the body construction department and south sub-assembly area of the integrated stamping operation.

Interconnected Production System Affects Other Facilities

A spokesperson from Ford stated, “Our production system is highly interconnected, which means the UAW’s targeted strike strategy will have knock-on effects for facilities that are not directly targeted for a work stoppage. In this case, the strike at Michigan Assembly Plant’s final assembly and paint departments has directly impacted the operations in other parts of the facility.”

The statement further clarified, “This is not a lockout. This layoff is a consequence of the strike at Michigan Assembly Plant’s final assembly and paint departments because the components built by these 600 employees use materials that must be e-coated for protection. E-coating is completed in the paint department, which is on strike.”

GM’s Fairfax Plant at Risk of Parts Shortage

GM has alerted its employees that the Fairfax assembly operation, responsible for manufacturing the Cadillac XT4 compact crossover and Chevrolet Malibu midsize sedan, could face a shortage of parts as early as next week.

“It is unfortunate that the UAW leadership’s decision to call a strike at Wentzville Assembly has already had a negative ripple effect, with GM’s Fairfax Assembly plant in Kansas and its 2,000 team members expected to be idled as soon as early next week,” GM expressed in a statement.

GM added, “We are working under an expired agreement at Fairfax. Unfortunately, there are no provisions that allow for company-provided SUB-pay in this circumstance. We have said repeatedly that nobody wins in a strike, and that effects go well beyond our employees on the plant floor and negatively impact our customers, suppliers, and the communities where we do business. What happened to our Fairfax team members is a clear and immediate demonstration of that fact.”

Efforts to reach the UAW for comment on Friday were unsuccessful.