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Ford Motor Co. and General Motors will lay off multiple employees, the two companies announced Friday, saying the United Auto Workers' strike at two plants led to the layoffs.
The UAW declared a strike against the Detroit Three automakers Thursday as contract talks failed to secure new labor agreements before the current deals expired at 11:59 p.m.
UAW President Shawn Fain announced the first wave of plants the union would strike if a new labor agreement was not reached including Ford Michigan Assembly Plant (Final Assembly and Paint only) in Wayne, Stellantis Toledo Assembly Complex in Ohio and General Motors Wentzville Assembly in Missouri.
As a result, 600 employees at the Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne were temporarily laid off by Ford. Additionally, GM will likely have to lay off some 2,000 employees at its Fairfax Assembly plant in Kansas City, Kansas, which builds the Cadillac XT4 SUV and the Chevrolet Malibu sedan.
Wentzville, which builds GM’s midsize pickups and cargo vans, also does stamping work for Fairfax’s vehicles. In a memo to employees, GM said it anticipates running out of the stamping parts for Fairfax as soon as early next week, though it said parts inventory remained fluid.
“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 said in a statement. “This is due to a shortage of critical stampings supplied by Wentzville’s stamping operations to Fairfax. We are working under an expired agreement at Fairfax. Unfortunately, there are no provisions that allow for company-provided SUB-pay in this circumstance.”
Jessica Enoch, communications director for Ford, said in an email to the Free Press, “Approximately 600 employees at Michigan Assembly Plant’s body construction department and south sub-assembly area of integrated stamping were notified not to report to work Sept. 15. 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.”
Enoch said that the strike has directly impacted the facilities.
“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.”