Ford, GM lay off about 500 more US workers due to strike

Ford and General Motors said around 500 more workers have been temporarily laid off due to "knock-on effects" from the ongoing strike at Detroit's "Big Three" automakers.

The two companies sent home the employees who were left without work following United Auto Workers strikes on assembly plants, Ford and GM said Monday.

The UAW launched a targeted strike on September 15 on GM, Ford and Stellantis, calling stoppages at a handful of plants, while leaving most of the union's 146,000 US hourly auto workers on the job.

On Friday, the UAW expanded the strike for the second time, ordering additional stoppages at GM and Ford plants but sparing Stellantis due to progress in the talks.

GM said the UAW's strike on Wentzville, Missouri and Lansing, Michigan plants "continues to have negative ripple effects."

The company is sending home 130 workers at Parma, Ohio and 34 in Marion, Indiana who "have no work available," a company spokesman said in an email.

Ford said it directed about 330 employees in Chicago, Illinois and Lima, Ohio not to report to work.

"Our production system is highly interconnected, which means the UAW's targeted strike strategy has knock-on effects for facilities that are not directly targeted for a work stoppage," Ford said in a statement Monday.

The two companies, along with Stellantis—which was formed by the merger of Fiat Chrysler and the French PSA Group—had previously sent home nearly 3,000 workers who were unable to perform work due to the strike.

With Monday's action, the total in this pool of workers is near 3,500.

Initially, the UAW called on some 13,000 members at the three automakers to stop work, then added another 5,600 a week later due to lack of progress in negotiations.

A further 7,000 were added the following week to bring the total to some 25,000.

© 2023 AFP