CHICAGO (XINHUA) – The Big Three US automakers have laid off more than 6,580 workers as the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike enters the 35th day.
General Motors Co (GM) said Thursday it laid off an additional 13 employees at its Marion Metal Centre in Indiana, bringing GM’s total number of workers laid off to 2,320 as a result of the UAW strike against the Big Three, according to local media.
So far, Ford Motor Co has laid off more than 2,730 workers in total, and Stellantis NV has 1,530 employees on temporary layoff.
The UAW met with GM and Stellantis negotiators Thursday to discuss the offers.
UAW President Shawn Fain is scheduled to speak during a Facebook Live event at 4pm local time (2000 GMT) on Friday. The union has used this event to announce strike expansions in the past four weeks of strike.
The union announced strikes at three select factories of Ford, General Motors Co, and Stellantis NV on September 14, after its contract with the Big Three expired.
It spread the strike to 38 GM and Stellantis parts distribution centres around the country on September 22, following a failure to make meaningful progress in new contract negotiations, and further to GM and Ford SUV assembly plants on September 29, and then to Ford’s highly profitable truck plant in Kentucky last Wednesday in the latest move.
To date, about 34,000 out of some 146,000 Big Three US automakers represented by the UAW are on strike across the country. With nearly 4,000 Mack Trucks workers going on strike on October 9, the total number of UAW members on strike now exceeds 38,000.
