The United Auto Workers Have Officially Escalated Their Strike
The UAW strike just got bigger. The union announced this afternoon that workers at 38 GM and Stellantis locations would join the walkout — and the pressure tactics are already working, with Ford making significant concessions at the bargaining table.
UAW workers picket outside of the General Motors parts facility on September 22, 2023 in Bolingbrook, Illinois. (Scott Olson / Getty Images)
The clock has ticked and tocked for two of the Big Three automakers. At noon, five thousand more members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) at thirty-eight parts distribution centers for Stellantis and General Motors (GM) walked off the job. The facilities are spread across twenty states.
They join thirteen thousand workers at assembly plants in Ohio, Michigan, and Missouri who have been out for a week — for a total of eighteen thousand Big Three auto workers on picket lines nationwide. (See a map of all struck facilities here.)
The escalation adds a new type of facility to the mix. Parts distribution centers (PDCs) supply after-sales spare parts and accessories to dealerships, a very profitable part of the companies’ business.
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