GM, Ford temporary lay off 500 more US workers due to strike
The two companies send home employees who were left without work following United Auto Workers (UAW) strikes on assembly plants.
Ford and General Motors announced the temporary layoff of 500 additional workers as a result of "knock-on effects" from the ongoing strike at Detroit's "Big Three" automakers Ford, General Motors (GM), and Stellantis.
The companies announced Monday that they had sent home employees who had been unable to work due to United Auto Workers (UAW) strikes at assembly sites.
On September 15, the UAW organized a targeted strike against GM, Ford, and Stellantis, asking for factory shutdowns while keeping the majority of the union's 146,000 US hourly auto employees on the job.
The major strike saw the joining of another 7,000 members earlier on Friday, marking the strike the biggest US United Auto Workers' (UAW) strike.
Shawn Fain, the United Auto Workers' president, called on workers at Ford and GM plants located in Chicago and Michigan to take part in the US' first joint strike against automakers in Detroit.
GM asserted that the strike on Wentzville, Missouri and Lansing, Michigan plants "continues to have negative ripple effects."
According to a company spokesperson, 130 workers who "have no work available" were sent home at Parma Ohio, and 34 in Marion, Indiana.
In a Monday statement, Ford stated that "its 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."
During the second round of presidential debates, Republican candidates strongly criticized US President Joe Biden for his involvement in the United Auto Workers' (UAW) strike on Tuesday and attributed the actual cause of the strike to his administration's economic policies.