46,000 UAW workers go on strike against General Motors
Members of America's United Auto Workers union went on strike against General Motors, marking the first industrial action in the sector in 12 years.
General Motors Corp
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05:30 25/04/24
On Sunday night, the union's 46,000 hourly workers walked out at 31 GM factories and 21 other facilities across nine states.
It's the largest strike by any union against any business since the last strike at GM in 2007.
UAW claimed that the company was putting profits ahead of the employees who had helped to turn the company around when it went through bankruptcy and a bailout by the federal government a decade ago.
In response, the company offered to improve pay and greater profit sharing with union members, a $7.0bn investment in 5,400 new hires and to cancel the planned closure of one plant in Detroit and of another in Ohio.
Keeping those plants open was one of the union's key demands.
“We do not take this lightly,” Terry Dittes, the UAW vice president in charge of the union’s relationship with GM, said at a news conference in downtown Detroit on Sunday. “This is our last resort.”