Strike at a Supplier halts production at GM Plant
On Wednesday, a strike called in by the UAW hourly workers at Alliance Interiors forced a General Motors (GM) plant in Lansing, Michigan to halt production. This plant manufactures the immensely popular GM Crossovers.
This strike has also affected the GM plant located at the Delta Township, Michigan. According to a GM spokesperson, workers at the Delta Township plant most likely planned to end the second half of the work shift early due to strike at Alliance Interiors. Alliance Interiors has been a regular supplier to GM since 2006. Its primary supplies to GM are carpets, acoustical insulation and various other products
The GM management has asked the workers to report to their workstations by their regular shift timings on Thursday. The mention of ‘reporting time’ might seem a bit overkill for a corporate post. However, workers at the GM plant were planning a strike on Thursday morning over local labor issues. The strike is scheduled to start at 10:00 am.
According to Dan Flores (GM spokesperson), discussions with the UAW (United Auto Workers) are under way, but refused to comment further.
The UAW has been on strike against American Axle for the last two months. It is one of the major suppliers to the GM plants and so is Manufacturing Holdings Inc. Workers have been on strike against Manufacturing Holdings Inc too. These strikes have already rendered more than 30 GM plants idle or semi-idle across the United States. According to some experts, UAW is putting in all its efforts to draw GM to the negotiation table where American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc are already seated.
Things can get even uglier for GM. If the UAW go on strike against the Delta Township plant, then production of GM’s most popular Buick Enclave, GMC Acadia and Saturn Outlook could take a major hit. In an industry where a 60 day supply of any vehicle is ideally acceptable, GM has only a 40 day inventory for its Buick Enclave.
