UAW Strike Leads To Hundreds Of Temporary Layoffs At Ford And GM

Following theinitiation of a historic strikeagainst The Big Three Detroit automakers, some non-striking Ford and General Motors staff are being temporarily laid off. Ford has laid off some 600 workers from its plant in Wayne, Michigan, while GM says that it could cut as many as 2,000 staff members from its payroll next week.

Ford has defended the move by saying that the interconnectivity of its plants means that when one facility is shut down, the others are also affected. In this case, the workers at Ford's body assembly plant were laid off because the components they are required to assemble have not been painted in their special e-coating, as the paint department is striking.

GM will use the same reasoning. "It is unfortunate that the UAW's leadership decision to call a strike at Wentzville Assembly has already had a negative ripple effect, with GM's Fairfax Assembly plant in Kansas and its 2,000 team members expected to be idled as soon as early next week," the automaker said in a statement, reports theDetroit Free Press.

这些决策是unju工会领导的感觉stifiable, with president Shawn Fein claiming that "with their record profits, [The Big Three] don't have to lay off a single employee." In fact, Fein believes that these automakers "could double every autoworker's pay, not raise car prices, and still rake in billions of dollars."