General Motors Fort Wayne Assembly plant could soon shut down due to a union strike.
GM has been negotiating with the union there, United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2209, to hire 253 part time workers, or temps, to full-time positions, but those negotiations broke down on Friday, leading GM to lay off those 253 temps on Monday.
To fill those hours, GM assigned senior staff to work the second and third shifts, which Local 2209 officials said violates the contract between them and Fort Wayne Assembly.
GM released a statement Tuesday that read, “The company and UAW have been unable to reach an agreement for extending part-time temporary team members at Fort Wayne Assembly. According to the provisions of our National UAW-GM contract, without an agreement, we were required to release about 250 temporary employees on September 30, 2024.”
That national UAW-GM agreement was reached late last year after UAW struck against all three major US automakers: GM, Ford and Stellantis.
Local 2209 was never called up for that strike, but bargaining chair Rich LeTourneau said if GM continues to use senior staff on second and third shift, the UAW local will strike.
He said he spoke with national UAW this week to get authority to strike because he said GM has “no authority” to assign senior staff to work second and third shifts.
LeTourneau said he will give GM until the end of the week to get senior staff off those shifts and back to what they normally work or Local 2209 will strike.
He said the strike will last as long as a member of senior staff is working second or third shift. Management at Fort Wayne Assembly could not be reached for comment.
