Ford told 600 workers not to report to work at its Michigan Assembly Plant’s body construction department because the metal parts they make need to be coated promptly for protection and the paint shop is on strike.
General Motors warned that 2,000 workers are expected to be out of work at its Fairfax Assembly plant in Kansas this coming week. The company says that’s due to a shortage of critical materials supplied by the stamping operations at its Wentzville plant in Missouri.
The historic strike kicked off right after the stroke of midnight on Friday morning with 9% of the UAW’s nearly 150,000 union members walking off their jobs. The three auto plants — the General Motors assembly plant in Wentzville, a Stellantis assembly plant in Toledo, Ohio, and part of a Ford plant in Wayne, Mich. — were the first join the picket lines.