UAW strike: General Dynamics workers vote to strike in 3 states

Julie Hyman and Mariela Rosales
Wed, October 11, 2023 

The United Auto Workers strike against the Big Three automakers — Ford (F), General Motors (GM), and Stellantis (STLA) — may expand as General Dynamics (GD) workers voted to authorize a strike in three states if their deal with the company expires on October 22. This comes after UAW workers at Volvo's Mack Trucks rejected a tentative deal.

Also, Samsung SDI (006400.KS) and Stellantis are planning to build an EV battery plant facility in Indiana.

Yahoo Finance Autos Reporter Pras Subramanian breaks down the latest news in the auto industry. For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.
Video Transcript

- The UAW strike against the big three automakers may be spreading. A new strike is on the horizon, this one at defense contractor General Dynamics. Yahoo Finance's Pras Subramnian is here with the details. Pras?

Hey Josh. As this big three UAW strike enters the 27th day, we saw earlier this week that the UAW members at Mack Trucks rejected a tentative deal and went on strike on Monday. Now just a couple of days later, we hear about last night General Dynamics the defense contractor saying that its members voted to authorize the strike by a 97% vote to potentially go on strike if their deal with the General Dynamics does expires on the 22nd of October.

So they've authorized that strike. You know I wonder if the moves by the UAW members of big 3 has sort of emboldened these workers. We'll see but potentially another UAW chapter here going on strike with the defense contractor. But also, I want to note that GM's kind of a reprieve for GM at least them in Canada.

Unifor members there, the Canadian Auto Workers Union, they actually struck a deal their tentative deal with GM to increase base pay, increase Cola adjustments and things like that. So reprieve there for GM as the sort of big three strikes happen in the US.

- You know, Pras, while all this is going on strike-wise, we got another interesting announcement. Samsung SDI and Stellantis are creating a new, planning a new EV battery plant in Indiana while all this is happening. So tell us about that and what we make of it.

PRAS SUBRAMNIAN: Yeah it is just a lot going on right now in the world of the UAW, and the big 3, and all these other plants that are associated with the UAW. But yes, a couple of days ago, Julie, it was Sean Fein sort of pulled back on any possible strikes on Friday saying that they had reached an agreement with GM potentially where GM would said they will include the joint venture battery plants with their master agreement, meaning that UAW members could unionize at these plants.

That's sort of a big deal because it was a sticking point, and maybe Ford and GM have to, sorry, Ford and Stellantis may have to follow suit. And just now this morning, we hear Stellantis going to put in a new second battery plant at the Kokomo, Indiana facility. The two battery plants there, about $3.2 billion in investment, 1,400 workers.

But yes, you know that Sean Fein will be eyeing this deal. Maybe he might mention it on Friday when he does this other update potentially saying, hey, we're watching you guys with these battery plants. We saw GM has agreed to potentially add these battery plants to the mass agreement. Will Stellantis follow suit? We'll see. Maybe they might actually put the hurt on them potentially with more stand strikes.