UAW strike against GM axle supplier continues without talks, union official says

By Kalea Hall

DETROIT, June 2 (Reuters) – Negotiations between a General Motors pickup truck axle supplier and the United Auto Workers have not taken place since the union launched a strike against the company on Sunday, according to a local union negotiator. 

Josh Jager, a 24-year employee and bargaining chairman for Local 2093, the UAW chapter representing about 1,000 union workers at the plant, said on Tuesday that the company, Dauch Corp, has not called to resume negotiations. 

The union handed a contract proposal to the company on Sunday night, he said. 

“They are on the clock, they are under the gun but their finger is not on the trigger yet,” Jager said.

The union is seeking wage increases, better work-life balance issues addressed, and its healthcare benefits maintained.

Detroit-based Dauch, formerly known as American Axle, has not responded to Reuters’ questions about the strike sent on Tuesday. 

On Monday, a Dauch spokesperson called the work stoppage “disappointing” ​in a statement, adding the company is “committed to negotiating with the ​union in good faith and hope to promptly reach a fair agreement.” 

Dozens of Dauch employees have been picketing since early on Monday outside the axle plant in Three Rivers, Michigan, which supports production of GM’s profitable pickup trucks.

“These workers are determined, and they are fed up, and they’re going to do whatever they have to do,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in an interview. 

Workers at the plant took wage concessions in 2008. Since then, the top wage has increased by $4 to $22 per hour, Jager said, while the union wants top wages above $30 per hour.

Fain did not provide an estimated timeline for when the strike would end, saying it was up to the company. 

“Hopefully sooner than later, but we’ll see,” he said.

A majority of the axles made at the Three Rivers plant are sent to GM’s Flint, Michigan, heavy-duty truck plant, Jager said. The plant also supplies GM’s Wentzville, Missouri, factory, where GM makes midsize trucks and commercial vans, according to sources.

Jager and other sources have said GM has about two weeks of axle supplies to continue production. The union has seen about 250 salaried workers going into the plant to make axles, Jager said.

A GM spokesperson said its truck production continued on Tuesday, but did not directly address the current level of axle supplies.

(Reporting by Kalea Hall; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Jamie Freed)