GM says 29 plants now affected by Axle strike
 

Automotive News | March 7, 2008 - 12:01 am EST

DETROIT — General Motors said Friday that nine more parts plants are cutting shifts and reducing work because of the UAW strike at American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc.

The list of affected GM plants now stands at 29, including seven assembly plants.

Five of the plants added to the list today are stamping plants, said GM spokesman Tom Wickham.

On Thursday, GM said that it was idling or slowing work at 10 other facilities, including a Missouri assembly plant, because of a disruption in parts caused by the key supplier.

GM said it had started running its Wentzville, Mo., assembly plant for just four hours a day as of Thursday afternoon. That plant, which employs almost 1,900 hourly workers, makes the Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana vans.

All told, GM has now lost production of 18,315 vehicles a week, according to the Automotive News data center.

GM has also said its plant in Janesville, Wis., will begin working short shifts next week.

The work disruptions came as American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings and the UAW resumed contract talks after a 10-day-old strike that has idled five of American Axle’s U.S. manufacturing facilities and put 3,600 on picket lines.

American Axle has the financial capacity to outlast its striking workers, says bond market analyst Shelly Lombard. The driveline parts supplier has $343.6 million of cash and $572 million of revolver available at year end, so it has enough liquidity to withstand a long strike, says Lombard, of Gimme Credit.

GM began idling its own facilities last week as it ran out of parts from American Axle.

In a posted update on its production plans, GM said on Thursday that it would partially shut down three engine plants, a transmission plant, a two casting plants and three plants that make components, as of Monday.

UAW-represented workers in Michigan and New York went on strike against American Axle on Feb. 26. The supplier relies on GM for almost 80 percent of its sales.

Detroit-based American Axle was spun off from GM in 1994. It has said it needs the UAW to accept steep concessions on wages in order to keep production in the United States.

The other GM plants affected by the planned partial shutdown for Monday include an engine plant in Flint, Mich., an engine plant in Romulus, Mich., and an engine plant in St. Catharines, Ontario.

Partial shutdowns are also planned at a GM transmission plant in Baltimore; a component plant in Bay City, Mich.; a casting plant in Bedford, Ohio; a casting plant in Defiance, Ohio; a transmission components facility in Fredricksburg, Va.; and a similar facility in Parma, Ohio.

Reuters, David Barkholz and Robert Sherefkin contributed to this report

ENLARGE

UAW member Douglas Elliot pickets at the American Axle Manufacturing plant in Detroit last week.