First 12-year-old national auto workers strike could block US car giant's job – RT USA News

The decision to strike was made after talks on the labor contract between the manufacturer and the union were deadlocked. This will be the first national strike for more than a decade for General Motors, as the last time its workers launched a claim action was in 2007, they held a two-day strike to negotiate a deal.

This time, the stakes are a little bigger. The union opposes the closure of two auto assembly plants in Ohio and Michigan, in addition to demanding higher wages after years of record profits for the auto-manufacturing giant .

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However, the company seems relentless because it says closures are needed because factories lack products. He also unambiguously states that union members' wages and benefits are already too expensive compared to those of non-union auto workers in the southern states.

GM, however, said in his statement that he "Negotiated in good faith" and offered the union more than $ 7 billion in new investments and 5,400 new jobs, with some salary increases and better benefits. Workers, who view the plant closure as a betrayal of those who witnessed GM's bankruptcy following the 2009 bankruptcy, apparently found these conditions unsatisfactory.

"General Motors must understand that we defended GM when they needed us," Ted Krumm, chairman of the union's bargaining committee, in discussion with GM, said at a press conference Sunday. "Times are profitable … and we deserve a fair deal."

At the same time, the closure of the facilities has provoked more and more criticism, especially from US President Donald Trump, who had once promised to create jobs as part of his "America first" doctrine and who now considers Ohio as a key state for its reelection in 2020.

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The duration of the strike is unknown, but it could quickly cripple the work of GM factories across the country and even damage the US economy at a time when the US auto industry is seeing a slowdown in sales and rising costs associated with emission reduction, as well as some issues with launching electric vehicles.

One of GM's proposed solutions for troubled factories is to turn the Ohio plant into an electric vehicle battery production facility. Yet, for the moment, his fate is still unknown.

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