The United Auto Workers union took its protest of the closing of three General Motors’ plants in Michigan, Ohio and Maryland to another level Tuesday filing suit against the company to prevent the shutting down of the facilities and preventing the elimination of thousands of jobs.
The suit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Ohio, asks that GM be ordered to reverse its decision to close the plans and award damages to the employees for losses, claiming the company is in breach of contract. The contract in this case is the 2015 labor agreement between the two sides.
Naturally, GM contends the plan does “not violate the provisions of the UAW-GM National Agreement. We continue to work with the UAW on solutions to our business challenges.”
The company is in the process of eliminating 15,000 jobs and shutting down five plants in the U.S. and Canada as it prepares for the next downturn as well as the new focus on its product line-up on electric vehicles.
(General Motors investing $56 million in two Michigan plants. Click Here for the story.)
Another plant set to close, GM’s Detroit Hamtramck plant, got its production run extended until January 2020. It was not lumped in the lawsuit because it will remain open beyond the expiration of the labor agreement this September.
The move to shutter the plants managed to earn GM the ire of not just the UAW, but local, state and national politicians in each state as well as President Donald Trump, who implied GM would find it tough to get help from the U.S. government if the plants weren’t reopened.
(Click Here for more about GM expecting bigger profits, more transformation in 2019.)
GM CEO Mary Barra traveled to Washington D.C. to meet with Trump and other lawmakers in an attempt to soothe hurt feelings and explain why the moves were necessary. The trip had mixed results at best.
The UAW said GM plans to end production at its Lordstown, Ohio assembly plant on March 8. It will also end production at its White Marsh plant in Maryland on May 3 and at its Warren Transmission plant in Michigan on Aug. 1.
(To see more about Mary Barra’s radical reshaping of General Motors, Click Here.)
Barra claims that the ultimate determination on what will become of the “unallocated” plants will be determined in contract talks with the UAW this summer. In January, the UAW sued GM, claiming the automaker’s use of temporary workers at a plant in Indiana violates its labor deal. A March 8 hearing is set in that suit.
