5 major UAW strikes in GM history
GM says they are offering workers a generous contract with wage hikes and new jobs, FOX Business' Grady Trimble reports.
General Motors autoworkers, who entered the second day of their strike on Tuesday with no clear end in sight, are not the first workers to walk off the job at GM facilities.
In fact, janitors represented by the United Automobile Workers who work at GM facilities were already on strike in Michigan and Ohio when roughly 49,000 autoworkers across the country went on strike Sunday night.
UAW has organized major work stoppages at GM facilities 21 times since 1994, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
By comparison, there have been 18 work stoppages at Kaiser Permanente facilities, six at Caterpillar, Inc., five at Chrysler (now Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV) and zero at Ford Motor Co.
This is the first strike against GM in 12 years. UAW is demanding a bigger share in the company's profits, including annual pay raises, while GM says it has already given workers a "strong offer."
Here are some of the major strikes and why they occurred:
Sept. 15, 2019
Janitors employed by Aramark working at GM locations in Michigan and Ohio went on strike early Sunday. The walkout involved roughly 850 people who have been employed under a contract extension since March 2018. UAW informed them in early September that their contract would expire when the union's did on Saturday night, according to the Detroit Free Press.
A worker carries a sign as employees from General Motors walk a picket line in Bowling Green, Ky., Sept. 16, 2019. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston)
Sept. 24 - 26, 2007
The autoworkers strike that began Sunday is the first since a two-day strike involving 73,000 General Motors workers in September 2007. The workers impacted 80 facilities throughout the U.S. as they demanded an independent health care trust fund and job guarantees, reported The Detroit News.
United Auto Workers members picket outside the General Motors Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant in Hamtramck, Mich., early Monday, Sept. 16, 2019. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
June 5 - July 29, 1998
The 1998 strike was the longest walkout at GM in nearly three decades, clocking in at 54 days. More than 9,000 workers in Flint, Michigan went on strike, causing parts shortages that resulted in a shutdown for nearly 30 GM assembly plants, according to MLive.
GM lost more than $2 billion in profits before coming to an agreement with workers that included not closing some striking factories but requiring as much as a 15 percent increase in daily output for some workers.
Terry Dittes, director of the UAW General Motors department, announces on Sunday Sept. 15, 2019, that GM workers will go on a national strike at midnight in the Marriott Renaissance Hotel, in Detroit. (Clarence Tabb Jr./Detroit News via AP)
September - November 1970
1970 saw a strike that lasted longer than two months -- 67 days, to be exact -- and affected 321,510 GM workers in the U.S. and 22,100 in Canada, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Susan Donovan, of Davison, stands outside of the Flint Assembly Plant as General Motors employees demonstrate on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2019, in Flint, Mich. (Jake May/The Flint Journal via AP)
Dec. 30, 1936 - Feb. 11, 1937
UAW strikes against GM date back to 1936, when workers in Flint, Michigan, occupied a key plant from December 1936 to February 1937. They slowed GM's output from 50,000 cars in December to 125 in February, according to History.com. When all was said and done, the union members got a 5% raise and permission to talk in the lunchroom.
United Auto Workers members picket outside the General Motors Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant in Hamtramck, Mich., Monday, Sept. 16, 2019. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)