UAW strike expands, West Chester workers walk out

Workers at GM's Cincinnati Parts Distribution Center in West Chester went on strike Friday.

UAW President Shawn Fain announced the expansion of the ongoing strike Friday morning.

"This expansion will take our fight nationwide," Fain said. "We will be everywhere from California to Massachusetts, from Oregon to Florida, and we will keep going, keep organizing and keep expanding the Stand Up strike as necessary."

The suburban Cincinnati facility employs 123 workers and has an annual payroll of about $10.3 million, according to the automaker. The 404,000-square-foot facility opened in 2000. It fulfills orders for GM auto dealers and GM's auto parts subsidiary ACDelco.

Starting at noon on Friday, dozens of GM workers began picketing outside of the facility. They were among 5,500 United Auto Workers members at 38 sites walking off the job Friday at all parts distribution centers across the nation at General Motors and Stellantis.

"We're just trying to get what we deserve," said the president of UAW Local 674 Janet Billingsley, who added pickets would last around the clock, seven days a week.

Kevin Crain, a 46-year-old parts technician from Fairfield, said GM employees deserve to make more. He also objected to how American automakers pay top executives more than their Japanese competitors.

"Why are we paying them like they're winning the Super Bowl when they can't get us into the playoffs?" Crain said.

Kimberly Gray, a 44-year-old dock loader, who has worked for the automaker for 10 years, said she wants to see the company raise pay for all workers, including new hires. She noted it took her eight years for her hourly wages to climb from the teens to $25 per hour.

"I've had several part-time jobs – I want the pay for everybody to go up," Gray said.

Workers at Ford's transmission plant in Sharonville, which employs almost 1,800 workers, have not been called. Fain said the union has made good progress with Ford Motor Co. this week, but GM and Stellantis "will need some pushing."

The walkout came after UAW's Fain announced in the morning that the sites would be targeted as an expansion in the union's one-week-old action against Detroit Three automakers.

The latest move is significant because the parts from these centers go to car dealerships to service and repair customers' vehicles. The action means dealers and customers may soon struggle in the service lane.

"These are extremely profitable for GM and Stellantis primarily because if you get your vehicle service at a dealership, you pay full sticker price for replacement parts," said Art Wheaton, director of Labor Studies at Cornell University. "Now you can’t get the car fixed because you can’t get the parts. The dealerships are already struggling to hire enough certified mechanics to fix them and now you’re tell the struggling dealership that they don’t have the parts to fix the cars either."

Wheaton said dealers and customers will feel this pain.

"So now you have the end customer screaming at GM," he said. "GM is trying to win the public relations war and they are losing badly."

In a statement to the Detroit Free Press, GM said it has contingency plans but did not offer details.

The Detroit Free Press contributed.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: UAW strike: GM facility in Ohio joins nationwide strike