As United Auto Workers’ strike against General Motors continues, ripple effects are already causing disruption on multiple levels.
While US production has been stalled since Sunday, production at the Oshawa assembly plant in Canada has now taken a significant hit. As Reuters reports, GM Canada has been forced to temporarily layoff 1,200 employees at the plant who build the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups.
The layoffs are a result of a lack of parts and GM had anticipated this would occur if the UAW strike continued. However, it’s still a significant blow for the automaker as the Silverado and Sierra are cash cows and GM desperately to reclaim the Silverado’s title as the second-best selling full-size pickup in America.
Also Read: GM Employees Strike After Failed Trade Union Negotiations
Despite the halt in truck production, Oshawa assembly will continue to build the Chevrolet Impala and Cadillac XTS. Of course, those models are living on borrowed time and production of all vehicles at Oshawa assembly is scheduled to end in December as the plant will be transformed into a so-called “test track for autonomous and advanced technology vehicles.”
If that wasn’t bad enough, The Detroit Bureau reports the strike has thrown a wrench into parts deliveries to GM dealerships as UAW members are picketing at distribution centers and warehouses. Dealers don’t seem to be running low on replacement parts quite yet, but GM is already preparing for that possibility as spokesman Jim Cain confirmed the automaker has developed an app which allows dealers to trade parts among themselves.
If the strike continues and dealers run out of parts altogether, they could be forced to turn to third parties such as Pep Boys, Autozone and O’Reilly Auto Parts. That’s obviously not ideal, but it would allow dealerships to repair customer vehicles while the strike drags on.
