U.S. Workers’ Strike Temporarily Halts Chevy Blazer Production In Mexico

General Motor’s decision to build the all-new Chevrolet Blazer in Mexico raised many eyebrows in the United States, especially after the automaker announced drastic job cuts and plant closures in its home market.

U.S. President Donald Trump himself got infuriated by GM’s move and pressured the automaker to build the Blazer in Ohio. In the end, the company had the last word and started production of the Blazer at Mexico’s Ramos Arizpe plant in December 2018.

Fast forward to today, and The General continues to have a rocky relationship with its staff in the U.S. where 46,000 of its hourly employees have been on strike for more than a month now.

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This has created many production and logistics problems, and the effects are not restricted to the States. The company announced on October 18 that it temporarily halted production of the Chevrolet Blazer midsize crossover in Mexico because of a parts shortage caused by the strike across the border.

“The GM Ramos Arizpe Assembly Plant will dedicate the time of its staff to the production of Chevrolet Equinox, because it will stop production of Chevrolet Blazer for lack of a component,” GM Mexico said in a statement.

In addition to the Blazer and Equinox crossovers, the plant also builds engines and transmissions. The company said the CSS engine plant continues to work normally, while the Gen V engine and CVT transmission plants continue their activities in “partial technical shutdown.”

While the UAW reached a tentative agreement with GM on a new four-year contract, the workers will remain on strike until union members finish voting on the proposal by October 25. This probably means the production of the Blazer will take place days, if not weeks, to get restarted after the strike ends.

According to data from Autonews Mexico, sales of the Blazer in the first half of 2019 totaled 14,795 units in the U.S., 715 in Canada, and 549 in Mexico.