UAW Members Strike at American Axle’s Michigan Plant, Disrupting Major GM Supplier

More than 1,000 members of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2093 launched a strike against American Axle’s Three Rivers Plant in Michigan just after midnight on June 1, the union announced. Because the plant supplies components for General Motors trucks, the strike could affect the company’s vehicle production.

The strike comes on the heels of the expiration of the union’s contract with American Axle. According to the UAW statement, American Axle employees made major sacrifices in 2008 to save the plant from closing, agreeing to pay cuts and other concessions. Many long-time workers who had been earning up to $29 an hour in 2008 had their wages halved to $14.50 an hour, it said.

The UAW claims that 18 years later, employees are still waiting for wages to recover, adding that pay at American Axle currently tops out at $22 an hour.

Josh Jager, bargaining chairman at UAW Local 2093, said they have been negotiating with American Axle for the past two months.

“It’s our time to take back what was stolen from us in 2008, when we took massive concessions to save this company,” he said in a livestream video. “We did more than save them; we made them billions of dollars. We paid the price; now it’s time that we reap the benefits.”

The Three Rivers Plant’s parent company, Detroit-based American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc., now known as the Dauch Corporation, is a major parts supplier to General Motors (GM). In January, the company officially changed its name to the Dauch Corporation, according to a company statement. The manufacturer now trades on the New York Stock Exchange as “DCH.”

The Epoch Times reached out to the company for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

American Axle announced in 2015 that it had reached an agreement to supply GM with axles and driveshafts for the company’s next-generation full-size trucks—specifically, about 75 percent of the light-duty axles, 100 percent of the heavy-duty axles, and 100 percent of the rear steel driveshafts.

GM’s full-size trucks include the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra.

In November 2022, American Axle announced it was expanding its partnership with GM to provide axles for the company’s mid-sized 2023 Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon pickup trucks. Those parts were to be produced at the Three Rivers Plant, the company said at the time.

The Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks are GM’s most popular and most profitable vehicles. The two models account for nearly 35 percent of the company’s first-quarter sales. The Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon together accounted for more than 5 percent of total sales in the quarter.

Both GM’s and Dauch’s shares fell on June 1, closing down by 0.67 percent and 1.74 percent, respectively, after recovering much of their intraday losses.