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5,000 autoworkers walk out at Texas GM plant, as UAW expands strike for second day in a row

by Julia Shapero - 10/24/23 12:46 PM ET

FILE – United Auto Workers members hold picket signs near a General Motors Assembly Plant in Delta Township, Mich., Sept. 29, 2023. As the auto workers strike approaches the one-month mark, more Americans sympathize with the striking workers than with the three big car companies that employ them. That’s one of the findings in a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Another 5,000 members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union walked off the job at a General Motors assembly plant in Texas on Tuesday, as the union expanded its strike against the three major automakers for a second day in a row.

The latest walkout was announced shortly after General Motors reported third-quarter earnings of $3.5 billion, the union said in a press release.

“Another record quarter, another record year,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement. “As we’ve said for months: record profits equal record contracts. It’s time GM workers, and the whole working class, get their fair share.”

The surprise expansion of the strike is the second unannounced walkout by the UAW in two days, after the union called on 6,800 workers at a Stellantis plant in suburban Detroit to join the strike Monday.

The UAW had previously announced where and when it would expand the strike during livestreamed updates on Fridays. However, the union has since warned it is prepared to call for walkouts “at any time,” launching its first surprise strike against a Ford truck plant in Kentucky earlier this month.

More than 45,000 autoworkers total are now on strike. The UAW first launched the strike nearly six weeks ago, after failing to reach an agreement with General Motors, Stellantis and Ford before its contract expired Sept. 14.