About 500 Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. autoworkers have been laid off as a knock-off effect of the United Auto Workers strike, which entered its third week.
A Ford
F,
spokesperson confirmed Tuesday that 330 workers at its Chicago stamping plant and at its Lima, Ohio, engine plant have been asked not to report to work. The layoffs took effect beginning Saturday at the Chicago plant and on Monday at the Lima plant.
At GM
GM,
130 workers at a plant near Cleveland and 34 workers at a facility in Indiana were laid off. Both factories make metal parts used at GM assembly plants that are dark because of the walkouts.
The union has extended strike pay of $500 a week to workers laid off as a result of the labor action. At the start of the strike, the UAW had a strike fund of $825 million.
Shares of Ford dropped 2% in midday trading Tuesday, while GM’s stock fell 3.3% amid weakness in the broad U.S. equity market.
Related: UAW strike brings fight to consumers, worsening car-parts shortages already plaguing the industry
For Ford, the week’s layoffs were in addition to the 600 workers laid off from Ford’s Michigan assembly plant on Sept. 15, bringing to 930 the number of Ford employees sent home due to the strike.
“These are not lock outs. These layoffs are a consequence of the strike at Chicago assembly plant, because these two facilities must reduce production of parts that would normally be shipped to Chicago assembly plant,” the Ford spokesperson said.
The Chicago plant makes the Ford Explorer, the Ford Police Interceptor and the Lincoln Aviator. Production of those vehicles is halted.
Workers at the Chicago plant joined the strike last Friday, the latest expansion of the strike, which started on Sept. 14.
The UAW has broken with the longstanding tradition of striking at one company at a time, and has elected to strike at all three U.S. automakers, including Stellantis NV
STLA,
choosing specific plants. All told, some 25,000 workers at on strike at plants and parts distribution facilities.
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