General Motors estimates UAW strike cost company $1.1B

General Motors (GM) estimates that the recent United Auto Workers (UAW) strike cost it $1.1 billion.

The company on Wednesday said this cost came “primarily from lost production” in a press release. Despite this, GM CEO Mary Barra said her company “will deliver very strong profits in 2023.”

“We are finalizing a 2024 budget that will fully offset the incremental costs of our new labor agreements and the long-term plan we are executing includes reducing the capital intensity of the business, developing products even more efficiently, and further reducing our fixed and variable costs,” Barra said in a statement in the release. “With this clear path forward, and our strong balance sheet, we will return significant capital to shareholders.”

The strike lasted six weeks, ending with a tentative agreement between GM and the union at the end of October. GM was the last of the Big Three automakers to come to a tentative agreement with the UAW after Stellantis and Ford.

A few weeks ago, union workers ratified a four-and-a-half-year contract with GM which includes a general wage increase of 25 percent throughout the contract, an immediate pay raise of 11 percent, cost-of-living adjustments and a faster progression to the top wage rate. The vote was tight, however, with only 54.7 percent of workers supporting the agreement.

“The members have spoken. After years of cutbacks, months of our Stand Up campaign, and weeks on the picket line, we have turned the tide for the American autoworker,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in the wake of the ratification in a statement.