UAW strikes GM's high-profit SUV plant; 5,000 workers walk out

The UAW on Tuesday said it has ordered 5,000 workers at General Motors' hugely profitable full-size SUV plant in Texas to walk off the job in the latest escalation of its six-week-old strike against the Detroit 3.

Workers at Arlington Assembly build the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, GMC Yukon and Cadillac Escalade. The union announced the move hours after GM reported a third-quarter profit and said the strike had cost the company $800 million so far.

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

GM, in a statement, said it was "disappointed by the escalation of this unnecessary and irresponsible strike." It said the company had upped the value of its previous proposal to the union by 25 percent last week and that the UAW's actions are "harming our team members who are sacrificing their livelihoods" and are "having negative ripple effects on our dealers, suppliers, and the communities that rely on us."

The move comes a day after the UAW expanded the strike to one of Stellantis' most profitable plants, Sterling Heights Assembly in Michigan, which makes Ram 1500 pickups. Roughly 45,000 of the UAW's 146,000 members at the Detroit 3 are now on strike, including 8,700 at Ford Motor Co.'s most profitable assembly operation, Kentucky Truck Plant.