General Motors Is Sending Scabs to Parts Distribution Centers
With the UAW strike spreading, GM is dispatching nonunion workers and managers to try to keep their parts distribution centers running. “I wish them luck,” one striking worker said. “They’re gonna be so goddamn lost.”
United Auto Workers members and supporters on a picket line outside the General Motors Flint Processing Center in Swartz Creek, Michigan, US, on September 25, 2023. (Emily Elconin / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Auto workers at the Big Three expanded their strike last Friday to a key vulnerability: parts distribution centers that supply dealerships with everything from water pumps to brake drums and spark plugs to replacement bumpers.
On Tuesday morning, General Motors (GM) began bringing in temps hired for $14 an hour to attempt to keep some of the parts and accessories flowing.
Parts distribution centers ship after-sales spare parts and accessories to car dealerships on a just-in-time basis. “If there is anything that could possibly break down that you need to get replaced, it probably came from a Customer Care and Aftersales (CCA) facility,” said strike captain Devon McKenzie on the picket line outside a GM parts facility in Burton, Michigan.
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