LANSING, Mich. — The UAW strike against General Motors is in it's fourth week and an East Lansing-based economic group estimates that the number of workers impacted has increased.
Anderson Economic Group (AEG) estimates that the strike, beginning back on Sept. 16, has jumped from impacting the initial 49,000 UAW workers to about 150,000 workers through the United States' auto industry, according to a press release.
“What started as a concentrated event affecting a select group of workers has now ballooned in scope,” said Brian Peterson, AEG’s Director of public policy and economic analysis.
Experts at the group estimate that the number of workers whose wages have been impacted has more than tripled since the beginning of the strike.
“At the beginning of the strike, you had the 49,000 UAW workers across the country who walked off the job in September,” Peterson said. "But after three weeks, there are also 25,000 salaried GM workers whose wages have been affected.”
Peterson also said the additional "75,000 employees who work for auto parts suppliers who have either been temporarily laid off or had their wages reduced since GM assembly plants no longer have demand for their parts or services," as stated in the release.
The group said it predicts that the impact of the strike will continue to expand each day that GM factories remain idle, according to the release.
Through October 6 (week 3 of the strike), AEG estimated the following impacts:
- $660 million in lost profits for GM,
- Direct wage losses for all employees in excess of $412 Million,
- $155 million in lost federal income and payroll tax revenue, and
- $9.1 million in lost Michigan income tax revenue.
As workers try to get by, the only thing that the rest of Michigan can do is just wait, and like the UAW, hope for the best.
"The fact that it affects everybody, all I can do is sympathize and hope that they sympathize with us and understand that we are standing for a reason," Sturdivant added. "Because this--people don't understand, this is affecting us the most because this is our future."
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