Arlington

General Motors Arlington workers refusing OT to show support for strike

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The clock is ticking for more walkouts by auto workers if a deal is not reached with Ford, GM, and Stellantis.

The clock is ticking for more walkouts by auto workers.

The United Auto Workers union says it will authorize more strikes on Friday morning unless substantial progress is made toward a deal with Ford, General Motors and Stellantis which makes Chrysler.

It means about 5,000 workers at GM's Arlington plant could go on strike.

“Anxious, anxious, we're on standby,” said Keith Crowell, president of UAW Local 276.

Crowell has worked at GM's Arlington plant for a decade. He took office as president of the UAW Local 276 in June.

“Mobilizing 5,000 people has to be the most difficult task I've ever embarked on in my life, but I'm succeeding,” said Crowell.

Roughly 5,000 workers at GM’s Arlington plant are union members and many aren't waiting for walkouts to show support for the 13,000 employees nationwide already on the picket lines.

Crowell says members are refusing voluntary overtime, rejecting opportunities to work through lunch and breaks, something routinely offered by the Big Three automakers.

“We're making a sacrifice and getting paid less in the plant and the company is seeing a slow in production,” said Crowell.

The goal, he says, is to step up pressure on automakers and show the seriousness of workers' concerns.

Crowell says he and his family are already making changes by not eating out.

As of Thursday evening, both sides remained far from a deal.

In an editorial in the Detroit Free Press, GM's President Mark Reuss called the union's full demands "untenable," or unsustainable for the company.

"As the past has clearly shown, nobody wins in a strike,” wrote Reuss.

“When the union wins, everybody wins. The unions have been leading the way for the middle class for a long time,” said Crowell.

One week into the strike, and with hours until a new possible round of walkouts, thousands in North Texas are preparing to picket and hoping the strike gets settled before they have to.

The UAW President Shawn Fain says he will give an update on the strike at 9 a.m. CST.

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