More Than 11,000 Strike GM Plant

More than 11,000 hourly workers at General Motors Corp.’s Buick City auto and parts complex walked off the job Tuesday, threatening to bring GM’s vast automotive empire screeching to a halt.

The strike, the second GM walkout in a month, forced the auto maker to halt production of the Oldsmobile 88, Buick LeSabre and Buick Park Avenue cars and also several key components used in dozens of other GM vehicles.

If the strike lasts more than a few days, union officials said, as many as 100,000 GM workers in 21 plants around the country could be idled, costing the auto maker hundreds of millions of dollars a day in lost sales.

Ruben Burks, director of United Auto Workers Region 1C in Flint, said the union is protesting a variety of things, including faster assembly lines, numerous health and safety concerns and a heavy reliance on overtime that he said is making some workers sick.

Burks told a news conference that negotiations were scheduled to resume this morning. He said the UAW will remain on strike, however, until all issues are resolved.

“I want to make it clear to the world that this strike will not terminate until the bargaining team is satisfied that all of our outstanding issues have been resolved,” Burks said.

Before the strike, negotiators had been at the bargaining table for 24 hours.