Categories Automotive

GM secures new $6 billion credit line as UAW strike costs reach $200 million

DETROIT – General Motors secured a brand new $6 billion line of credit score because the automaker braces for extra strikes by the United Auto Workers union.

“The facility that we announced today is a $6 billion line of credit that I think is prudent in light of some of the messages that we’ve seen from some of the UAW leadership that they intend to drag this on for months,” CFO Paul Jacobson advised CNBC’s Phil LeBeau in an interview on “Halftime Report.”

The focused strikes have already value the automaker $200 million in the course of the third quarter, GM mentioned Wednesday.

A GM spokesman mentioned the $200 million strike value is because of misplaced manufacturing on wholesale quantity, largely as a result of UAW’s preliminary Sept. 15 strike at GM’s midsize truck and full-size van plant in Wentzville, Missouri. The strike has since expanded to GM’s components and distribution services nationwide and, as of final Friday, a crossover plant in mid-Michigan.

As a results of the strike in Missouri, GM additionally idled its Fairfax Assembly Plant in Kansas, the place it builds the Cadillac XT4 SUV and the Chevrolet Malibu sedan, and laid off almost 2,000 staff.

Both GM CEO Mary Barra in addition to Ford Motor CEO Jim Farley have publicly criticized UAW President Shawn Fain and the union’s strike technique, claiming Fain just isn’t really concerned with reaching offers for 146,000 staff with GM, Ford and Chrysler-parent Stellantis.

Members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 230 and their supporters stroll the picket line in entrance of the Chrysler Corporate Parts Division in Ontario, California, on September 26, 2023, to indicate solidarity for the “Big Three” autoworkers presently on strike. 

Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images

“It’s clear that there is no real intent to get to an agreement,” Barra mentioned in an emailed assertion Friday evening. “It is clear Shawn Fain wants to make history for himself, but it can’t be to the detriment of our represented team members and the industry.”

Fain has persistently mentioned the union is out there to barter 24/7 and has in flip accused the automakers of slow-walking negotiations.

GM’s newly introduced line of credit score would require the automaker to take care of at the least $4 billion in world liquidity and $2 billion in U.S. liquidity. The phrases of the credit score settlement additionally limit GM from mergers or gross sales of property and limits on different, new debt. As of June 30, GM’s whole automotive liquidity was $38.9 billion.

The credit score line comes greater than a month after Ford obtained a $4 billion line of credit score to assist it handle by way of “uncertainties” available in the market.

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