UAW Strike at Kansas General Motors plant

According to the New York Times, workers at a GM plant in Fairfax, Kansas have gone on strike.

The plant in Fairfax, Kansas, employs about 1,800 hourly workers who walked out at 9 a.m. CDT Monday morning. The strike came after GM and United Auto Workers Local 31 failed to reach agreement on plant-level rules following a four-year national contract approved last year.

The Kansas strike is one of several labor disputes to hit GM in recent weeks, crimping production for the No. 1 U.S. automaker and threatening some of its better-selling vehicles.

GM shares fell 3 percent after news of the strike broke.

This plant is one of two in the country that assemble the Chevrolet Malibu, staple of taxi companies and law enforcement offices everywhere. As a model that is selling for higher prices and more quickly than last year's version (and presumably other GM models), this may hurt more than the stoppages caused by the American Axle strike.

MM