LOCKPORT, N.Y. — Nearly 50 United Auto Workers at the General Motors components plant in Lockport have been laid off due to the strike that started Sept. 15 and has been slowly expanding.
According to GM’s Negotiations 2023 website, more than 2,100 employees have been laid off at plants across the country.
“There is no work available for these employees due to labor disputes at other GM facilities,” the webpage states.
The loss of jobs here should really come as no shock as the strike enters its it fourth week, according to Art Wheaton of the Cornell Labor Studies Institute in Buffalo.
"It's no surprise whatsoever," Wheaton told WGRZ-TV. "Once you start shutting down some of the assembly plants you no longer need the parts in as big of a hurry so it's happened, and there are several plants that have had additional layoffs."
The 48 workers laid off in Lockport are production workers who make HVAC units that get shipped to the Wentzville, Mo., plant, which makes pickups and cargo vans and has been on strike since Sept. 14.
They make the front and rear HVAC units for Wentsville Assembly so when Wentsville went down it trickled down to Lockport," said UAW Region 9 assistant director Ray Jensen Jr.
The UAW Lockport chapter Local 686’s chair of the bargaining committee, Jeremy Huber, said the Lockport workers were laid off Sept. 25.
As to whether the trickle down layoffs could expand to other auto component plants in Western New York Jensen said he was uncertain.
Wheaton said it could depend on a number of factors, including the type of components being made.
"Part of it is also a matter of space. So, if they have room to make the engines at the Tonawanda engine plant and they have space to store them, they could continue making them knowing they'll want to make up that lost production."
The union doesn't have to dip into its strike fund to compensate the Lockport workers, as they weren't actually on strike, and who, because they were laid off can receive unemployment.
However Jensen confirmed the effected Lockport workers will get strike pay ($500 per week) as well, in part because there is a two week waiting period before unemployment benefits can be received.
"So, the union in turn said we'll make sure those union members laid off are taken care of," he said.
Wheaton added that it also makes sense for the union to keep members who lose their jobs because of the strike in the fold, and to remain behind the UAW and its action.
"They need their support," Wheaton said. "They need to say look, it's not your fault that you're being told you have to go on unemployment...we don't want the workers to suffer for what's going on at the bargaining table. So it makes sense to me."
It's also true that New York is one of just two states in the country where receiving strike pay does not disqualify you from receiving unemployment benefits on top of it.
Read more of this from our partners Buffalo Business First.