The second week of the United Auto Workers strike against General Motors Co. brings more temporary layoffs as plants idle in the U.S. and Canada.
Approximately 525 hourly employees at GM's DMAX engine plant in Moraine, Ohio, and 700 at the St. Catharines powertrain plant in Ontario were furloughed as of Sept. 23, a GM spokesperson told S&P Global Market Intelligence in an email.
This is in addition to approximately 4,500 members of Canadian trade union Unifor who were temporarily laid off last week.
On Sept. 16, nearly 50,000 GM workers in the U.S. went on strike after the automaker and UAW failed to sign a new contract before the previous one expired Sept. 14.
The automaker was estimated to lose up to $1 billion in cash if the strike ran through a week, according to a Sept. 18 research note from S&P Global Ratings analyst Lawrence Orlowski.
Other experts estimated that GM could lose up to $100 million a day until the strike is over.
