By David Shepardson
(Reuters) -General Motors said on Tuesday it was laying off another 163 workers in Ohio because of the ongoing United Auto Workers strike at two assembly plants and 18 parts distribution centers.
The Detroit automaker said it had furloughed the 163 UAW workers at GM’s Toledo Propulsion Systems plant that makes transmissions for both the automaker's Missouri and Lansing Delta Township assembly plants that are on strike.
GM said in total it has been forced to lay off 2,100 workers at five plants in four states including halting production at its Kansas car plant because of the strike, now in its nineteenth day.
On Monday, GM and Ford Motor said they laid off another 500 workers at four Midwestern plants because of the impact of the strike on some of the facilities.
The UAW said on Monday it presented a new contract offer to GM. The automaker said it received the counterproposal but that "significant gaps remain." The UAW also held a new round of bargaining with Chrysler parent Stellantis Monday.
Stellantis has furloughed nearly 370 workers in Ohio and Indiana.
UAW President Shawn Fain on Friday expanded the first-ever simultaneous strike against the Detroit Three to a GM Lansing, Michigan, plant and a Ford Chicago assembly plant, but Stellantis was spared after last-minute concessions.
The chief executives of GM and Ford on Friday criticized the UAW, hours after the union escalated the strike. The union responded on social media that neither CEO had attended bargaining talks.
Anderson Economic Group on Monday estimated total losses from the first two weeks of the strike at $3.9 billion, including $325 million in wages, $1.12 billion in losses for the Detroit Three, $1.29 billion for suppliers and $1.2 billion for dealer and customer losses.
(Reporting by David Shepardson in WashingtonEditing by Chris Reese and Matthew Lewis)
