U.A.W. Expands Strike to G.M.’s Texas Plant

Before the U.A.W. expanded the strike, G.M. said Tuesday that U.A.W. work stoppages had lowered its earnings before interest and taxes by about $200 million in the final weeks of the third quarter and about $600 million since the fourth quarter started on Oct. 1. The automaker estimated that the strike could cost it $200 million a week going forward, though that number will likely grow now that workers at the Texas plant are on strike.

“They’ve demanded a record contract — and that’s exactly what we’ve offered for weeks now: a historic contract with record wage increases, record job security and world-class health care,” the company’s chief executive, Mary T. Barra, said in a letter to investors. “It’s an offer that rewards our team members but does not put our company and their jobs at risk.”

G.M. has offered the union a contract that would give workers a 23 percent increase in pay over four years, lifting the standard wage for veteran workers to more than $40 an hour from $32; newer workers earn a lower rate. Employees working 40 hours a week at the top rate would earn about $84,000 a year, not including extra pay for overtime or profit-sharing bonuses, which have topped $10,000 in the past two years.

Ford and Stellantis have made similar offers.

The union had initially demanded raises of 40 percent, saying that more modest increases will not make up for the erosion in living standards that its members have suffered from inflation and concessions in past contracts.

Mr. Fain, who was elected president of the union in March, has taken a more confrontational approach to negotiations than his predecessors. He has portrayed talks with G.M., Ford and Stellantis as the first step in a broad effort to organize workers at Tesla, Toyota, Honda and other companies which do not have unions at their U.S. factories.

On Friday, Mr. Fain said that G.M., Ford and Stellantis had not yet put their best offer on the table. “Despite all the bluster about how much the companies have stretched,” Mr. Fain said, “there’s clearly still room to move.”