The move comes as the company is in the midst of national contract talks with the United Auto Workers union, which wants to represent workers at battery factories and win them top wages.
UAW workers at 38 GM and Stellantis faciilties across 20 states walked off their jobs, though Ford was not hit with new strikes. President Biden is set to attend a picket line next week.
Driving the UAW's tough stance in negotiations with the Big Three automakers is the sense that the union is owed a long-overdue redressal for all the concessions workers made in 2007.
The former union electrician was an underdog in recent UAW leadership elections, but with a tough love approach to auto companies in negotiations, he narrowly won. Now he's taking the union on strike.
Autoworkers' emotions — from excitement to fear and apprehension — are running high as the United Auto Workers launches an unprecedented strike against General Motors, Ford and Stellantis at once.
Bold union demands, bolstered by a tight labor market and frustration throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, are paying off in some sectors with significant raises for workers.
Less than two hours before the strike deadline, United Auto Workers revealed the first wave of plants to be targeted if the union and the Big 3 automakers fail to reach a deal just before midnight.
Shawn Fain, the president of the UAW, is calling for a 32-hour work week at 40 hours of pay for autoworkers, an idea that was first embraced by the union's leaders almost a century ago.
The new UAW president says his members are being left out as the industry transitions to electric vehicles so he's applying pressure on the auto companies and the White House to do more for workers.
A challenger defeated the president of the United Auto Workers in a close election and vowed Saturday to take a more confrontational stance in negotiating with the big automakers.
Unfair labor practice charges have previously been filed against Tesla, Musk and other company executives for allegedly blocking union organizing attempts at the company.
