General Motors set up a $6 billion line of credit as it braces for the costs the ongoing United Auto Workers strike, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing showed.
The Detroit-based Chevy-maker’s 364-day revolving credit line will mature on Oct. 1, 2024, the SEC document filed early Wednesday showed.
A company spokesperson told The Post that GM’s total automotive liquidity was around $38.9 billion as of June 30.
GM also reported on Tuesday that third-quarter sales of new vehicles in the US jumped 21.4% from July through September — the best three-month the company’s experienced since 2020’s third quarter.
Though GM isn’t strapped for cash, “we are being prudent in the face of uncertainty,” the spokesperson said.
The credit line suggests GM is preparing for prolonged plant shutdowns as the UAW strike continues targeting the automaker’s major plants. Since workers walked off the job and onto the picket lines on Sept. 15, GM has lost $200 million, according to Bloomberg.
Just this week, GM laid off 130 workers reporting to metal-part makers near Cleveland, Ohio, and another 34 in central Indiana after UAW president Shawn Fain widened targeted plants at automakers that failed to reach an agreement with the union.
The two plants produce parts used at GM assembly factories in Lansing, Mich. — where Chevy Traverse and Buick Enclave SUVs are made — that have been out of commission over UAW’s walkouts.
A GM spokesperson told The Post on Tuesday that “the affected team members are not expected to return until the strike has been resolved.”
Ford was also affected by the recent expansions in the strike, which has strategically played the companies against each other during its latest strike by targeting specific plants rather than calling for a mass walkout like it historically has.
Ford on Monday was forced to furlough 330 workers after UAW workers walked off the job at two additional factories in Chicago that supply parts to a plant in Michigan behind the Ford Explorer and Lincoln Aviator SUV, as well as an engine plant in Lima, Ohio.
Ford had already laid off 600 staffers from its Michigan Assembly Plant, which produces the Ford Bronco and Ranger models.
“Our production system is highly interconnected, which means the UAW’s targeted strike strategy has knock-on effects for facilities that are not directly targeted for a work stoppage,” a Ford spokesperson told The Post earlier this week.
Overall, some 25,000 workers across the Detroit Three automakers are now on the picket lines — 17% of the union’s 146,000 members at Ford, GM, and Jeep-maker Stellantis.
Stellantis was spared from strikes at additional plants after it agreed on last-minute concessions, Fain announced on Friday.
Fain cited progress with Stellantis around the cost of living allowance payments, as well as the right to strike over product commitments and plant closures.
Talks continue at all three companies.
He said late last month that the union had made some progress in its negotiations with Ford, though it still hadn’t approved a cost-of-living allowance that the UAW was pleased with.
UAW autoworkers have been particularly vocal about getting higher wages, and benefits and the elimination of a two-tier wage system that pays newer workers far less.
Automakers have said the union’s demands would hurt profits as they try to compete with nonunion manufacturers like Tesla.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
