October 16, 2019

The High Cost of Lost Wages: Current State of the UAW-GM Strike

The Center for Automotive Research (CAR) recently used the REMI model to estimate the total financial burden on the national economy and individual states related to the United Auto Workers-General Motors strike currently underway throughout the country. Industry Week covered CAR’s analysis in an article detailing the fiscal challenges associated with a prolonged automaker strike.

The article describes the state-by-state impacts of GM’s labor dispute, in addition to detailing the methodologies implemented by CAR’s analysts. They also identified which states would be most affected financially as a result of the UAW-GM strike in terms of weekly compensation, social insurance tax collections, and personal income taxes.

The overall estimates provided by CAR found that the labor stoppage initiates an $857 million decrease in national weekly worker compensation for each week that it continues. This loss in compensation impacts payments to government social insurance programs and personal income taxes to the amount of $108 million in reductions per week of the strike.

You can access the article published by Industry Week by clicking here.

The costs of the UAW-GM strike combined with the plant shutdowns that occurred less than a year ago have created significant financial pressure for the auto manufacturer. Dynamic economic analysis can help evaluate the total impact of these events, while identifying the most beneficial strategies for restoring normal operations.

REMI Senior Economist Peter Evangelakis, Ph.D. analyzed the repercussions of the GM plant shutdowns during his webinar, “GM Plant Shutdowns: Fiscal and Economic Aftermath,” which you can access by clicking here.