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Auto workers strike could shut down the Fairfax GM plant in Kansas City, Kansas, this week

Employees are returning Monday to manufacture the Cadillac XT4 at the Fairfax Assembly and Stamping Plant after a seven-month layoff.
Carlos Moreno
/
KCUR 89.3
Employees are returning Monday to manufacture the Cadillac XT4 at the Fairfax Assembly and Stamping Plant after a seven-month layoff.

General Motors says the strike that shut down the Wentzville plant near St. Louis means there may not be enough parts to assemble cars in Kansas City, Kansas.

The United Auto Workers strike that has shut down three plants across the country, including the General Motors plant in Wentzville, Missouri, could halt car assembly at the Fairfax GM plant in Kansas City, Kansas.

The Detroit News reported GM alerted workers last week to the possible shutdown at Fairfax. That plant could run out of parts this week because of the strike at Wentzville in suburban St. Louis.

“It is unfortunate that the UAW leadership’s decision to call a strike at Wentzville Assembly has already had a negative ripple effect, with GM’s Fairfax Assembly plant in Kansas," the company said in a statement.

There are some 2,200 workers at the Fairfax Plant who make the Cadillac XT4 SUV and the Chevrolet Malibu, according to the company.

The other big auto plant in the metro, the Ford Assembly plant in Claycomo, is currently unaffected. It makes the Ford F-150 pickup truck and Transit and E-Transit vans and has 6,900 hourly workers.

About 13,000 UAW workers are striking at three plants in Michigan, Ohio and Missouri, targeting all three big automakers. The union wants a 40% pay boost over the next four years. The companies have countered with about half that.

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Sam Zeff