General Motors Corp. said on Friday an additional eight plants would be partly shut down next week as the impact from a strike against a key supplier spread to affect over 37,000 GM hourly workers.
Taken together, the No. 1 U.S. automaker has now taken steps to slow or idle production at 27 of its plants in North America, putting almost half of its work force in the region at risk of layoff.
The work disruptions stemmed from a 10-day-old strike against American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc. by the United Auto Workers union that has idled its five U.S. manufacturing facilities and put 3,600 on picket lines.
GM began idling its own facilities last week as it ran out of parts from American Axle, which is the major supplier of axles and related components for GM's light truck line.
Detroit-based American Axle was spun off from GM in 1994. It has said it needs the UAW to accept steep concessions on wages in order to keep production in the United States.
