UAW Strike Cost Michigan $18.5 Million In Lost Income Taxes, Wages

The month-long United Auto Workers strike against General Motors has taken a big economic and personal toll in Michigan and elsewhere.

The strike could soon come to an end, with the union and the automaker recently reaching a tentative contract agreement. Now, all eyes are on the UAW membership and whether it will ratify a new contract. 

In the meantime, workers are still on the picket line and we all continue to feel the effects.

Click on the player above to hear MichMash speak with WKAR reporter Abigail Censky on how the strike impacts state and local economies.

“Companies here like Ryder, who help supply for GM, they have 40, 50 trailers of things sitting outside of their completely-full warehouses, where their businesses are still ongoing but GM is their main client, so they have a lot of surplus,” says Abigail Censky, a reporter with WKAR public radio in Lansing who has been covering the impacts of the UAW strike.

“The state of Michigan, by some estimates, has lost almost $18.5 million in income tax revenue and wages alone,” she continues. “And nationally, strikers have lost wages of $835 million. So, that’s a lot of money that has been taken out of our local economy here, and people aren’t spending at the movie theater or restaurants, and they are still going to be living in kind of strike-mode for the next few months. Think about if you just a paycheck, you wouldn’t be able to bounce right back.”

Here are some other economic impacts of the strike:

• General Motors could lose an estimated $1.5 billion in profits, according to brokerage Credit Suisse earlier this month
• The strike costs workers $857 million in lost wages each week for each week that it lasts, according to the Center for Automotive Research (CAR)
• Governments nationally are losing more than $200 million per week in lost income and social insurance tax revenue (CAR)