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If you want to know how the domino effect works, read this Reuter's story about GM.
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DETROIT (Reuter) - General Motors was slated to idle more plants Friday due to the two-day-old transmission plant strike in Warren, Mich.
The No. 1 U.S. automaker also braced for broader shutdowns of its vast North American car and truck operations.
GM halted production Thursday at large-car plants in Flint and Orion Township, Mich., and told workers at a small-car plant in Lansing, Mich., not to report to work Friday.
Workers at a mid-size car plant with two assembly lines in Oshawa, Ontario, also were told to stay home Friday, bringing to more than 17,000 the number of workers idled by the strike at GM's Warren, Mich., Powertrain Division plant, including strikers.
About 2,800 people walked off the job at the transmission, wheel and suspension parts plant in suburban Detroit late Tuesday night over demands for more jobs.
If the strike continues into next week, nearly every GM assembly plant in North America could run out of Warren-made parts and shut down.
GM has been down this road before. A 17-day strike at two Dayton, Ohio, brake plants forced the automaker to shut down 26 of 29 North American assembly plants, idling more than 175,000 workers. The walkout cost GM and its stockholders about $900 million. . . .
The nearby Flint and Orion plants were the first to shut down because they receive transmissions on a "just-in-time" delivery basis that keeps their inventories low.
The Flint plant builds the Buick LaSabre and Pontiac Bonneville sedans, while the Orion plant also builds the Bonneville, as well as the Buick Riviera, Oldsmobile Aurora and Eighty Eight cars.
Lansing builds the Pontiac Grand Am, Oldsmobile Achieva and Chevrolet Cavalier cars, while the Oshawa assembly lines produce the Chevrolet Lumina and Monte Carlo and the Buick Century and Regal models.
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