5,000 UAW Workers Walk Out of GM's Texas SUV Plant

The United Auto Workers (UAW) union struck a General Motors assembly plant in Texas Tuesday that builds the U.S. automaker's profitable full-size sport utility vehicles, in another significant expansion of the strike.

The UAW said another 5,000 workers are going on strike.

The workers took the strike to some of GM's most profitable vehicles, the Chevy Tahoe, Chevy Suburban, GMC Yukon and Cadillac Escalade, UAW said in a statement.

The walkout at Arlington Assembly brings the total number of UAW members on strike at the Big Three automakers to over 45,000, as the strike nears the six-week mark.

GM earlier on Tuesday reported a stronger-than-expected third-quarter profit, but withdrew its full-year financial forecast due to the uncertainty of the strike.

GM did not immediately comment on the strike expansion.

The union initially demanded a 40% wage hike over four-and-a-half years, including a 20% immediate increase, improvements in benefits, as well as covering EV battery plant workers under union agreements.

The UAW and the automakers are also bargaining over future wages and unionization policies for electric vehicle battery plants planned by joint ventures of the automakers and their South Korean battery partners.

Those talks are complicated, because the ventures are separate companies and the automakers do not have to cover them under their master UAW contracts under U.S. labor law.