The UAW strike against GM is now in its fifth day. Nearly 46,000 UAW members walked off the automaker’s production lines Monday.
“I believe at the end of the day, it (DMAX) will be impacted by parts shortages,” GM spokesman James Cain said.
DMAX was still operating Friday afternoon, but beginning next week, about 525 hourly employees will be on temporary layoff, said another GM spokesman, Dan Flores.
Block line production and machining will still be running at the plant off, Flores said.
Typically, some workers are also retained in the event of a plant idling, to stay on top of maintenance and security, Cain said. He could not immediately say how many workers will be retained for those tasks.
But DMAX was on the company’s “watch list” as a possible site where production could end as a result of the UAW’s strike, Cain said.
RELATED: GM says UAW strike should not impact plans for new Dayton-area plant
With no vehicles being made, there is no need for auto parts for GM production lines. DMAX makes diesel engines for heavy-duty trucks, such as the GMC Sierra HD and the Chevrolet Silverado HD.
The strike impact comes a week after GM first publicly confirmed plans for a new GM plant in the Dayton area.
A new, $175 million plant in Brookville will machine engine blocks and heads to supply the DMAX plant in Moraine, which builds finished engines.
Demand for heavy-duty diesel engines is strong, and GM has plans for new trucks to be assembled in the company’s Flint, Mich. plant -- trucks that can use the Duramax engine as an option, Flores told this news outlet earlier this week.
Messages seeking comment were left with representatives of the IUE-CWA, the union that represents DMAX workers.
Even though the DMAX plant is not a UAW-represented facility, it is still impacted by a strike that affects production at all U.S. GM plants.
Talks between the UAW and GM continued Friday, and the sides had made “some progress,” Terry Dittes, UAW vice president said, according to news reports.
A UAW spokesman Friday referred to Dittes’ statement, declining to comment further.
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