The United Auto Workers are counting down to a potential strike at a large General Motors supplier’s manufacturing facility in Michigan, raising complaints of stagnant wages and a contract dispute.
The dispute is between supplier American Axle (also known now as the Dauch Corporation) and UAW Local 2093, which represents nearly 1,000 employees at the company’s Three Rivers manufacturing plant — its largest plant in the state. Three Rivers is about 150 miles from American Axle’s headquarters in Detroit.
Issues with wages at the facility are nearly two decades old, the UAW said in a news release. During the Great Recession in 2008, American Axle workers took hefty pay cuts to keep the Three Rivers facility from closing, the union said, noting that some employees who were making $29 an hour in 2008 saw their pay cut to $14.50.
As the workers at American Axle bargain for a new contract ahead of the May 31 deadline on their current contract, the union wants to finally recoup some of that lost money, but they allege the company has been unwilling to offer a fair deal in negotiations.
Officials at American Axle, a critical, tier-one parts supplier for General Motors, did not respond to a Detroit Free Press request for comment.
Currently, the union said, wages at American Axle top out $22 an hour, and the union claims that, when adjusted for inflation, wages now carry about half the purchasing power they did before the recession.
Indeed, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ online inflation calculator, $29 dollars an hour in 2008 equates to about $44 an hour in 2025.
Citing a need for higher wages and stronger job security, employees at the Three Rivers plant voted by 98% to authorize a strike, if necessary.
The union said it has filed Unfair Labor Practice charges against American Axle, and shared a video on X of what appears to be police bodycam footage of an interaction between an officer and employees rallying outside of the facility. The 50-second video was published with a caption reading, “American Axle calls police on their own employees.”
“Calling the police on your own dedicated workforce for holding union flyers isn’t just a violation of federal labor law – it’s a desperate attempt to bully workers into submission,” said Steve Dawes, the union’s Region 1D director, in a news release after the incident, which happened in April.
The union is planning a livestream on Sunday, May 31, at 10 p.m. — two hours before the contract expires at midnight — to announce “where things stand in contract negotiations with the company.”
“In 2026, it’s time to make things right at American Axle,” said one employee in a UAW-produced video released in March. “We did what we had to do to save the company. Now it’s time for the company to do what they have to do.”
Liam Rappleye covers Stellantis and the UAW for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him: LRappleye@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: UAW workers at American Axle are preparing to strike as deadline looms
Reporting by Liam Rappleye, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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