General Motors said Tuesday it made $3.1 billion in profit from July to September, a decline of more than 7 percent year-over-year, partly due to a six-week strike by the United Automobile Workers. Which has disabled two. The company’s vehicle plants and its 18 parts distribution centers.
GM said the strike reduced its earnings before interest and taxes by nearly $200 million in the final week of the third quarter, and by nearly $600 million since the fourth quarter began on Oct. 1. The automaker also estimated that the strike could cause it losses. $200 million per week going forward.
Paul Jacobson, GM’s chief financial officer, said in a conference call with reporters, “We remain optimistic that we will be able to reach an agreement as quickly as possible,” but he declined to say whether the company thinks that will happen. This is close to a deal. On a new contract with the UAW
On Friday, GM made the union a contract offer that included a 23 percent wage increase over four years. This would increase standard UAW wages from $32 an hour to more than $40. At that salary, an employee working 40 hours a week would earn about $84,000 a year, not including extra pay for overtime or profit-sharing bonuses, which have topped $10,000 over the past two years.
Mr. Jacobson said negotiations with the union were continuing. The union strike, which has targeted specific sites owned by Detroit’s Big Three automakers, has idled a GM pickup truck plant in Missouri and another plant in Michigan that makes large sport utility vehicles.
In the third quarter, GM made almost all of its profit in North America, driven primarily by factories operated by UAW members in the United States. Its bottom line was hit by a 42 percent decline in profits from its joint ventures in China, a modest profit decline at its financial arm and losses from its cruise division, which is working to develop self-driving cars.
Despite the strike, GM reported its third-quarter revenue rose nearly 5 percent to $44.1 billion. 981,000 vehicles were sold globally in the quarter, nearly 15,000 more than a year earlier.
Mr. Jacobson said GM hopes to introduce redesigned SUV models that will be more profitable than the SUV models they are replacing, and the company will save money by slowing its planned rollout of electric vehicles. GM recently said it was pushing back the start of production of the electric pickup at a plant in Orion, Michigan, from 2024 to late 2025, in response to lower-than-expected growth in sales of EVs.
While GM now plans to ramp up EV production at a slower pace into 2025, it still aims to be able to produce one million electric vehicles per year in North America by the end of 2025, Mr. Jacobson said.
“Our commitment to an all-EV future is as strong as ever,” he said.
