Consumer Car Prices Likely Unaffected as End to Autoworker Strike Appears Near

UAW reaches tentative deals with Ford, Stellantis, and reportedly General Motors

By Benjamin Preston

Updated October 30, 2023

Illustration: Consumer Reports, Getty Images

After walkouts that have idled several Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis manufacturing plants over the past six weeks, the United Auto Workers union (UAW) strike against the three Detroit automakers appears to be coming to a close.

The UAW reached tentative agreements with Ford last week and Stellantis (which owns Chrysler, Jeep, and Ram, among other brands) over the weekend. On Monday, the New York Times, Reuters, and other media outlets announced that the union had reached a tentative agreement with General Motors (the automaker would not confirm the announcement and the UAW did not respond to CR’s request for comment.) Industry analysts say that the weeks-long plant closures resulting from the strikes have likely had little impact on new car availability and pricing.

“It seems clear that continuing challenges with vehicle affordability and the drag it has had on demand blunted most of the impact of production blips during the strike,” says Alain Nana-Sinkham, co-founder of Remarkit Automotive, a firm that tracks industry trends.

The UAW, the nation’s largest automobile workers’ union, staged the strike as it pressed for higher pay and better benefits for its members. Walkouts by nearly 50,000 factory employees—about 30 percent of the three automakers’ union-backed workforce—hobbled production of several popular, high-profit models, including the Ram 1500 pickup, which is CR Recommended, as well the Chevrolet Suburban and Tahoe and the Cadillac Escalade, which are not recommended by CR.

Initially, the strike had an impact on the production of only a handful of SUVs, midsized pickups, and a pair of commercial vans, none of which are CR Recommended: the Jeep Wrangler, Jeep Gladiator, Ford Bronco, Ford Ranger, Chevrolet Colorado, Chevrolet Express, GMC Canyon, and GMC Savana.

An expansion of the strike two weeks later included a General Motors factory in Lansing, Mich., that builds the Buick Enclave and Chevrolet Traverse SUVs, both of which are CR Recommended. They also struck at a Ford facility in Chicago that makes the Ford Explorer and Lincoln Aviator, neither of which is CR Recommended.

After reaching a tentative deal with Stellantis on Sunday, the UAW expanded its strike against GM, targeting an engine assembly plant in Tennessee that supplies nine of the company’s auto assembly plants with parts, including one that builds its profitable full-size pickup trucks. News of a tentative deal with GM quickly followed.

UAW workers still must vote to ratify the tentative deals, which include 25 percent pay increases over the next four and a half years, as well as cost-of-living increases that effectively bring the raises to 33 percent over current pay levels.

The strike, which caused weeks-long production shutdowns in some cases, cost manufacturers billions of dollars—costs that, along with pay increases, some analysts say could nudge new car prices higher.

“The concessions the automakers have made are already being positioned as significant by the automakers themselves, which is setting the stage for those costs to be passed through to consumers,” says Nana-Sinkam. “However, given that consumers are already pretty well tapped out in terms of vehicle affordability, I’m not sure how much of that is going to end up sticking.”

Benjamin Preston

Benjamin Preston covered new and used car buying, auto insurance, car maintenance and repair, and electric bikes for Consumer Reports.