Key Points
Car prices soared as automakers struggled with a supply chain jammed up by worker shortages, chip shortages, and shipping delays...
Now plants at Detroits Big Three automakers are closed again, after nearly 13,000 members of the United Autoworkers Union left the assembly lines at three plants run by Stellantis, Ford, and General Motors..
Theres never a good time for a strike, but suppliers have been through proverbial hell over the last three and a half years, says Mike Wall, an automotive analyst with the research firm S&P Global Mobility..
Auto building depends on long-term contracts, and in a prolonged strike suppliers would only be able to lean on whatever business they already have with foreign automakers or nonunionized manufacturers, including Toyota, Honda, and Tesla...
Wall, the analyst, says that prior to the walkout, his firm advised auto suppliers to talk to their lenders about extending lines of credit and to begin thinking about where they could make cuts in already tight-margined businesses, anything from new equipment to doughnuts and coffee..
