Nicholas Ellis Assesses Impact of Concluded Autoworker Strike on Supply Chain
Foley & Lardner LLP partner Nicholas Ellis is quoted in the Law360 article, “End Of UAW Strike Spotlights Supply Chain, EVs’ Future,” discussing the supply chain impact of the recently concluded United Auto Workers strike.
Ellis said there will undoubtedly be significant cost increases for Detroit’s Big Three going forward.
“There are two different ways to look at it: What was the impact of just the strike itself, and what does this mean for the industry going forward?” Ellis continued. “I think most suppliers are looking at it from the standpoint, ‘Well, it wasn’t great, but it could have been worse.'”
“Suppliers that are heavily invested in the individual assembly plants that were shut down saw pretty significant impacts, or if they were subject to some of the knock-on impacts of other lines going down because of those plants, they’ve taken hits on those,” Ellis said.
Ellis noted that questions remain on whether the affected automakers will “turn to the supply base and look to try to recoup some of those costs at a time when the supply base is already struggling with its own increased costs in a very challenging environment.”
“You only have so much money that you can put into a vehicle, and if more money is going into the labor, then that leaves either less money that goes into other aspects of the vehicle, or you have to find somewhere else to make up for those costs to get that money back to put in the vehicle,” Ellis added.
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