The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.In the world of automobile enthusiasts, the search for improved performance, more power, and unmatched customisation is a shared passion. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. INSKEEP: Jeff Rightmer is a professor of global supply chain at Wayne State University in Detroit. INSKEEP: OK, so that might be part of what the tension is here between the GM workers - or rather all the Big Three automakers' workers and the companies themselves. You don't have as many parts in an electric vehicle. But does the potential and very real transition to electric vehicles complicate things even further if there's a strike? INSKEEP: We've just got a few seconds left. And that shut down the whole company, which could be a possible tactic this time. And what was interesting about that was they didn't strike every GM plant, they struck a transmission plant. RIGHTMER: I believe it cost GM about $1 billion. INSKEEP: What does the GM strike in 2019, I believe, tell us about the potential damage this time? Ninety percent of those suppliers served at least one of the other two Detroit Three, and then 80% probably throughout the supply chain for all of the automakers, transplants included. Chrysler at that point had to declare their Top 100 suppliers. INSKEEP: I'm now curious if these Big Three companies share suppliers to the extent where a strike against one of the Big Three might disrupt business and supplies to the other two? And you could see, possibly, some of them just close up shop and liquidate. So a disruption really throws them into a turmoil. They're typically much smaller, maybe even family run, and the margins are razor thin. What it really hits are the lower-level suppliers, the twos, the threes. But the longer it goes on, they could start running into furloughs and things like that. RIGHTMER: The Tier 1s - or the top-level suppliers - they'll probably have taken measures already - cut discretionary spending, for example. What does that mean for all of the other companies that serve GM or Ford or Stellantis or are dependent on them in some way? Let's say that at least one company faces a strike at the end of the week. INSKEEP: Well, let's talk through the implications of that then. And the UAW has kind of thrown that out the window this year. Normally, you want to be the first one to get the deal done, and then that's kind of the pattern for the rest of the industry. You don't think that they will all end up on the same page? I still think they will strike, one of the Detroit Three. But then I have seen these negotiations go 24 hours, and you come up with an agreement at the end of the week. INSKEEP: OK, so do you anticipate a strike that would disrupt that entire network this week? And you have parts suppliers that are down in Mexico, so it is truly a global industry. All the way from - I'm thinking that I just bought a Ford that was built in Hermosillo, Mexico. A car that is made by a Detroit company may be built in several countries all over the world. INSKEEP: I guess we should mention, this is your business. He's a professor of global supply chain at Wayne State University in Detroit. But what happens to businesses up and down the supply chain, the auto parts industry? Jeff Rightmer is following that part of the story. If the industry should shut down even for a brief period, it means huge losses for the automakers. The Detroit Three automakers are locked in a contract dispute with workers and a strike deadline is Thursday, a minute before midnight.
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