Nearly 1,000 United Auto Workers members went on strike at an American Axle plant in Three Rivers, Michigan, early Monday, halting production of axles used in General Motors’ heavy-duty and midsize pickup trucks. The work stoppage began at 12:01 a.m. after the union and the company failed to reach agreement on a new labor contract.

UAW President Shawn Fain announced the strike in a livestream late Sunday. “For 18 years, these members have built you an empire of profit, while getting treated like dirt,” Fain said. “They’ve taken wage cuts, benefit cuts. They’ve poured their souls into this plant.”

The central dispute centers on wages that workers say never recovered from the 2008 financial crisis. That year, employees agreed to cut their hourly pay from $29 to $14.50 to keep the plant operating when American Axle’s survival was in doubt. Today, most production workers at the plant top out at $22 per hour, according to Josh Jager, a 24-year American Axle employee and chairman of the bargaining committee for UAW Local 2093.

“We have members that take out a loan on their 401(k) almost every 12 to 24 months to pay off credit card debt, and it’s just a perpetual thing because they can’t make enough money,” Jager told The Wall Street Journal. “A guy works seven days a week, $22 an hour, and he can’t support himself.”

Besides higher pay, workers are seeking limits on the company’s ability to compel weekend overtime. Jager said workers were forced into weekend production in 47 of 52 weeks in 2023.

The Three Rivers plant produces axles for GM’s heavy-duty Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups, as well as for the midsize Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon. The plant also makes axle tubes that end up in light-duty Silverados and Sierras. While GM is its primary customer, the plant also supplies components for another automotive supplier and for the Chrysler Pacifica minivan.

American Axle did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A GM spokesman said the company was monitoring the situation. “We are assessing any potential impact while staying closely aligned with our teams,” the spokesman said. As of Monday, GM said its production continued as usual.

The strike arrives at a difficult moment for GM. The automaker is trying to increase production of its heavy-duty Silverados and Sierras — among its most profitable vehicles — just as the workers who make the axles for those trucks walked off the job. GM’s assembly plant in Flint, Michigan, is set to add a sixth day of weekly production in June. The Three Rivers plant also supplies GM’s truck assembly facility in Oshawa, Ontario.

At the same time, GM is trying to capitalize on a pickup-truck production gap at Ford Motor, which is facing an aluminum shortage that has limited its truck output. Stellantis, maker of the Ram pickup, has mounted a renewed challenge: Ram truck sales are up 23% in 2026 compared with a year earlier, according to Motor Intelligence.

Jager accused American Axle of stockpiling axles since January in anticipation of the contract dispute. As of Sunday, he said, GM appeared to have roughly two weeks’ worth of axles in inventory.