GM STRIKE SPREADS LIKE WILDFIRE

The General Motors strike that started at an AC Delco plant in Flint, Michigan has now spread to nine more factories that produce some of the company's hottest products. The walkout has idled 30,900 workers. Plants in Pontiac, Lansing, Orion Township, Auburn Hills, and Buick City, Mich., as well as Doraville, Georgia, Janesville, Wisconsin, Ste. Therese, Quebec and Oshawa, Ontario were closed or crippled. The plants assemble cars on which GM is banking heavily, such as the Chevy Lumina and Pontiac Firebird, as well as the popular Chevy Suburban and Blazer sports utility vehicles, says TIME Detroit bureau chief William McWhirter. If the strike continues into next week, the slowdown will spread to Chrysler and Ford -- further putting pressure on GM to settle the strike. But McWhirter does not expect it to go that far. "Both sides are negotiating in good faith," McWhirter says. "This is not going to be the match that lights up a huge labor confrontation."