“By and large, the reason why so much of car manufacturing has moved to the South is because of historically low levels of union density,” Bustamante said. “The political and social conditions make it really difficult to get unions off the ground there as well.”

It’s also challenging to predict how a targeted strike would affect the economy overall when it’s unknown how halted production at some plants would affect work at other plants where workers are not on strike. Fain said the union’s targeted approach is meant to “create confusion.”

“It’s a little unclear to me how many locations would potentially operate as normal or as close to normal when other locations that they may depend on are shut down and striking. I do think that those targeted strikes are still going to have a really significant impact on the economy,” Theile said.

Bustamante added that the strike would also impact the steel industry and would add to pressures on car prices.

Theile agreed that consumers would feel the effects.

“We have about 20% of the inventory that was on hand in 2019. The current conditions would affect dealers and consumers, possibly much stronger and much sooner,” Theile said.

But Bustamante said the Federal Reserve’s raising of interest rates is a far bigger contributor to the problem of car affordability since rates for car loans have risen in the past year.

Some economists have also argued that the UAW strike is a sign of a strong economy and say that long-term gains in labor organizing will lift up more workers.

“Strong labor markets, fueled by large-scale public investments in the workers who keep our economy going, offer workers agency to stand up for better wages and working conditions and walk off the job when basic labor standards aren’t met,” stated Rakeen Mabud, chief economist at Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive economic advocacy nonprofit.

“ … A workforce that enjoys better working conditions, better pay, and increased worker agency adds up to a stronger economy for all of us.”

Bustamante said that if the UAW wins many of its demands, it will encourage more workers to organize.

“As long as economic conditions hold steady, the [UAW] does have disproportional leverage and, again, more leverage than they’ve had in the past 50 years or so,” he said. It would certainly boost the [labor organizing] waves that we’re already seeing.”