New York CNN  — 

General Motors’ earnings grew last quarter, even as the company took a $200 million hit from the first two weeks of a strike by the United Auto Workers union.

The company’s earnings per share rose to $2.28, up from $2.25, in the past quarter. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv had forecast earnings would decline sharply to $1.88 per share. Investors look closely at that measure when judging financial performance.

GM’s adjusted net income slipped to $3.1 billion from $3.3 billion a year earlier. But the company boosted its earnings per share over the course of the year by buying back its own stock, a controversial tactic critics say artificially inflates companies’ share price without improving a company’s finances.

Revenue rose 5% to $44.1 billion, which also topped forecasts of $43.7 billion.

The company said that the strike cost it $200 million in its first two weeks of the quarter. But those costs have risen since then, with $600 million in costs during the first three weeks of this month, or about $200 million a week. That’s because the UAW has increased the reach of the work stoppage.

The UAW has been on strike against GM as well as rivals Ford and Stellantis since September 15. The targeted strike started with work stoppages at one assembly plant for each of the automakers and 12,700 on strike but has grown since then.

GM has offered the UAW a record contract with the pay scale increasing 23% over the life of the contract that runs through 2028, along with cost-of-living adjustments to protect workers from rising prices and larger contributions to their retirement accounts.

But UAW President Shawn Fain told members on Friday that GM and the other automakers can afford to pay even more and that the union needs to win an even better contract to make up for concessions the union provided in the past when the companies were struggling financially.

There are now more than 40,000 autoworkers on strike, with 9,200 members on strike at GM alone. The union has struck two assembly plants at GM, in Wentzville, Missouri, and Lansing, Michigan, as well as a network of 18 parts and distribution centers nationwide.

The UAW has threatened to expand the strike to GM’s most profitable plant in Arlington, Texas, where it builds the company’s full-size SUVs: the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, the GMC Yukon and the Cadillac Escalade. It has already expanded the strike to the biggest and most profitable plants at Ford and Stellantis, but has so far held off on a strike at the Arlington plant. If that plant is shut by a walkout, the financial cost to GM would soar.

This is a developing story. It will be updated.