Posts tagged auto workers
The Year of the Union…Corruption?
February 1, 2024 // According to an annual report by the Office of Labor Management Standards (OLMS), over 155 criminal investigations into union-related activity were completed over the past year. As a result, the OLMS distributed 39 indictments and collected 57 convictions for numerous offenses ranging from petty theft to labor racketeering. While these findings are certainly disturbing, they likely only represent a drop in the bucket of national union corruption. This is because, according to the Department of Labor, it is simply “not feasible” to audit every union. Instead, forced to optimize limited resources against widespread corruption, the OLMS has developed an auditing methodology for unions whose “metrics suggest the possibility that there may have been criminal activity.” In 2023, the OLMS conducted 222 of these targeted audits, ultimately finding that 18.3% of these cases warranted criminal action. With nearly 1/5 of audits uncovering some form of wrongdoing, even in the limited sampling size permitted by OLMS resources, it is fair to say that corruption is entrenched within the American labor movement.
Kay Ivey says Alabama’s economic model is ‘under attack’ with auto union push
January 16, 2024 // According to the UAW, its members signing union authorization cards represent about 30% of the plant’s workforce. Previous unionization drives by the UAW at Vance have not been able to gain traction. However, last year, UAW members at a Mercedes supplier walked out on the job while a new contract was negotiated. The ultimate goal of the union’s drive, according to UAW materials, is to reach the 70% threshold.
Labor organizers hope to maintain support after summer of strikes
December 13, 2023 // Labor organizers have since been trying to appeal to workers by tapping into frustrations about those inequities and taking action. Here in Ohio, Former State Sen. Nina Turner has established a nonprofit called We Are Somebody just to help those efforts nationwide. “We Are Somebody is a capacity building organization for the working class,” Turner said. “Our goal is to organize, amplify and fund workers on the front line, and that could be workers that are officially in a labor union, but also workers that are not in labor unions.”
What the UAW and Big 3 really thought of Biden’s picket line visit
November 8, 2023 // “This is the first time in American history a president has taken a side, walking a picket line,” said Chris Spear, head of the American Trucking Associations. “It’s not only anti-business, it kicks 90 years of impartial mediation by a president to the curb.” Biden’s decision to walk the picket line, he added, was “a new low as to what one will do to curry political endorsements.”
Op-ed: A Raise for Auto Workers May Imperil Biden’s Electric Vehicle Ambitions
October 5, 2023 // Ford CEO Jim Farley said the UAW's proposals could send the automaker into bankruptcy, while Barra said they were not "realistic." Dan Ives, research analyst for Wedbush Securities, said in a note to investors that the UAW's demands, if fully accepted, could cause automakers "to pass these costs onto the consumer" by increasing E.V. prices by as much as $5,000 each. By visiting an active picket line, Biden made his preference clear in the fight between unions and management. But depending on how the negotiations go, he may not be able to have it both ways: Either UAW members can get a big raise, or automakers can push forward in the transition to electric vehicles.
As Democrats back auto workers, GOP spots a divide over EVs
September 18, 2023 // The administration has been doling out funding provided by the 2021 infrastructure law for electric vehicle charging infrastructure and giving tax credits for electric vehicle buyers enacted in a 2022 reconciliation bill. Autoworkers see the push to electric vehicles as resulting in jobs in non-union factories in the U.S. and abroad, a contradiction of Biden’s promises to boost domestic manufacturing. The workers are also disgruntled about the EPA’s proposed rule on tailpipe emissions. The walkout began after the carmakers’ offers failed to meet the UAW’s demands for a double-digit wage increase over four years, reinstatement of cost-of-living pay increases, and more paid time off.
Auto workers can still resign from UAW and work during strike
September 17, 2023 // Union members who report to work during a strike are subject to union fines, the National Right to Work Legal Foundation announced in a public notice released Sept. 12. The organization advises union members who wish to stay on the job during a strike to resign at least a day before they return to work. “Union officials cannot fine or discipline nonmembers for crossing a picket line and working during a strike,” it adds. National Right to Work suggests sending a letter of resignation through certified mail, with a return receipt requested.
Biden’s Union Problems Are a Gift to Trump
September 8, 2023 // Former President Donald Trump, who won Michigan by just under 11,000 votes in one of the biggest political upsets of the 2016 election, weighed in on the possibility of a strike over the Labor Day weekend, referring to Fain as a "respected" union head and vowing to stop the "madness" of electric vehicles. A labor action from UAW is likely to open up an opportunity for Trump to seize one of Michigan's most critical counties. Recent polls show that Biden is in a statistical dead heat against Trump. The Democrat is leading by just one percentage point, according to RealClearPolitics' polling averages. "Fain is in no hurry to endorse President Biden when a significant number of UAW members supported former President Trump in previous elections," Arthur Wheaton, the director of Labor Studies at Cornell University, told Newsweek. "Why risk fractures in union solidarity during a crucial bargaining period. No upside to endorsing now and plenty of potential downside in an extremely difficult bargaining time at the Detroit Three." Political consultant Jay Towsend said that while a UAW strike would be unlikely to damage Biden's image as a union supporter, the economic impact and turmoil that a labor action could cause would give his re-election campaign "a headache it does not need, especially in rust-belt states he must win."
Labor unions are pushing hard for double-digit raises and better hours. Many are winning
August 28, 2023 // More than 320,000 workers have participated in at least 230 strikes so far this year, according to data from the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations. That’s already higher than the roughly 224,000 workers who participated in roughly 420 strikes in 2022, due in large part to tens of thousands of striking workers with the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and Writers Guild of America. “Major” strikes involving 1,000 or more workers so far amount to just 16 such work stoppages this year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That compares to a recent high of 25 recorded major work stoppages in 2019 and 23 last year.
Chances of costly autoworker strike extra high amid Biden’s EV push
August 24, 2023 // This time around, labor negotiations are taking place under much different circumstances, with Detroit automakers in a precarious spot in an unsettled industry. Yes, they've been raking in huge profits from high-priced pickup trucks and SUVs. But they're also investing billions of dollars to develop future EVs that consumers are still hesitant to buy. Of note: In a rare move, Biden entered the fray last week, urging both sides to come to an agreement. "I support a fair transition to a clean energy future," the president said in a statement.