Posts tagged Big Three Automakers
Commentary: Leaked Messages From UAW Official Reveal a Big Cause of Unions’ Decline
September 28, 2023 // If union officials actually want to protect UAW jobs and improve workers’ compensation, then they have to want the Big Three American automakers to succeed and to grow. Considering that U.S. auto production is less than half of what it was two decades ago, success is likely going to require that the UAW work alongside—rather than against—U.S. automakers to help them become more competitive. To the extent that involves lobbying policymakers, the focus should be on getting the government out of the business of picking winners and losers by its subsidizing of more expensive electric vehicles that require 40% less labor while also seeking to ban gas-powered vehicles that Americans still overwhelmingly desire. And if unions across America want to increase their membership, they should appeal directly to workers by offering things they value instead of using their dues to get politicians to go against their interests by doing things like attacking secret ballot union elections, restricting employers’ ability to share important information with workers before union elections, and establishing a pathway to force an employer to bargain with a union even if workers don’t want to be represented by it.
How state unemployment benefits impact the UAW strike
September 27, 2023 // "We were very confused if we were going to get (strike pay) or not," Halle Heinz, one of the Ford employees laid off, told WXYZ-TV in Detroit. "They were trying to hold as much strike pay as they could in order to make everything survive." Under Michigan law, UAW workers generally won't qualify for unemployment if they get laid off because of a labor dispute involving other workers at the same worksite, Brett Miller, an attorney specializing in labor law for Butzel in Detroit, tells Axios. UAW's Ohio and Indiana director is also navigating murky waters when it comes to unemployment. "It's clear as mud," UAW Region 2B director David Green told Crain's Cleveland Business. "I don't want to say all our members are going to get unemployment, because that's not going to happen." Disputes over unemployment benefits could end up in court, he said.
Opinion: UAW veers off the road in demanding more money for less work
September 26, 2023 // Last week, the UAW called for a work stoppage for about 12,700 employees at three U.S. plants. And until the union listed its demands, I had no idea that working five days a week was so undignified. Any union is only as strong as it is reasonable. The UAW – which represents about 150,000 autoworkers – has four major demands. They range from fair to fantastical. It's fair that the union is seeking the restoration of defined-benefit pensions and a rollback of concessions that workers made in 2007 when U.S. automakers were struggling. That is, as long as the union and the workers it represents understand that these things are cyclical and that they may have to make concessions again .
UAW demands cost-of-living salary adjustment as Americans feel pinch of inflation
September 26, 2023 // COLA, or cost-of-living adjustments to paychecks, are well-known by Social Security recipients, millions of whom live on a fixed income and carefully track the yearly, inflation-adjusted tweaks to their benefits. But for anyone else, the pay bumps that were baked into many union contracts for decades have fallen away over the last half-century. The government has even stopped tracking data on them. The prominence of unions in the 1970s and '80s also helped COLA numbers. Data from the BLS shows that 20% of American workers were union members in 1983 ‒ the first year for which comparable data are available ‒ versus 10% in 2022.
Electric vehicle jobs are booming in the anti-union South. UAW is worried
September 22, 2023 // “The auto industry’s move south hangs over these talks because now only a minority of workers are in unionized assembly plants,” said Stephen Silvia, a professor at American University and author of “The UAW’s Southern Gamble: Organizing Workers at Foreign-Owned Vehicle Plants.” While all of the Big Three’s plants are unionized, not a single plant in the South is unionized. Automakers’ transition to electric vehicles is accelerating these regional trends. Ford and GM are building battery plants below the Mason-Dixon Line, where states have laws that make unionization much harder than in the traditional working-class bastions of the Midwest. UAW leaders and union supporters worry the shift will lower compensation and cut out unions from the auto industry’s future, and they are seeking to address these concerns in talks with the Big Three.
‘I want to work’: UAW members face financial turmoil amid strike, share frustrations
September 22, 2023 // "This doesn't just affect me," Mitchell said. "This plant runs the city. This is affecting other people because now our suppliers are out of work. And the way they said it works in Ohio is, if you are laid off because of a strike you can't get unemployment." Desia Clement, a spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, confirmed that workers involved in a labor dispute such as a strike may not be eligible for unemployment benefits, but noted that every claim is unique and decided on a case-by-case basis.
Writers, UAW, UPS strikes: Impact on economy
September 22, 2023 // U.S. Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President Neil Bradley broke down what he referred to as "the summer of strikes." Bradley said, "You have these unrealistic, almost excessive demands on the part of union leadership across a whole host of industry that could ultimately be destabilizing for the entire economy."
Nearly 200 workers go on strike at Tuscaloosa Mercedes supplier
September 21, 2023 // The United Auto Workers said Wednesday that 190 workers had gone on strike at ZF Custom Chassis, a Tuscaloosa Mercedes parts supplier. UAW, which is engaged in a larger strike against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, said in an article published on their website on Tuesday that UAW members had rejected a contract offer from ZF. “These members of UAW Local 2083 supply front axels to Mercedes and have been fighting for a fair contract that ends tiers, raises wages and provides decent health care,” UAW wrote on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, on Wednesday morning. UAW Region 8, of which the Tuscaloosa local is a member, referred questions to UAW headquarters in Detroit. An email seeking comment was sent to the Detroit UAW on Wednesday morning.
What plants could be targeted next for a strike by the UAW?
September 20, 2023 // David Zoia, an auto expert with Ward's Automotive, believes the next group of plants could include where mid-size SUVs are made. "The GM plant in Lansing where they make the Traverse and Cadillacs, Ford Chicago where they make the Explorer and possibly the Jefferson Assembly in Detroit where they make the Grand Cherokee," Zoia said.
Auto suppliers say if UAW strikes expand to more plants, it could mean the end for many
September 20, 2023 // There are about 1,000 supplier facilities in Michigan, he said, noting that 96 of the top 100 suppliers to the North American auto market either have their headquarters or a facility in Michigan. So if the strike expands to other automaker plants and lasts into weeks, the job layoffs could reach into tens of thousands. "You have the direct employment and you have the multiplier affect of each of the automotive jobs and that is between six to 10 people for every one automaker job, so it’s substantial," Stevens said. "This is the largest industry in our economy. It has an economic contribution of over $300 billion annually to the state of Michigan.