Posts tagged Detroit automakers
Biden backs UAW aim to unionize Tesla, Toyota
November 14, 2023 //
‘Battle royale’: Tesla and anti-union Musk make enticing targets for UAW’s next push
November 5, 2023 // Some current UAW members are already fired up to take on Tesla. “Go out west to California? Absolutely, I would go,” said John Jake Kincaid, a Stellantis employee in Michigan. “Show them our strength.” Still, fighting for a contract at companies with established relationships with union workers is a far different effort than starting from scratch. Several workers who were key to Tesla’s earlier union effort are no longer at the company. The Fremont plant’s history with the UAW predates the electric vehicle maker. For about 25 years, Toyota and GM operated the facility together in an unusual joint venture. It was a union shop. In 2009, GM pulled out of the partnership as part of its bankruptcy proceedings and in 2010 Toyota shut the operation down, throwing 4,700 people out of work. A month later, Tesla bought the sprawling 5.3 million square foot factory; the union didn’t come with the purchase.
UAW Urges All Unions in US to Prepare for May Day 2028 Strikes
October 31, 2023 // The UAW’s social media accounts expanded the call by reposting other organizers’ social media calls to align more labor agreements to end alongside the UAW’s contract. Mass strikes are a common occurrence in Europe. Just this year, more than one million French people struck to protest the government’s proposal to raise the retirement age. Hundreds of thousands of public service workers in the UK — including rail workers, nurses, postal employees and lawyers — struck for higher wages in the face of soaring inflation. In March, German air and rail workers banded together to bring travel to a halt as they demanded more pay.
GM reaches tentative deal with UAW, ending strikes at Detroit automakers after six weeks
October 30, 2023 // It’s not immediately clear how much the labor deals will increase labor costs for the companies, which had argued that giving in to all of the union’s demands would affect their competitiveness and even long-term viability. Deutsche Bank recently estimated the overall cost increase of the agreement at Ford to be $6.2 billion over the term of the agreement; $7.2 billion at GM; and $6.4 billion at Stellantis.
UAW and Ford reach tentative deal to end strike
October 26, 2023 // The Ford deal includes the biggest contract wins the UAW has secured in years, including a 25 percent hike in base wages through April 2028, the union said. The agreement provides cost-of-living adjustments to wages that will help raise the top hourly wage by over 30 percent to more than $40 by the end of the contract, union officials said. The starting hourly wage will grow to more than $28. The deal also shortens the time it takes new workers to reach the top wage, and eliminates wage tiers that left newer workers on a lower pay scale, the UAW said. It also boosts Ford’s contribution to retirement accounts.
UAW and Ford reach tentative contract deal with Ford after 45 days on strike
October 26, 2023 // “We told Ford to pony up, and they did,” President Shawn Fain said in a video address to members. “We won things no one thought possible.” He added that Ford put 50% more money on the table than it did before the strike started on Sept. 15. UAW Vice President Chuck Browning, the chief negotiator with Ford, said workers will get a 25% general wage increase, plus cost of living raises that will put the pay increase over 30%, to above $40 per hour.
Musk May Face Someone Else Who’s Ready for a Cage Fight
October 10, 2023 // The long-running decline in union membership mirrors the decline in Detroit’s share of the US vehicle market. That was 90% during the industry’s, and organized labor’s, 1960s heyday. By the time of the debacle of 2009, it had fallen to about 50%. Now it’s closer to 40%. As Kevin Tynan, automotive analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, points out, the Big Three have effectively downsized by ditching cheaper models and focusing on higher-priced trucks and SUVs to chase profits. As they attempt to open up a new avenue of growth, EVs, they are confronted with big near-term costs that higher pay settlements will exacerbate. “The UAW must broaden its view if it is going to increase its membership,” says Tynan, adding “they have to stop only going back to GM, Ford and Stellantis. There is no more blood in those stones.” The UAW has been aware of this for some time, which is why it targeted foreign automakers’ factories — so called “transplants” — and Tesla itself at various points over the past decade. Such effort has been largely in vain. Tesla, meanwhile, has become profitable at scale only recently. The company’s identity as a disruptive newcomer, with plants far from the UAW’s heartland around the Great Lakes, is another barrier. It is harder to entice workers into a union when their employer is hiring at breakneck speed rather than shedding thousands of jobs. Tesla has also pushed back aggressively against unionization, as those NLRB rulings attest (Tesla is appealing several of these).
Here’s how a union strike could impact Ford — and what Jim Cramer thinks about the stock
September 6, 2023 // The risk of a walkout by the union has also created near-term uncertainty for General Motors (GM) and Stellantis (STLA) — the Dutch owner of the Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep brands, among others. The UAW's current labor contract covering 146,000 workers at the Big 3 American automakers expires at 11:59 p.m. ET on Sept. 14. Jim Cramer's advice: He would not look to buy more Ford on weakness nor would he look to sell Ford stock at this point. Club name Ford, which employs the most UAW members at 57,000, has seen its stock drop more than 6% in the past month. Over the same stretch, GM, which has 46,000 UAW members, declined roughly 9% and Stellantis, which has 43,000 union workers, fell roughly 7%. No matter where the talks lead, the automakers are going to see significant increases in their labor costs. The question is whether they have enough inventory to offset complications from work stoppage.