Posts tagged electric vehicle
Biden’s push for electric cars alienates longtime union allies
June 29, 2023 // The union initially backed many of Trump's protectionist trade policies when he was president, including renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which they blamed for allowing U.S. manufacturing jobs to go to Mexico. Biden's re-election campaign, meanwhile, points to the historic early endorsements from the AFL-CIO and 17 others unions as proof of the president's pro-labor stance. The bottom line: At a time when Democrats need the Midwest to preserve political power, the president's commitment to promoting EVs is testing his support among longtime allies.
Prominent auto analyst on UAW contract talks: ‘I think we’re going to see a strike’
June 22, 2023 // Auto analysts at Bank of America feel confident in the likelihood of a United Auto Workers strike of at least one of the Detroit automakers later this year — and they expect the union to secure wage and benefit improvements that result in 25% to 30% higher labor costs for the companies over the four years of the contract. That's according to comments made Wednesday by John Murphy, managing director and lead U.S. auto analyst in equity research at Bank of America, during the financial institution's annual "Car Wars" presentation. The event was hosted by the Automotive Press Association. John Murphy, managing director and lead U.S. auto analyst in equity research at Bank of America, expects UAW members to be on the picket lines this September against at least one of the Detroit Three automakers. “I think we’re going to see a strike on Sept. 15," said Murphy. The UAW's current contracts with Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Stellantis NV expire Sept. 14. Talks on a new agreement are slated to start this summer. Murphy said he's highly confident in at least one strike happening, and that the chances of a subsequent strike at one of the other automakers is "much higher than normal."
The Morning Shift: UAW Faces An Uphill Fight On Unionizing Battery Plants
June 9, 2023 // While workers at the Ultium are organized and fighting for a contract, once agreed it won’t be applicable to workers at other EV facilities. Instead, UAW will have to run organizing drives and bargain locally at each site. Meanwhile, Ford has plans for three sites with SK On and one with Chinese partner CATL in Michigan; Stellantis will open a new plant with Samsung SDI in 2025; and GM has three U.S. battery plants coming with Korean partners, so the UAW will have its work cut out for it.
Commentary: Does Biden Know About This Impending Labor Strike?
May 29, 2023 // The most pro-labor union president is facing not one but two significant strikes under his watch. The latest is from the United Auto Workers Union
Opinion: The green movement is a jobs killer. Are unions finally figuring this out?
May 15, 2023 // Even now, as Biden cozies up to the Sierra Club and Greenpeace and places a metaphorical blade at the neck of the blue-collar union workers, the union bosses are reluctant to call for a divorce with “lunch bucket Joe.” After acknowledging the threat that Biden posed to the livelihoods of tens of thousands of union members, the UAW’s Fain warned that “another Donald Trump presidency would be a disaster.” How? Union workers saw huge job and wage gains when Trump was president. Fain even muttered some disingenuous mumbo jumbo about getting "behind a pro-worker, pro-climate agenda" for the working class. That’s an oxymoron.
OPINION: UAW’s phony baloney non-endorsement threat to Biden’s re-election campaign
May 11, 2023 // Union officials have already traveled to Washington to meet with the Biden administration officials to voice their concerns. A memo written by the union’s president, Shawn Fain, said the Detroit-based union leadership expressed “our concerns with the electric vehicle transition” that Biden pursues.
Focus organizing drives on workers without college degrees, US unions told
May 8, 2023 // n contrast, unionization hasn’t taken off nearly as rapidly at many blue-collar, lower-paid workplaces. No other Chipotle restaurant has unionized since workers in Lansing, Michigan, voted last August to make theirs the nation’s first unionized Chipotle. Only one Amazon warehouse is unionized in the US, just two Apple stores and four Trader Joe’s. Those companies have mounted fierce anti-union counterattacks to slow and they hope stop the spread. Chris Rosell, the Teamsters’ organizing director, says one reason unionization of blue-collar workers often doesn’t catch fire is that it’s frequently easier for anti-union consultants to scare and deter those workers. “Blue-collar workers often aren’t as educated about this union-busting stuff,” he said. “They could be more susceptible to these kinds of tactics.” Rosell said the Teamsters often run elaborate campaigns that seek to inoculate workers from the pressures and propaganda from anti-union consultants. He said the Teamsters’ president, Sean O’Brien, hopes to double the union’s membership and focus organizing on such area trucking, warehouses and sanitation work. Erica Smiley, executive director of Jobs with Justice, a labor rights group, says it’s often harder to unionize blue-collar workers because they tend to have less economic security than educated workers and have greater fear of what will happen to them if they’re retaliated against, perhaps getting fired, for seeking to unionize.
AUTOS UAW withholding Biden reelection endorsement until EV concerns are addressed
May 5, 2023 // Leaders of the United Auto Workers are withholding a reelection endorsement for President Joe Biden until the union’s concerns about the auto industry’s transition to all-electric vehicles are addressed. UAW President Shawn Fain says the union wants a “just transition” for workers, as the government uses taxpayer money to subsidize the EV industry. This doesn’t mean the historically Democratic union is backing a Republican. In the Tuesday letter, Fain also noted “another Donald Trump presidency would be a disaster.”
New UAW Leader Already Has Issues With Detroit Automakers
April 25, 2023 // Speaking to the Automotive Press Association in Detroit, Fain said members are demanding that the union win back cost-of-living pay raises and pensions they lost, and the elimination of tiers of workers who are paid differently but do the same jobs. They also want assurances that good-paying union jobs will be preserved as the companies transition from gasoline-powered vehicles to those that run on electricity. Auto companies, he said, have made billions over the last decade but workers haven’t gotten their fair share since the companies got into financial trouble in 2009. “I want to work with the companies. I want to have a good relationship,” Fain said. “But if they’re not going to treat our members with respect and not give them their due, then we’re going to have issues.”
United Auto Workers union membership rose 3% in 2022 to 383,000
April 5, 2023 // Membership in the United Auto Workers union rose 3% in 2022 to 383,000 as it works to organize workers in battery plants and other electric vehicle components. Last month, Shawn Fain won a closely contested race against incumbent Ray Curry for UAW president by fewer than 500 votes out of about 140,000 cast. Fain said last week the union was ready to go to war against "employers who refuse to give our members their fair share."