Posts tagged EV
GM is shaping up to be the hardest hit by the UAW strike
October 9, 2023 // UAW members have been on strike for more than three weeks against Ford, GM, and Jeep-maker Stellantis, demanding hefty wage increases, an end to the tiered wage system, and more job security in the EV age, among other key issues. The UAW, led by President Shawn Fain, is taking a new approach as the union strikes all three companies at once for the first time. He has announced three targeted work stoppages since the strike began September 15, and GM is the only company that has been targeted all three times. Ford and Stellantis, meanwhile, have only been hit twice each. GM narrowly avoided a fourth strike Friday with an offer that delayed Fain's weekly update for members. The union president added no new strike targets, despite being prepared to shut down production at GM's highly profitable SUV factory in Arlington, Texas. In the face of this threat, Fain said, the UAW nabbed a win on union representation for future battery plants.
GM agrees to place EV battery manufacturing under UAW agreement
October 7, 2023 // General Motors (GM) has agreed to place battery manufacturing for electric vehicles (EVs) under its main agreement with the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, UAW President Shawn Fain announced on Friday. Fain said the union won’t expand its strike against the Big Three automakers following the the last-minute development in negotiations. “We’ve been told for months that this is impossible,” Fain said. “We’ve been told the EV future must be a race to the bottom. And now we’ve called their bluff.”
Ford pauses EV battery project; UAW calls decision ‘shameful’
September 27, 2023 // The Marshall project, named BlueOval Battery Park, was a collaboration with a Chinese firm called CATL. Michigan lawmakers had granted the project about $1.7 billion in cash and other forms of corporate welfare. BlueOval Battery Park drew major scrutiny, from Marshall residents to officials in Lansing and Washington, D.C. The chairs of three U.S. House committees sent letters to Ford CEO Jim Farley to inquire about the partnership; two of those committees said they were investigating the matter themselves. Republican lawmakers in Lansing said Ford’s decision is a commentary on the state of Michigan’s business climate, electric grid and energy transition. “After failing to land other high-profile Ford deals, Gov. Whitmer gave away the store to bring Ford to Marshall,” said Republican House Leader Matt Hall, R-Richland Township.
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."
UAW strike: What the media won’t tell you about the strike
September 21, 2023 // The Wall Street Journal reported that some in the UAW, including President Shawn Fain, pushed for a full strike, but “there was a simple financial calculation to consider: Such an option would rapidly drain the UAW’s $825 million fund that it uses to pay striking workers, likely depleting it within about two months.” In other words, the union itself doesn’t think it could hold out for long if it tried to shut all three companies. Hence the spin surrounding the current limited strike: UAW is trying to make a virtue out of necessity. In past negotiations, UAW has tried to secure a deal with one of the three automakers ahead of the others and then use that agreement as a template for bargaining with the other two. That UAW didn’t try that this time suggests the union feared it could not wrestle even one company to the ground.
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.
UAW strike 2023 against Detroit automakers: Live updates, news from the picket sites
September 15, 2023 //
Auto workers strike would test Biden’s assertion he’s the ‘most pro-union president in US history
September 13, 2023 // Union support was instrumental in helping Biden overcome a slow start to clinch the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, and it helped him win not just Michigan but Wisconsin and Pennsylvania as he defeated Trump in that year's general election. Underscoring his commitment to organized labor, Biden's lone campaign rally since launching his reelection bid in April came in June in Philadelphia, when more than a dozen of the country's largest and most powerful unions endorsed Biden for a second term. So many unions banding together for an unprecedented joint endorsement so early in the election cycle was meant as a show of strength for the president. Conspicuously absent from the event, though, was the UAW. Fain has since said that if Biden wants the UAW's 2024 endorsement, he'll have to earn it.
As Auto Strike Looms, Biden Admin Announces $15.5 Billion For Electric Vehicle Manufacturers
September 6, 2023 // President Biden has a couple of problems. Electric vehicles aren’t flying off the lot. Autoworkers’ unions are mad at him for pushing EVs which could kill their jobs. So, what’s Biden’s administration’s solution to this two-tiered conundrum? To put it bluntly, he is now speeding up the delivery of $15.5 billion — courtesy of the U.S. taxpayers — to artificially hold up the market in hopes of appeasing his political allies.