Posts tagged factories
Thousands of Boeing workers who build fighter jets and weapons go on strike
August 4, 2025 // The vote followed a weeklong cooling-off period after the machinists rejected an earlier proposed contract, which included a 20% wage increase over four years and $5,000 ratification bonuses. Boeing warned over the weekend that it anticipated the strike after workers rejected its latest offer, which did not further boost the proposed wage hike. However, the proposal removed a scheduling provision that would have affected workers' ability to earn overtime pay. “We’re disappointed our employees rejected an offer that featured 40% average wage growth and resolved their primary issue on alternative work schedules,”
Commentary: Unions are bad for cities
August 16, 2024 // The truth is that unionization doesn’t even increase wages for all union members. Single-salary schedules ensure that senior members earn the most and new members the least, regardless of value or merit. While union leaders may brag about the union member premium — the ostensibly higher wages that unionized workers earn — it only exists for older members, where it exists at all. What’s more, unions’ seniority layoff system protects longer-serving union members before anyone else. The most junior employees are the first to be let go and the last to be rehired. Last-in-first-out layoffs do nothing to improve productivity, but they do a lot to protect senior members.
Electric Vehicle Factories Are Overwhelmingly Nonunion. The UAW Strike Could Change That.
September 20, 2023 // Nonunion companies are also getting in on the EV facility boomlet. Tesla plans to expand to a lithium refinery in Texas and produce battery cells, packs, and modules in California and Texas. Other companies investing in battery plants include BMW (South Carolina), Honda (Ohio), Hyundai (Georgia), Mercedes-Benz (Alabama), Toyota (North Carolina), Volkswagen (Ontario, Canada), and Volvo (South Carolina). The construction boom continues in nonunion plants. A variety of battery manufacturers are building new facilities, too. These include the Japanese company AESC (Tennessee, Kentucky, and South Carolina), the Chinese-owned Gotion (Michigan), South Korea’s LG Energy Solution (Arizona and Michigan) the start-up Our Next Energy (Michigan), Japanese-owned Panasonic (Kansas), South Korean SK Battery America (Georgia), and Redwood Materials, a recycling company (Nevada and South Carolina).
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.
Biden Loves Labor Unions But Blue-Collar Workers Don’t Love Him Back
September 8, 2022 // Macomb County, Michigan, is home to an old guard of auto manufacturing tradesmen and a new generation of young organizers in the service and cannabis industries. The jolt of organizing energy that Biden has failed to harness has come from baristas, warehouse workers and others in the service sector, whose low-wage jobs are replacing reliable, higher-paid ones on assembly lines in Macomb and elsewhere. Alyssa Coakley, Celine McNicholas,