Posts tagged Ford
A year later, where does the UAW’s southern organizing campaign stand?
December 11, 2024 // That's where many auto manufacturers, both foreign and domestic, are locating their plants in recent years, and that trend will continue if it means automakers can pay less for labor. In 2023, the UAW's membership shrunk to about 370,000 members, the lowest number since the Great Recession. "The rule in labor organizing is, you have to organize the critical labor market," Schurman said. But the UAW also must prepare to play the long game, even if it means losing elections on the initial try.
The UAW’s strike on General Motors might haunt workers
December 4, 2024 // The United Auto Workers at General Motors received a 33% pay raise as a result of last year’s strike, but GM announced another round of layoffs on Nov. 15. GM laid off 1,000 employees worldwide, including 507 workers at its Warren, Michigan, location. The news comes after GM’s tech center in Warren lost 634 jobs in August, and the company cut 1,314 jobs from its Orion plant in December, two months after the strike ended.
UAW says majority of workers at Ford joint-venture battery plant sign union cards
November 22, 2024 // The UAW said a "supermajority" of workers at the Ford Kentucky battery plant had signed union cards indicating their support. It did not specify the percentage. "We want to maintain a direct relationship with our employees," BlueOval SK Human Resources Director Neva Burke said in a statement. Ford directed Reuters to BlueOval SK for comment.
Unions face a moment of truth in Michigan in this year’s presidential race
October 18, 2024 // Union leaders have said his first term was far from worker-friendly, citing unfavorable rulings from the nation’s top labor board and the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as unfulfilled promises of automotive jobs. They emphasize Democratic achievements in states like Michigan, including the recent repeal of a union-restricting right-to-work law enacted over a decade ago by a Republican-controlled legislature. With membership dwindling in states like Michigan, Fain will need to attract more than just union workers to secure a victory for Harris, who has campaigned in the state alongside him. If the union president cannot deliver Michigan after all these efforts, it could raise questions about his union's political influence in future elections.
Unions Defy Their Leadership With More ‘No’ Votes on Contracts
October 16, 2024 // Fed up with inflation and seizing a moment of labor power, workers at Boeing, AT&T and Southwest reject deals negotiated by union bosses
UAW Volkswagen Workers Negotiating For Strong First Contract
October 3, 2024 // Negotiations are underway between the United Auto Workers (UAW) and Volkswagen in Tennessee as the two sides work to hammer out the very first contract between VW union members and the automaker. Earlier this year, 4,300 workers at the VW's Chattanooga plant voted almost 3-to-1 to join the UAW, becoming the first Southern autoworkers outside the Big Three to unionize. The all-electric VW ID.4 is one model built at the plant.
Opinion: The Dangers of Union Expansion in Missouri
September 25, 2024 // Consider the fact also that the UAW has spent lavishly on travel, hotels, and executive salaries over the past several years. For example, from 2013 to 2018, the UAW spent $43 million on hotels and resorts and $4 million on restaurants and bars. Two past UAW Presidents have been convicted of felonies involving financial mismanagement. Meanwhile, current President Shawn Fain is under investigation by a federal court-appointed watchdog. Fain has been accused by two union officials of retaliating against them when they refused to take actions that would have benefited Fain’s fiancé and her sister.
Boeing union members are angry they lost their pension plan. They’re not likely to get it back
September 24, 2024 // But the fact is that the traditional pension plans, once a staple of the retirement of many workers, have become exceedingly rare in the modern American workplace. And once a company drops traditional pensions plans to shift employees to a 401(k) type of retirement account, they are almost always gone for good. While other unions have also sought to have lost pension plans restored, as the United Auto Workers union did during its successful strike at General Motors, Ford and Stellantis last fall, no American union has ever succeeded in bringing them back. Even though the auto strike produced a deal with record pay raises and other gains for the UAW, it did not restore pension plans to workers hired since 2007.
A year after the strike is the UAW still winning?
September 19, 2024 // HSU: Yeah. And Ailsa, you know, people who closely follow the auto industry have told me, you know, it's a very cyclical industry. We saw car sales go through the roof during the pandemic, when people - when Americans were flush with cash. That was never going to last forever. And now the automakers are also in the middle of this really messy and costly transition to EVs. The UAW is really fighting for its place in that transition. It did make some progress in the last contract negotiations - for example, getting GM battery workers under the National Labor Agreement. BISAHA: Yeah. And along those lines, earlier this month, we had a thousand battery workers at a GM joint venture battery plant in Tennessee. They joined the UAW, too. HSU: Yeah. That was a big win for the UAW. But, you know, as for Stellantis, this week, the union filed federal labor charges against the company, really in an attempt to get Stellantis to follow through on its investment promises, including reopening that plant in Belvidere. You know, this is just not going to be an easy fight, and it's one that I expect will probably end up in court.
UAW President Shawn Fain announces strike authorization votes against Stellantis
September 19, 2024 // While Stellantis had not commented Tuesday night on the UAW's plan to hold strike authorization votes, Fain vowed to keep fighting and force the company to honor its commitments. "Last year in our strike, we went on offense and we won," Fain said. "Stellantis wants everyone to believe they simply can't afford to keep their commitments to American autoworkers. But let's be clear, Stellantis is one of the most profitable auto companies in the world."