Posts tagged General Motors
Tesla: UAW seeks to unionize car maker, battle expected with CEO Elon Musk
December 6, 2023 //
Commentary: The UAW’s Strike Win on Plant Closures Is Too Rigid
December 2, 2023 // The transition to battery-electric vehicles is difficult enough without the addition of the UAW’s capacity alignment restrictions. Pricing and profit uncertainty within the sector is daunting, dealers seem reluctant to go all-in on the vision and the required infrastructure to ease consumer’s range anxiety will take multiple years to develop. Additionally, proposed CO2 and emission standards could add additional costs if manufacturers do not sell enough zero-emission vehicles. Manufacturers will need flexibility when transitioning from ICE-dedicated plants to dedicated BEV capacity. Rationalization is mandatory given the potential price pressure that will come from excess capacity in North America. The production volume for total light vehicles is a fixed amount. Supply does not create demand. Thus, the more manufacturers implement product and marketing strategies to fill BEV capacity, the more they will be forced to reduce ICE capacity.
UAW Wage Gains Filter Over to Non-Union Workers
November 29, 2023 // Volkswagen of America and Nissan are joining the cluster of non-union automakers offering their employees double-digit pay raises in the wake of contract settlements negotiated by the UAW in the wake of the union’s so-called “Stand-up Strike.” Both companies are no strangers to tangling with the UAW, fighting off organizing efforts within the past decade. VW, with the help of Tennessee’s Republican political establishment, blocked a UAW organizing drive by fewer than 100 votes in a 2019 vote supervised by the National Labor Relations Board. Nissan defeated a 2017 organizing effort in Canton, MS, by a 2-to-1 margin in a drive undermined by corruption charges which were then haunting the union. Earlier this year, Nissan says it defeated an International Association of Machinists effort to organize tool-and-die makers employed at the company’s manufacturing plant in Smyrna, TN, in a vote supervised by the NLRB.
Ford workers join those at GM in approving contract settlement that ended UAW strikes
November 20, 2023 // The United Auto Workers union overwhelmingly ratified a new contract with Ford, a pact that, along with similar deals with General Motors and Stellantis, will raise pay across the industry, force automakers to absorb higher costs and help reshape the auto business as it shifts away from gasoline-fueled vehicles. Workers at Ford voted 69.3% in favor of the pact, which passed with nearly a 15,000-vote margin in balloting that ended early Saturday. Earlier this week, GM workers narrowly approved a similar contract. At Stellantis, 68.7% of workers favored ratification, an insurmountable lead with votes at only two small facilities left to be counted.
Ford production workers at Kentucky, Louisville vote against new labor deal
November 13, 2023 // Production workers at Ford's (F.N) Louisville assembly and Kentucky truck plants have voted against the tentative labor agreement, while skilled trades workers voted in favor, the local chapter of the United Auto Workers (UAW) said on Monday. The ratification of the contract was voted down by 55% of the production workers whereas 69% of the skilled trades workers, which includes maintenance and construction employees backed it, the UAW Local 862 said in a Facebook post.
What the UAW and Big 3 really thought of Biden’s picket line visit
November 8, 2023 // “This is the first time in American history a president has taken a side, walking a picket line,” said Chris Spear, head of the American Trucking Associations. “It’s not only anti-business, it kicks 90 years of impartial mediation by a president to the curb.” Biden’s decision to walk the picket line, he added, was “a new low as to what one will do to curry political endorsements.”
Some Tesla workers say they’d never join a union, even as Ford and GM workers get big raises
November 7, 2023 // The United Auto Workers might have set its sights on Tesla, but some workers at the EV company told Insider they'd be hard-pressed to join a union. After reaching tentative agreements with Detroit automakers, the union's president, Shawn Fain, said last week that the UAW aims to expand its reach. And what better target than the most valuable car company in the world?
Labor board drops UAW complaint against Sen. Tim Scott
November 5, 2023 // The complaint centered on comments Scott made at a campaign event where he endorsed firing striking workers, which is against the law. “I think Ronald Reagan gave us a great example when federal employees decided they were going to strike,” Scott said at an Iowa campaign event. “He said, ‘You strike, you’re fired.’ Simple concept to me, to the extent that we can use that once again.” The union said Scott was “engaging in unfair labor practices.” Scott denounced the complaint when it was filed, saying UAW was attempting to “threaten” him and “shut me up.”
Toyota Gives 9% Pay Bump to Most U.S. Auto-Factory Workers, Following UAW Gains in Detroit
November 2, 2023 // The UAW recently concluded a more-than-six-week strike at the Detroit automakers, after reaching proposed contracts at all three car companies for roughly 146,000 U.S. auto workers. Those agreements include a 25% general wage increase over four years, which the UAW says is more than members have received in the past 22 years combined. When cost-of-living adjustments are factored in, the increase would boost the top pay for Detroit Three production workers to about $42 an hour at the end of the contract’s term in 2028. UAW President Shawn Fain has promoted the wins in Detroit as providing momentum to a union that is looking to expand its membership more broadly in the auto industry, a goal that has been elusive in the past. He has signaled that the UAW’s next targets are U.S. factories at Toyota, Tesla and foreign-owned automakers that currently don’t have union-represented workers in the U.S.
UAW and Stellantis reach tentative contract deal as union adds strike at Tennessee GM factory
October 29, 2023 // Under the deal, the union said it saved jobs in Belvidere as well at an engine plant in Trenton, Michigan, and a machining factory in Toledo, Ohio. “We’ve done the impossible. We have moved mountains. We have reopened an assembly plant that was closed,” Fain said. The deal includes a commitment by Stellantis to build a new midsize truck at its factory in Belvidere, Illinois, that was slated to be closed. About 1,200 workers will be hired back, plus another 1,000 workers will be added for a new electric vehicle battery plant, the union said. “We're bringing back both combustion vehicles and electric vehicle jobs to Belvidere,” Fain said.