Posts tagged GM
Ex-UAW President Ray Curry calls on Reuther Administration Caucus, criticizes current leaders
July 22, 2025 // Curry deferred questions regarding UAW leaders and the state of the union to his comments in the letter. It said "outsiders" who supported Fain's campaign are in leadership positions without having worked in a UAW facility or paid dues. "Their leadership style is based on fear, intimidation and retaliation," Curry wrote.
United Auto Workers union to hold meeting in light of GM layoffs
May 29, 2025 // Meanwhile, GM is planning a massive expansion at its plant in Tonawanda, a suburb north of Buffalo, which is expected to be done in 2027. The Governor’s office says the $888 million investment will equip the plant to make V8 gas powered engines. It says 177 jobs at that plant were at risk before this investment. Employees who have been impacted by layoffs worked at the plant on Lexington Avenue producing parts for electric cars.
Op-ed: California Legislature should drop latest attack on gig workers
April 21, 2025 // “The bill’s utter lack of detail is a problem,” William Messenger told us; he’s vice president and legal director of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, which defends workers’ right not to be controlled by unions. “It’s almost like they’re giving that department the authority to just sort of make up its own labor law.” He contrasted that with Massachusetts, whose voters last November passed Question 3, which enacts gig driver rules, but runs to 33 pages and, among other things, details a hearing and appeals process.
Face The Nation UAW president Shawn Fain says “tariffs are a tool in the toolbox” in helping auto workers
April 1, 2025 // "Tariffs are a tool in the toolbox to get these companies to do the right thing, and the intent behind it is to bring jobs back here, and, you know, invest in the American workers," Fain told CBS News chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett in an interview that aired Sunday on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan." Mr. Trump announced the 25% tariffs last week, which he said will take effect on April 2, escalating his administration's effort to boost domestic manufacturers through aggressive trade measures. Fain, who leads the 400,000-member union that went on a 46-day strike in 2023, called the tariffs a "motivator,"
Workers hope to steer giant Southern EV battery plant toward unionization
March 25, 2025 // Buoyed by notable victories in the last couple of years, the United Auto Workers union is revving up efforts to organize the EV and battery sector in the South. One target is a sprawling campus in rural Kentucky that, once completed, will be one of the largest EV battery plants in the world. A supermajority of workers at BlueOval SK has asked the National Labor Relations Board for a vote on joining the United Auto Workers. The nearly $6 billion electric vehicle battery campus in Glendale, Kentucky, is part of a joint venture between Ford and South Korea’s SK On. It’s not up and running yet, but early hires say they’re exposed to hazards on the job, including formation production operator Alisha Miller.
The value of union strikes under Trump
January 29, 2025 // Like the UAW strikes, media coverage celebrated the strikes, but the impact appears nonexistent. The Starbucks rolling strike lasted a handful of days and only affected 300 stores and 5,000 employees — a miniscule percentage of Starbucks’ 10,000-plus stores and almost 200,000 workers. The Amazon strike impacted less than 10 of Amazon’s more than 100 locations, and workers generally continued working.
GM profit sharing: Here’s the record amount UAW members will get for 2024
January 28, 2025 // The previous record of up to $12,750 for about 42,300 eligible hourly employees was set in 2023. Last year, GM paid roughly 45,000 workers up to $12,250. United Auto Workers Vice President Mike Booth said in a letter to members the payments would be distributed on Feb. 28. The payouts will amount to $640 million in cost for the company, GM CEO Mary Barra said in a letter to shareholders.
UAW scores supermajority at BlueOval SK in 2025’s first big labor win
January 27, 2025 // The supermajority vote by workers at BlueOval SK occurred after attending a town hall-style meeting in Elizabethtown, Kentucky with UAW members from Ultium Cells in Lordstown, Ohio last month. The Lordstown Ultium plant makes battery cells for GM and Honda electric vehicles and, like the BlueOval SK (BOSK) project, is a joint venture between one of the Detroit 3 and a Korean battery brand (in the case of Ultium, GM and LG; in the case of BlueOval SK, Ford and SK On).
Shawn Fain was Kamala Harris’ most forceful union backer. It could cost him his job
December 30, 2024 // United Auto Workers union President Shawn Fain was one of the most prominent union leaders backing Vice President Kamala Harris in this year’s US presidential election and one of the harshest critics of Donald Trump while on the campaign trail. And because of that, he’ll have a powerful enemy when Trump takes back the White House on January 20.
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.