Posts tagged GM
UAW and Ford reach tentative deal to end strike
October 26, 2023 // The Ford deal includes the biggest contract wins the UAW has secured in years, including a 25 percent hike in base wages through April 2028, the union said. The agreement provides cost-of-living adjustments to wages that will help raise the top hourly wage by over 30 percent to more than $40 by the end of the contract, union officials said. The starting hourly wage will grow to more than $28. The deal also shortens the time it takes new workers to reach the top wage, and eliminates wage tiers that left newer workers on a lower pay scale, the UAW said. It also boosts Ford’s contribution to retirement accounts.
Anderson Economic Group, LLC Reports Strike-Induced Auto Industry Losses Exceed $9.3 Billion
October 26, 2023 // Anderson Economic Group, LLC, a boutique economic consultancy based in Michigan, has calculated that the 2023 UAW strike against Detroit’s three top automakers has surpassed $9.3 billion in economic losses for the auto industry. These calculations encompass losses through the fifth full strike week, which ended at midnight on October 19. These figures do not include plant closures, additional strike targets, or layoffs that took effect on or after Friday, October 19. These will be included in our loss calculations in the sixth and any successive weeks. OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer, in this case referring to Ford, GM, and Stellantis.
Texas SUV plant added to UAW strike
October 24, 2023 // Some 5,000 workers at GM's plant in Arlington, Texas, joined the strike Tuesday. That halts production on several large SUVs: the Chevrolet Tahoe, Chevrolet Suburban, GMC Yukon and Cadillac Escalade. It's the second straight day the union has expanded the strike. On Monday it added Stellantis' Ram 1500 pickup plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan, to the work stoppage. Context: It also comes the same day as GM released its third-quarter earnings report. The company reported a third-quarter profit of $3.1 billion but said the strike has already cost the company $800 million, including $600 million since the earnings period ended.
Unions push to represent more workers, but organized labor’s share of jobs is declining
October 24, 2023 // For all the sound and fury on the labor front, its net effect is unknown. Unions’ overall share of the workforce was 10.1% in 2022 and declining, about half the rate of 1983, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That percentage is swelled by union predominance in government work. In the private sector, the share of union jobs was 6% in 2022. The number of union members overall has grown but not as fast as jobs in the rest of the economy. “It takes a lot of new members to raise the union density,” said Robert Bruno, a professor of labor and employment relations at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
UAW reaches tentative deal with General Dynamics, preventing strike
October 23, 2023 // Like its peers, General Dynamics has struggled with supply and labor shortages at a time when weapons demand is on the rise due to the war in Ukraine, conflict in the Middle East and tensions in U.S.-China relations over Taiwan. UAW members at the company make military vehicles including tanks and light armored vehicles, according to the union. UAW did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Details of the proposed agreement, which needs to be ratified by UAW workers, were not immediately available.
Op-ed: In the wake of the UAW strike, automakers and workers should move to a state that values them
October 23, 2023 // The “us vs. them” mentality of the UAW has created an antagonistic relationship between workers and the automakers’ management, leading to outrageous demands that aren’t in their members’ best interests. Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis will not survive if they have to pay people not to work or offer outdated retirement plans that lead to bankruptcy. Workers deserve better than this. They deserve to have a collaborative relationship with automakers — the kind that leads to both higher wages for workers and stronger competitiveness for companies. That’s why more automakers should look to expand and hire in Tennessee, where we put worker freedom first.
UAW members grow weary five weeks into strike, supply starts to thin
October 20, 2023 // Fletcher says workers are waiting for Ford and Stellantis to put all Electric Vehicle battery production in a UAW agreement similar to what GM pledged to do two weeks ago. But he said he feels Ford has given them a good enough offer he can live with. "Like I tell all these young guys – they’re wanting the moon and the stars – take what you can get before you lose what you got," he said. Experts in the auto industry are saying the strike has prompted a widening shortage of midsize trucks, which were already in short supply when the strike began in mid-September.
Tesla Workers Are Union “Members Of The Future,” UAW President Says
October 19, 2023 // Tesla is likely the most "problematic" carmaker for the UAW as CEO Elon Musk strongly opposes unionization at the company's plants. The United Auto Workers and Workers United trade unions have sought to unionize Tesla's workers in California and New York, respectively, but Elon Musk has thwarted all attempts so far. In addition, as Teslarati points out, numerous Tesla workers have become millionaires in the past despite being non-unionized, thanks to the company's stock-based compensation programs. In an infamous tweet from May 2018, Musk seemed to threaten Tesla workers with the loss of stock options if they formed a union. "Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union. Could do so tmrw if they wanted. But why pay union dues & give up stock options for nothing?" read the tweet. The National Labor Relations Board ordered Musk to delete the tweet, but the billionaire appealed the court order.
Prolonged UAW strike will ‘collapse’ supply chains, Ford chair warns
October 18, 2023 // “This should not be Ford versusthe UAW,” Ford said. “This should be Ford and the UAW versus Toyota, Honda, Tesla, and all the Chinese companies that want to enter our home market. Toyota, Honda, Tesla and the others are loving this strike because they know the longer it goes on, the better it is for them. They will win and all of us will lose.” UAW President Shawn Fain disagreed with Ford’s framing. “It’s not the UAW and Ford against foreign automakers,” Ford said, in remarks published by Detroit News reporter Jordan Grzelewski. “It’s autoworkers everywhere against corporate greed.” Ford warned that an extended strike would challenge supply chains not only at the automaker, but throughout the economy.
UAW president stoking members’ anger against auto executives
October 12, 2023 //