Posts tagged Inflation Reduction Act
‘This is a problem’: Biden faces looming strikes that could rock economy
July 25, 2023 // Privately, some Democrats said the White House was caught off-guard by Fain’s ascension to the top of UAW. They described Biden’s team as currently being in an information-gathering mode about the union’s new leadership — a stark contrast from the close relationship it had enjoyed with former UAW president Ray Curry. Other Democrats said the White House was clearly aware of Fain’s criticism of how the Biden administration had doled out federal funds. But privately, some people in Biden’s orbit have continued to express worries that there’s distance between his agenda and a major union representing voters in a state key to his reelection. Biden’s senior staff has told allies “that the rhetoric from the new UAW leadership is concerning, this is a problem, and we’ve got to figure this out together,” according to a person familiar with the administration’s thinking.
OP-ED: BIDEN IS INVESTING IN GREEN ENERGY ACROSS THE SOUTH — THROWING SWING STATE UNION WORKERS UNDER THE BUS
July 12, 2023 // The success of the climate program will require continued federal commitment. Biden is placing a bet that clean energy investments could ultimately work the same way as the military-industrial complex. The military and its allied contractors have made sure to set up bases and/or manufacturing facilities in nearly every congressional district in the country, with extra attention paid to areas represented by key lawmakers. That has produced durable support for ever-expanding military budgets. Whether the same could be accomplished for the clean energy industry is an open question, but so far, Republicans from districts that have won federal awards have nevertheless voted to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act, which funds the tax breaks. By subsidizing the decline of union jobs, the Biden administration risks empowering lawmakers who will then move to end the subsidies altogether. “The total lack of consideration for workers could certainly make the difference in 2024.” “What Biden is doing is politically insane, environmentally bankrupt, and it’s poor economics,” Larry Cohen, former president of the Communications Workers of America and board member of Our Revolution, told The Intercept.
Prominent auto analyst on UAW contract talks: ‘I think we’re going to see a strike’
June 22, 2023 // Auto analysts at Bank of America feel confident in the likelihood of a United Auto Workers strike of at least one of the Detroit automakers later this year — and they expect the union to secure wage and benefit improvements that result in 25% to 30% higher labor costs for the companies over the four years of the contract. That's according to comments made Wednesday by John Murphy, managing director and lead U.S. auto analyst in equity research at Bank of America, during the financial institution's annual "Car Wars" presentation. The event was hosted by the Automotive Press Association. John Murphy, managing director and lead U.S. auto analyst in equity research at Bank of America, expects UAW members to be on the picket lines this September against at least one of the Detroit Three automakers. “I think we’re going to see a strike on Sept. 15," said Murphy. The UAW's current contracts with Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Stellantis NV expire Sept. 14. Talks on a new agreement are slated to start this summer. Murphy said he's highly confident in at least one strike happening, and that the chances of a subsequent strike at one of the other automakers is "much higher than normal."
32 Knowledge Tracker How New York’s Democratic Socialists Brought Unions Around to Public Renewables
June 20, 2023 // ince they did not initially have access to state-level union leaders, the DSA organizers started by building relationships with local utilities unions across the state. Public Power New York recruited hundreds of volunteers to help steer the victories of numerous DSA-endorsed state legislators in 2020 and 2022. One successful candidate was climate organizer Sarahana Shrestha, now a state assemblymember from the Hudson Valley. She unseated her long-tenured Democratic primary opponent, in part, by highlighting his opposition to the BPRA. The bill began to move in Albany in a real way when unions outside of the utilities sector, like the New York State United Teachers, the New York State Nurses Association, and the Service Employees International Union, endorsed the bill. Once the bill passed the state Senate in the summer of 2022, the utilities unions took a more serious interest in the plan. The BPRA’s labor provisions include prevailing-wage assurances and require that all the NYPA’s renewable projects include collective-bargaining agreements for every employee, including contractors and subcontractors. These agreements must be in place before work can start on a project. The law creates a $25 million just-transition fund to retrain fossil fuel–sector workers who could lose their jobs, and specifies that union leaders must be consulted in this process. It also prioritizes hiring these retrained workers for the NYPA’s renewable projects.
Auto workers union and Sanders blast GM for wages at U.S. battery plant
May 2, 2023 // United Auto Workers (UAW) union President Shawn Fain and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders on Thursday criticized a General Motors joint venture battery plant for paying workers much less than assembly plant employees even though it benefits from hefty U.S. government tax credits. Workers at the Warren, Ohio, joint venture Ultium Cells LLC plant start at $16.50 an hour rising to $20 an hour after seven years while union workers at a nearby Ohio GM assembly plant that closed in 2019 made $32 an hour or more.
Federal Employee Union Membership is Up 20%
March 29, 2023 // The task force asked federal agencies to foster collaborative relationships with their union partners, involve labor organizations in predecisional policy discussions, and remove barriers from unions trying to increase their membership or organize new bargaining units. The group recommended that the Office of Personnel Management instruct agencies to provide information on whether job openings are represented by unions and encourage agencies to provide unions more opportunities to communicate with new hires. In a blog post last week, the vice president’s office announced that just a year after agencies began implementing the task force’s recommendations, the initiative is already paying dividends: over the last year, nearly 80,000 federal employees have joined a union, increasing the total number of dues paying union members at federal agencies by 20%. And in the private sector, petitions for union representation increased 53% from fiscal 2021 to fiscal 2022, while overall union membership grew by 273,000 last year.
Can Women Help Fill the Shortage of Trade Workers? Unions Are Betting On It.
February 27, 2023 // Cassidy is one of a small but growing number of women who’ve entered the trades in the last few decades who are urging others to join a fast-growing industry where union-protected jobs provide good pay and benefits. Historically, trades have overwhelmingly employed men. Now, the lack of women in these jobs could hurt the country’s ambitions to fix the country’s aging roads and bridges and transition more quickly to renewable energy like wind and solar. This point was driven home at a forum on workforce development held by the North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) in January, where union leaders and industry executives met in Washington, D.C., to address the shortage of skilled trades workers.
Can Women Help Fill the Shortage of Trade Workers? Unions Are Betting On It.
February 15, 2023 // Her website bio describes her as a feminist plumber, but Judaline Cassidy is more than that. She’s nothing short of a tradeswoman evangelist, preaching the gospel of tradework to the masses, and she hopes women are listening. Cassidy was raised by her grandmother in Trinidad and Tobago. Without money to attend college, she began to look at trades, which she saw as the one way she could learn an employable skill and get paid doing it. She chose plumbing.
As Federal Cash Flows to Unions, Democrats Hope to Reap the Rewards
February 13, 2023 // In places like West Virginia, money from three major laws passed by Congress is pouring into the alternative energy industry and other projects. “I think it’s a renaissance for the labor movement,” said one union official. Beyond the inflation act, Democrats, with help from a few Republicans, were able to add prevailing wage requirements to the semiconductor bill. And both the Energy and Transportation Departments are making clear that access to unions, payment of prevailing wages and commitments to local hiring will be big advantages for competitive bidders seeking infrastructure and highway electrification projects, though Republican governors like Joe Lombardo in Nevada are trying to block some of those requirements.
Reuters Analysis: Biden’s climate agenda has a problem in not enough workers
January 17, 2023 // The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law last year, provides for an estimated $370 billion in solar, wind and electric vehicle subsidies, according to the White House. Starting Jan. 1, American consumers can take advantage of those tax credits to upgrade home heating systems or put solar panels on their roofs. Those investments will create nearly 537,000 jobs a year for a decade, according to an analysis by BW Research commissioned by The Nature Conservancy.