Posts tagged TESLA
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?
How the UAW’s drive to ‘end tiers’ will change GM
November 5, 2023 // GM, Ford and Stellantis, which faced a coordinated UAW strike, have said tiers of workers allows them to keep costs down and remain competitive with non-union factories operated by Tesla and foreign makers' U.S. plants, and the Detroit Three have warned that the strike-ending deals present major financial challenges. Eliminating tiers of lower-paid UAW workers at the Detroit Three was a top priority for Fain and UAW bargainers. Fain and UAW members would often wear red t-shirts printed with the slogan "End Tiers" at rallies and on picket lines.
‘Battle royale’: Tesla and anti-union Musk make enticing targets for UAW’s next push
November 5, 2023 // Some current UAW members are already fired up to take on Tesla. “Go out west to California? Absolutely, I would go,” said John Jake Kincaid, a Stellantis employee in Michigan. “Show them our strength.” Still, fighting for a contract at companies with established relationships with union workers is a far different effort than starting from scratch. Several workers who were key to Tesla’s earlier union effort are no longer at the company. The Fremont plant’s history with the UAW predates the electric vehicle maker. For about 25 years, Toyota and GM operated the facility together in an unusual joint venture. It was a union shop. In 2009, GM pulled out of the partnership as part of its bankruptcy proceedings and in 2010 Toyota shut the operation down, throwing 4,700 people out of work. A month later, Tesla bought the sprawling 5.3 million square foot factory; the union didn’t come with the purchase.
Unionization booms in 2023, but is far from 1950s peak
November 2, 2023 // "A very limited number of workers in California are unionized. Currently, it's about 16 to 17 percent," Bernick said, adding that the majority of unionized workers are in the public sector. A lack of jobseekers, a strong economy and the state mandating higher pay for many classes of workers, have helped wage gains in recent years, Bernick said. So, 2023 could turn out to be something less than a grand slam. "I've seen a number of events that have been pointed to as seminal changes in unionization in California, and they've actually had very limited impact," Bernick said. But the public, by and large, supports the organizing efforts.
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.
Bad vibes are sending shudders through Tesla, GM and Ford
October 30, 2023 // EV-specific factors include higher average costs than gas-powered models and many consumers lack of familiarity with the tech. "I see EV sales plateauing and even falling over the next 6 months," Brauer predicts. Threat level: "Investors have been too optimistic about EV demand growth . . . slowing demand growth is coming sooner than expected, especially in the high-end EV market," said Lee Hang-koo of Korea Automotive Technology Institute tells the Financial Times.
GM reaches tentative deal with UAW, ending strikes at Detroit automakers after six weeks
October 30, 2023 // It’s not immediately clear how much the labor deals will increase labor costs for the companies, which had argued that giving in to all of the union’s demands would affect their competitiveness and even long-term viability. Deutsche Bank recently estimated the overall cost increase of the agreement at Ford to be $6.2 billion over the term of the agreement; $7.2 billion at GM; and $6.4 billion at Stellantis.
UAW members aren’t all assembling cars. More and more are unionized grad students
October 23, 2023 // These days, the "A" in UAW might as well include academia, as roughly 100,000 of the union's 383,000 members work in higher education. They include graduate students who work as teaching and research assistants, clerical and technical workers, adjunct professors and postdocs.
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.