Posts tagged UAW
A lot of US autoworkers like the idea of auto tariffs. But some are being laid off as a result
April 8, 2025 // “It’s more of the same from Stellantis, unfortunately,” he told CNN Thursday, the day the layoffs were announced. “Stellantis, which has had several months to prepare, announces it will use employees as collateral damage.” But the options for Stellantis are not good ones. If it assumes the cost of the tariffs on cars assembled in Canada and Mexico, vehicle production will become unprofitable. If it charges customers the full cost of the tariffs, it will probably price them out of the market. Alternatively, automakers could simply decide to no longer build those models.
UPS deliveries disrupted, others unaffected as strike continues
April 7, 2025 // UPS deliveries were disrupted for a few days as a result of the Wellesley Organized Academic Workers’ (WOAW-UAW) strike, while other deliveries to the College will remain normal. UPS, which unionized under the Teamsters Union, has the contractual right to refuse to cross a picket line, according to the UPS National Master Agreement Article 9. Students received notices from the UPS shipping email last week saying that “unfortunately, a labor strike (unrelated to UPS) has prevented delivery of your package. Your delivery has been rescheduled for the next business day.”
U of Washington Research Coordinators, Consultants Unionize
April 4, 2025 // “They are responsible for running clinical trials, liaising with patients and scientists, and ensuring that research results are grounded in rigorous science,” the release said. “Despite the critical role they play at the university, many report job insecurity, a lack of transparency around career advancement and workload, low compensation relative to cost of living, and more as their reasons for forming a union.”
UAW Leader Gets $275K Payday While Union Dips Further Into Red
April 3, 2025 // Given the fact that former UAW president Gary Jones pleaded guilty to using union money to pay for personal expenses and was sentenced to 28 months in prison in 2021, it’s no surprise that members are keeping a close eye on executive pay. In Fain’s case, while his gross salary was $229,514, total payments from the union, including official business disbursements, reached $274,407 in 2024. The next top earner within the UAW was Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Mock,who earned a salary of $224,861, with total payments amounting to $247,169. Vice Presidents Mike Booth, Rich Boyer, and Chuck Browning all received the same $211,001 in gross salaries, while the head of the union’s Stellantis department, Kevin Gotinsky, had a total salary of $177,942. As reported by the Detroit Free Press, the UAW’s membership grew from 370,239 in 2023 to 375,161 in 2024. This came thanks in part to its successful effort to unionize the VW plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, but remains down from the 383,003 members it had in 2022.
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,"
Free the Economy podcast with Vinnie Vernuccio of the Institute for the American Worker
March 27, 2025 // Our interview for Episode 116 of the Free the Economy podcast is with Vinnie Vernuccio of the Institute for the American Worker. We talk about labor unions, independent contractors, right-to-work laws, port automation, and the future of the American workforce. Free the Economy is hosted by Richard Morrison. Our co-producer and editor is Destry Edwards. Keep up with new episodes by following us on Twitter at @freethe_economy and read our episode summaries, with links to the stories we cover, at cei.org/blog.
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.
About 90 UAW members are on strike in Oshkosh
March 21, 2025 // Compton said the biggest sticking points in the negotiations have centered around temporary workers and mandatory overtime on Saturdays. He said the plant does not currently employ temp workers, and the union would like to keep it that way. That’s because they want workers to be hired on by Cummins full-time, Compton said. Under the previous agreement, Compton said the workers are required to work up to 18 Saturdays each year or up to six Saturdays each quarter until they hit 18. He said the UAW is fighting to keep the cap on the number of Saturdays workers will be required to come into the plant.
State workers blast Ferguson’s furlough plan, calling it a betrayal
March 20, 2025 // Front-line workers and educators feel betrayed and frustrated that the man they helped elect wants to reduce their income while declining to endorse new or higher taxes on the state’s wealthiest individuals and largest corporations. “They feel they were lied to. We have to stop being the ones having the budgets balanced on our backs,” said Mike Yestramski, president of the Washington Federation of State Employees, following a rally Monday at the Capitol held by those pushing the Legislature to tax the wealthy and big businesses to erase the multi-billion dollar deficit. Yestramski called Ferguson a “pseudo Democrat” and added: “Budgets are moral documents. This is his moral test.
UAW files labor charges against VW over Chattanooga worker buyouts
March 14, 2025 // The UAW said in a statement the company is attempting to cut jobs and make major changes without first negotiating with the union as required by law. UAW President Shawn Fain said that nearly a year ago, thousands of Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga voted to join the UAW to "win the respect and dignified life that union autoworkers at the Big Three have enjoyed for generations." "Since then, the company has failed to meet the basic standard at the bargaining table that 150,000 American autoworkers have won at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis," he said in the statement.