Surgenavic at the UAW: Just Turning the Screw on an Energy-Dependent, Jobs That Aren’t
Surgenavic was excited to start work at the new battery-cell plant in Ohio last summer. When GM was known for well-paid, unionized jobs, he grew up in the area where the Ultium Cells plant is located. “I thought this might be my opportunity to get in on the ground floor of something great,” the HVAC technician says of his job on the leading edge of the EV boom. Then he started work.
To put it simply, there are better pay, shorter working hours, the elimination of compensation tiers, and restoration of cost-of-living adjustments. The UAW says that its members have made big concessions over the last 20 years because of foreign competition and the economic downturn.
The philosophy goes that workers shouldn’t shoulder the burden as society shifts away from unsustainable industries. A UC Santa Cruz assistant professor says research shows that the just-transition approach can help reduce opposition to new sustainable industries. She says that making a more just society overall can accelerate an energy transition.
The Big Three are pouring billions of dollars into EV in a race to catch up with upstarts such as Musk’s solar company. The Biden administration has put electric vehicles at the center of it’s effort to fight climate change and it is subsidizing these investments.
The Fate of the Big Three: Trade-Offs Between the Automakers and the Supergrouts in the UAW, the Wall and the Wall
It’s a pretty likely thing. According to analysts at Evercore ISI and Wedbush Securities, there’s about 85 percent of a strike at all three companies. The union’s most recent proposal was a 36 percent wage increase, down from 40 percent, which suggests talks are still ongoing. But the two sides still seem far apart on most issues.
Fain was elected president of UAW in March (the first time a UAW president was picked through a democratic vote by the union’s membership) on a promise of “no corruption, no concessions, no tiers,” according to Labor Notes, which likened his election to the shakeup at the Teamsters. Fain wants to take his union in a more militant direction, because he says he has a mandate to fight for his membership.
Their main issue is the cost gap that exists between themselves and nonunion factories in the South owned by foreign automakers like Nissan and Toyota. They say this puts them at a major disadvantage competitively because it means they’re spending roughly $64-$67 an hour on total labor costs, including benefits, while their rivals only spend around $55 an hour.
Meanwhile, Tesla incurs labor costs of $45 to $50 per hour for its nonunion workforce. The Big Three argue that they have had difficulty keeping up with the rise of Tesla, which is still the largest EV seller in the US.
Good question! This is one of the major arguments put forward by the union. They claim that in years past, they’ve been willing to come to the table to make major concessions to ensure the Big Three stay afloat. Now they say the script is flipped, and at a time when the industry is posting record profits — a combined $21 billion in just the first six months of 2023, according to UAW — the companies are unwilling to share the success with the workforce.
EVs are not the main source of contention between the union and the Big Three, but they are certainly a supporting player. Fain wants autoworkers who work on EVs to enjoy the same pay and benefits as UAW members.
EVs require fewer parts and, thus, fewer workers on the assembly line. The leadership of the union is concerned that a wholesale switch to electric would hurt its membership, which has been going down for decades.
Privately, Fain has been more skeptical about the shift to EVs, calling it a “race to the bottom” in an internal memo, according to The New York Times.
Analysts warn of a “potential nightmare situation” for GM and Ford, especially, which have set the stage for a massive EV transformation over the next decade that will likely define their future success.
Source: The ‘Big Three’ autoworkers are about to go on strike — here’s what’s at stake
The Cost of a Strike: The Case Against a Collective Collective Law Violation in the American Autonomous Dealership Industry
Often, the cost of a strike is portrayed in terms of its effect on a state or nation’s economic output. A 10-day strike could cause US GDP to be cut in half and the Michigan economy to go into a recession.
“Hopefully this gets resolved before it gets to that point,” @CarDealershipGuy, independent dealership owner and pseudonymous Twitter user, wrote the other day. “But tbh, I highly doubt it.”
The union insists the cost of doing nothing is higher than it should be. “Corporations want us to believe there’s nothing we can do to stop our race to the bottom,” Fain said in a Facebook Live video on September 8th. When labor is not valued, we have the right to refuse it. We have the ability to stage a strike. The cost of a strike is higher than the cost of not doing anything.
