trade unions

By Luis Feliz Leon - Labor Notes, October 20, 2023

The Auto Workers (UAW) have thrown the Big 3 on the back foot.

For the first time in recent history, the union is playing the automakers against each other—departing from its tradition of choosing one target company and patterning an agreement at the other two.

And its gradually escalating Stand-Up Strike strategy has multiplied the pressure that can move the companies off the dime.

Every Friday for four weeks, the CEOs waited with bated breath for UAW President Shawn Fain to announce strike targets.

Two Fridays in a row, one company moved on major bargaining issues just minutes before workers were scheduled to walk out.

On September 29, Stellantis was spared—after frantically calling the union with a new offer.

By Katie Myers - Grist, October 20, 2023

United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain wore a T-shirt reading “Eat the Rich” and a deadly serious stare when he announced a major development in the union’s monthlong strike: General Motors agreed to include its electric vehicle and battery factories in the forthcoming labor contract. That deal will cover 6,000 employees at four coming GM battery plants.

“We have been told for months this is impossible,” Fain said during the October 6 livestream. “We have been told the EV future must be a race to the bottom. We called their bluff.”

If Fain has made anything clear, it is that he, and the 383,000 people he leads, are not bluffing. In the two weeks since GM’s concession, the union has redoubled its efforts to win similar agreements from Ford and Stellantis. Last week, every one of the 8,700 workers at Ford’s massive Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville joined the picket line, halting production of the company’s line of Super Duty pickup trucks. 

GM’s promise to unionize its EV and battery operations comes after automakers sold 300,000 EVs in the previous quarter, and everyone involved in the labor dispute feels the electric transition is all but inevitable. The strike has increased pressure on the Big Three to include their electrification ventures in the master contracts they hold with United Auto Workers, or UAW. It also could press other automakers to increase pay or agree to unionize if they hope to compete for workers.

By Lisa Xu, Chris Budnick, Teddy Ostrow and Ruby Walsh - In These Times, October 19, 2023

By Union Jake, et. al. - The Valley Labor Report, October 18, 2023

By Héctor Rivera - Tempest, October 17, 2023

As the UAW strike against the big three automakers entered week four, the labor upsurge shows no signs of slowing down. On Monday, October 9 the strike expanded to the Volvo-owned Mack Trucks after 73 percent of workers voted to reject a tentative agreement and brought out 4,000 workers on strike. On Wednesday, October 11, the UAW announced a strike at Ford’s biggest plant globally, bringing out 8,700 union members in Kentucky. At the end of week the UAW organized rallies in several key sites across the country including in Chicago and outside of Los Angeles in Rancho Cucamonga.

The rallies were bolstered by news from Shawn Fain that General Motors (GM) had agreed to bring battery production for electric vehicles under the UAW’s national master agreement with the company. Fain announced this shift as a victory and a sign that the strike is bringing results at the bargaining table since GM had previously refused to move EV production under the UAW contract. Given this concession the union did not strike at GM’s assembly plant in Arlington, Texas. Thus far, the strike has expanded to six assembly plants of the Big Three and 38 parts depots operated by GM and Stellantis.

By Todd Dunn, Union Jake and Adam Keller - The Valley Labor Report, October 17, 2023

By Todd Dunn, Union Jake and Adam Keller - The Valley Labor Report, October 17, 2023

By Dana Cloud - Jacobin, October 12, 2023

Under pressure from the striking United Auto Workers, General Motors agreed last week to include EV battery plants in its master agreement with the union. It’s a huge victory for the UAW — and a crucial step in ensuring the transition to EVs benefits workers.

On October 5, faced with a strike at its most profitable assembly plant, General Motors came to the negotiating table with a remarkable offer. It agreed to include electric battery manufacturing in the GM–United Auto Workers (UAW) master agreement.

With this move, having been the most sluggish of the Big Three automakers in trying to meet UAW demands, GM leapt ahead of Ford and Stellantis. After constructing joint ventures in the crucial sector of the industry just coming online, GM blinked and apparently gave up on its dream of a nonunionized, low-wage workforce.

GM is investing $35 billion to produce a million electric vehicles (EV) by the end of 2025. Approximately $20 million is dedicated to research, the remainder being plowed into building or renovating plants that will manufacture and assemble the next generation of EVs. This not only includes expensive changeovers at its assembly plants, but joint-venture battery production. GM CEO Mary Barra explained:

The heart of the strategy is a battery pack design that GM has engineered over the last five years. Its packs, marketed under the name Ultium, are made up of Lego-like battery modules that can be combined in different sizes and used in any GM vehicle, from a compact car to a full-size pickup. Since the modules all use the same parts, GM believes it will reap great economies of scale that will drive down its costs and give it an advantage over other automakers.

Although behind in rolling out the plans, Barra maintains GM will meet its goal. She predicts that by the middle of 2024 GM will produce four hundred thousand EVs. Given that they have made only fifty-six thousand in the first three quarters of 2023, that’s a tall order.

GM is putting all of its vehicles in the EV bucket. So far it is the only one of the Big Three to be so definitive in moving to all-electric production by 2035, and it has been aggressive in developing a research team and partnering with other corporations to gain even further technical expertise. But to meet those goals GM needs flawless execution.

GM has developed a portfolio of electric vehicles across a broader range than its competitors. Starting with a small SUV selling for around $30,000, the line includes a luxury SUV, pickup trucks, and Hummer SUVs that cost $90,000. Autonomous vehicle production is also part of the plan. By building a US-based supply chain, the company will minimize bottlenecks and maximize the tax credits consumers will be able to receive.

In various interviews, Barra has outlined the GM strategy of a no-holds-barred transition. She believes that the combination of superior technology and control over battery production, with a flexible modular platform that allows for a number of different EVs at different price ranges, will result in GM becoming number one.

She envisions that this will win consumer loyalty — but rarely mentions the actual workforce.