With Biden as an ally, United Auto Workers union prepares to fight for EV jobs

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Looks like Tesla will be unionized soon with the U.S. Government on UAW's side. ?

I wonder when the first strike at Tesla will be? :unsure:


With Biden as an ally, United Auto Workers union prepares to fight for EV jobs

PUBLISHED MON, APR 26 20211:10 PM EDTUPDATED MON, APR 26 20214:17 PM EDT

Michael Wayland@MIKEWAYLAND

KEY POINTS
  • With President Joe Biden as an ally, the United Auto Workers union is cautiously preparing for the automotive industry’s expected transition to electric vehicles.
  • The UAW’s efforts around EVs include the important and extremely difficult task of organizing workers at companies with new U.S. plants such as Rivian, Lucid or even Tesla.
  • It’s also battling for work at a U.S. joint venture for battery production between General Motors and LG Energy Solution.
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Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden delivers remarks in the parking lot outside the United Auto Workers Region 1 offices on September 09, 2020 in Warren, Michigan.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images

DETROIT – With President Joe Biden as an ally, the United Auto Workers union is preparing to organize electric vehicle start-up companies as it fights to retain, if not grow, its current membership during the industry’s expected transition to EVs.

Electric vehicles, which Biden strongly supports, could usher in a new era of American manufacturing jobs for the UAW. But they also hurt the labor movement and undermine Biden’s goal of creating 1 million new jobs in the U.S. auto industry.

The vehicles require far fewer parts than those with internal combustion engines, which means potentially fewer factory assembly jobs. A lot of the parts for EVs are made outside the U.S. as well as the vehicle assembly — where workers are paid far lower wages. Many emerging EV start-ups, including industry leader Tesla, also have not been openly supportive of their employees organizing.



That’s led the UAW to push for a “more cautious approach” regarding EVs, while also planning to utilize its “seat at the table” with Biden in other ways such as organizing, according to UAW President Rory Gamble.

“I’m advocating to everybody that we must take advantage of these times to fight for our members and fight for the American worker,” Gamble told CNBC in an interview. “American workers deserve more.”

Gamble said the union is not trying to deter the adoption of EVs, but ensure the transition is fair to American workers, including its 250,000 autoworkers. A 2018 study by the union found that mass adoption of EVs could cost the UAW 35,000 jobs, however Gamble said the union believes that number could be less now.

The UAW’s total membership of 397,000 has grown during the last decade as it diversified its membership outside of automotive to areas such as higher education and gaming. But it remains far below its peak of 1.5 million in the late 1970s.

Organizing EV companies
The UAW has been laying the groundwork to organize workers at companies with new U.S. plants, including Rivian, Lucid and even Tesla — an extremely difficult task. It’s one of the ways to potentially offset the need for fewer workers.

“That’s a given. We are formulating plans to go out to all these start-ups to give these workers a voice,” Gamble said, declining to discuss the union’s specific plans. “In today’s world, you have to think out of the box in how you reach people. We really have to drive home the benefits of belonging to the union.”

In recent years, the UAW has largely failed in organizing efforts at U.S. auto plants of foreign automakers, specifically Volkswagen.

Outside of automotive, union organizing received a major setback earlier this month when Amazon workers at a warehouse in Alabama overwhelmingly rejected unionizing. The union leading the organizing last week filed objections with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing Amazon of interfering in its efforts.





Nonunionized companies have largely not supported employees organizing because it can raise pay and benefits costs and mean set, long-term labor contracts. The NLRB recently ruled that Tesla violated labor laws when it fired a union activist as well as when CEO Elon Musk in 2018 tweeted discouraging remarks about paying union dues and giving up company stock options “for nothing?”
Tesla, Rivian and Lucid declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment.

‘Open-door policy’

Having a “seat at the table” with Biden, who promised to be “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen,” has already paid dividends for the UAW, according to Gamble. The longtime union leader said he’s in regular contact with members of the administration and has participated in at least two meetings with Biden.
The most recent meeting with Biden in late February included executives from several automakers, including Tesla’s Musk and Ford Motor CEO Jim Farley. Gamble described the conversation as “a very good open, honest, transparent discussion about American auto manufacturing.”
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UAW President Rory Gamble speaks during a press conference with the U.S. Department of Justice regarding a settlement with the union of a federal corruption probe on Dec. 14, 2020 in Detroit.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

“This open-door policy is a blessing for us to have,” Gamble said, adding it’s not something the UAW had under former President Donald Trump.

Gamble said the union has received an increase in interest from workers to unionize during the coronavirus pandemic as the Detroit automakers instituted Covid-19 safety protocols and paid leaves that others weren’t receiving.

“We gave them the best help we could, but we also told them you need to think about joining the union,” he said. “This is what it’s all about. It’s not just about paying dues. it’s about protecting your standard of living and, in some cases, like now, protecting your life.”

Battery production
The UAW also is battling for work at its current companies, specifically a U.S. joint venture for battery production between General Motors and LG Energy Solution.

The joint venture, known as Ultium Cells, has announced $4.6 billion to build two new plants and create 2,400 jobs in Tennessee and Ohio.

If unionized, which isn’t guaranteed because it’s a joint venture, those jobs would pay less under the UAW’s current contract than those at the automaker’s U.S. assembly plants. The batteries are considered components or supplier work compared with traditional assembly jobs.



Gamble said he doesn’t think the union has any legal recourse, but it “can impress upon them their moral obligation to make sure these new workers are treated fairly.” He added the money GM is using to build the new plants is from vehicles made largely by its UAW members.

GM CEO Mary Barra, when announcing the joint venture in December 2019, said it would be “up to the workforce” to decide whether to unionize. She said the work will follow its “components strategy,” which traditionally pays about half to $10 less than the UAW’s top hourly assembly wages of more than $32 per hour.

Retirement?
Gamble, however, may not be around to lead the union’s planned organizing efforts.
The 65-year-old leader, whose term ends in June 2022, is contemplating retirement after guiding the union through what he describes as a “very dark chapter” in its history.

Gamble was thrust into leading the union amid a federal corruption probe into the UAW in late 2019. The probe, which was settled for the union in December, led to the convictions of 15 people, including two past UAW presidents, three Fiat Chrysler executives and a former GM board member who was a union leader.

“I’m looking at my options right now. But my biggest concern is not personal, it’s more about the organization and what’s best for the organization,” he said. “I’ll probably be making the decision very shortly on what the future’s going to look like.”


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SpaceX will go to Sheet Metal Air Rail Transportation(SMART) Union, not sure which union will represent Starlink.
 

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As long as Tesla's workers feel the company has done right by them, they have no reason to organize. Biden won't force them.

Personally, I think every workforce should be unionized. The workers then could choose how strong or expensive their union was, without all this gnashing of teeth about their existence or not. Workers need an advocate when negotiating with their employer, it's just a matter of scale. One worker is not on equal footing with one company.

But as I said, as workers feel their deal with Tesla is good, they won't need a union.

-Crissa
 
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Biden won't force them.
Force is the wrong word choice. Biden Administration will coerce Tesla to unionize. That is the advantage the UAW has, to have the U.S. Government backing.

That's the message of the news article.
 
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Feds had enough dirt on UAW to take over the union. He helped save it
Phoebe Wall Howard
Detroit Free Press

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Rory Gamble had early dreams of making the pros as a defensive tackle, but his father suggested a good job in the factory when it was clear NFL recruiters wouldn't be calling.

No one ever expected that the welder repairman from Detroit one day would be in a position to help save the influential UAW labor union from ruin.

Gamble, 65, went from keeping an assembly line running years ago to keeping the nearly 400,000-member organization running today as a man drafted to be president during a crisis of rampant corruption and criminal convictions.

In a series of wide-ranging interviews with the Free Press, Gamble and others, including the former U.S. Attorney who took on the union, and top leaders of the Detroit Three automakers talked about Gamble's role in steering the UAW during its darkest moment, a situation more tenuous than many may have realized, and its prospects for the future.

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The UAW came close to losing control of the entire operation.

"I gave him the benefit of the doubt and that ended up working well," said the former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, Matthew Schneider, who led the years-long corruption prosecution of more than a dozen UAW and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles executives for theft and bribery.

"We could've gone in and taken over the union for 25 years like the Teamsters case, but that wasn't needed," Schneider said, referring to a government takeover of the other union some 30 years ago. "It would've branded all the union members, the workers themselves, as corrupt. But the workers were not corrupt."

Critics predicted the high-profile prosecutor would use the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) to take over the UAW for years. The federal law, created in 1970 to fight organized crime, allows for prosecution and civil penalties for a pattern of ongoing criminal enterprise activity.

At issue was whether the extensive pattern of financial corruption displayed by two former presidents of the UAW, Fiat Chrysler executives and others would end up unraveling the organization.

"There was an underlying undercurrent in this case whether or not I would charge the union with RICO, whether that should've been done," Schneider said.

"We could've certainly done that. But just because you have the power to do something doesn't mean you need to or you should," he said. "I decided it wasn't necessary. I could accomplish the goal without hitting the workers over the head with a hammer."

Instead, they negotiated.

In the end, Schneider and Gamble agreed to a settlement that includes oversight by a federal monitor for six years and to allow members to decide whether to alter the union constitution and allow for direct election of top leaders rather than the longtime delegate process.

Screen Shot 2021-04-28 at 3.50.08 AM.png


The case against the UAW is considered among the broadest involving union corruption in U.S. history because there have been so many guilty pleas, and two were made by presidents.

"I thought Rory was very thoughtful, very serious and it was also clear to me that he cared about the union," Schneider said. "I didn't perceive this was a job he particularly wanted, and he decided he needed to do this. It wound up working to the best advantage of the union."

Taking the helm in crisis
Even Gamble looks back at how things have unfolded in disbelief.

Having just emerged from a six-week strike on General Motors in late 2019, UAW board members reached out to Gamble and asked whether he would take control of what had become an epic disaster.

Then-President Gary Jones was stepping down after having his home raided earlier by agents from the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service, and the organization was rudderless.

Gamble was shell-shocked. He had no intention of seeking the top job, and he was in the middle of contract negotiations as vice president of UAW-Ford.

"I came in under a lot of adversity," Gamble told the Free Press this month. "When the board first approached me about taking this on, it was on the very morning that I was preparing to present the 2019 Ford agreement to my leadership team from all across the country at the TCF Center. I was already under pressure that day."

Screen Shot 2021-04-28 at 3.52.11 AM.png


People said Jones was going to step down, take leave, Gamble needed to fill his shoes.

"That was extreme pressure. Later that Sunday, I got a call from the Rev. Horace Sheffield III, whose father was a former union representative" and a top civil rights aide to legendary UAW President Walter Reuther, Gamble said. "He congratulated me. And I didn't even think about the African American piece of it. At that point, it hit me. 'How do I save my union?' The first thing I did was spend two days with legal to try and get an accurate update on just what we were facing. I have to stress, I was never fully made aware of all the things the government was looking at."

Former presidents Dennis Williams and Jones, neither of whom had history in Detroit, had disgraced the union. And Gamble was a trusted go-to man after serving on the board since 2006.

"We had some weak accounting systems in place, I feel good that they've been corrected," he said. So much has been done behind the scenes involving procedure, dismissal of employees and other measures the board supported, he said.

"Corruption begins in the heart," Gamble said. "I worked with Dennis. I worked with Gary. We're all human and we're all susceptible to human frailties. What you have to do is do a constant self-assessment of what you're doing when you're put in charge of other people's lives. You protect dues money and carry on the fight for families. I see some people letting themselves get away, because you get a lot of people playing up to you."

News reports at the time said Gamble himself was under investigation.

"People who really knew me did not believe it, even though it was reported over and over again. It was a ridiculous scenario being reported," he said. "But it made me go harder. As a Black man in America, I knew, and this is a shame, really a shame, as a Black man in this country, I knew when I stepped into this role I would be subject to skepticism. It knocked me for a loop that I was subject to an outright lie."
Gamble is the first Black leader of the UAW.

"As an African American union representative, my dad told me, 'You have a responsibility to your members to carry yourself appropriately so you can keep the door open for your brothers and sisters,' " he said. "I felt it was an affront to my credibility to help uplift my brothers and sisters of all races."

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Screen Shot 2021-04-28 at 3.56.48 AM.png

Schneider told the Free Press, "I can tell you at the conclusion of this case, when Rory and I stood up at the podium, at that time I didn't have any hesitancy standing by his side."

Ambitious agenda
No one is suggesting Gamble will be on Easy Street anytime soon. Skeptics remain.

"It's a dark time in our history that personally saddens me. It saddens me that people got comfortable in what they were doing and kind of lost sight of what the mission was," said Bernie Ricke, president of UAW Local 600. He represents nearly 30,000 active and retired members from the Rouge plant.

Screen Shot 2021-04-28 at 3.58.36 AM.png

"It's just been a very challenging period. We have the combination of investigations, convictions, the pandemic, the whole industry shifting from internal combustion engines to electric and that could have huge implication on people we represent. All these things going on and life-changing technology," Ricke said Wednesday.

Gamble is the right person for the right time, said Ricke, who has known Gamble since forever. "He's at the end of his career. A lot of people would not have stepped up at this point in their lives. But he had to right the ship. And he didn't have a lot of time to do it."

Time to heal
Rick Callaway of Flint, a conveyor attendant working at the GM CCA Parts Division in Swartz Creek, has been a UAW member since 2016. He said rank-and-file members are cautiously optimistic about the union's future but being stung takes time to heal.

Assembly workers say Gamble is a good person but everyone is apprehensive and watching to see how things unfold, Callaway said Thursday. "Everybody is still trying to feel him out and figure out what's happening to the union as a whole."

The strike was brutal and Gamble has been instrumental in moving things forward, Steve Gruener, president of UAW Local 659 in Flint, said Wednesday. "He stepped in during a tumultuous time and gave great leadership. The UAW has done a good job at holding companies accountable during COVID and keeping members safe.

Mary Barra weighs in
Holding companies accountable involves collaboration and trust. Gamble has personal cell numbers for CEOs of top auto companies, and they have his.

"Rory is a person of extremely high integrity," GM CEO Mary Barra told the Free Press. "When he says he's going to do something, he does it. I would say he understands the business as well as I do. We get right to the issue and right to the opportunity."

After the national strike, the UAW established a "complete reset" to move forward, Barra said.

"Rory is a strong leader, a person I have huge respect for," she said. "He is a person of high integrity, not limited to the union or the auto industry. He's also very accessible. We have each other's cellphone numbers. We can just text each other. Nothing has to sit or simmer. It's a very constructive relationship."

She added, "One of the things that really impressed me about Rory, when COVID hit, he was instrumental personally in pulling autos together to develop the right safety protocols that allowed us to go back to work — protecting lives and livelihoods. He brought all the companies together. We weren't competing on safety. We were sharing best practices so we could all do the right thing for the people."

While Gamble is known to fight for members, he has a gentle approach. He never makes the fight personal, and he's pragmatic. He understands that when the companies make money, so do the workers.

Deep pockets
While the UAW is known for its strong presence in the automotive industry, the union continues to expand into legal, higher education, gaming, hospitals and scientific research. College campuses have been a consistent growth area for the UAW, as new members point to new contracts with improved wages and workplace safety protections. The University of Connecticut spoke favorably of UAW goals and discussions. Membership remained steady in 2020 despite COVID-19 and other challenges.

Dues from all members helped fuel the strike fund in its time of need.

The Strike and Defense Fund balance in 2020 was $790 million, up $51 million. UAW net income for the year was $12.7 million, up $1.2 million, based on data provided to the Department of Labor.

Bill Ford: Building trust
What sets Gamble apart from others is his commitment to building trust and communication all year, every year, not just during contract talks, said Bill Ford, executive chairman of Ford Motor. Co.

"If Rory agrees to something, you don't have to write it down. That makes it really easy," Ford said in an interview Monday. "The other thing I very much appreciate about working with Rory is that we can go off the record very quickly and easily and give each other background and how we see the situation. I know it's going to stay with him and he knows it will stay with me. An executive at an auto company doesn't always know all the different pressures a union leader is facing and doesn't always appreciate those pressures."

It's easy to be with Gamble because he loves to laugh, Ford said.

When laying out the issues and the future, Gamble gets it.

"Rory is tough. We've disagreed on a lot of things but it's never personal," said Ford, who has worked with labor affairs for 40 years. "You build trust when things are quiet. Trust carries over to negotiations."

This minimizes confrontation.

More:Can the UAW take a reform cue from the Teamsters' direct elections?

"When you actually do get into negotiations, if you don't know the person at the table across from you and the trust isn't there, you have no idea when they say they can't go any further, is that negotiating or true? If a person looks you in the eye and says, 'Look, I can't do this,' you have to know them and trust them and be able to believe them."

Ford noted that Gamble has worked hard to build trust with GM and Stellantis after working with Ford for decades.

Ford CEO Jim Farley told the Free Press, "Rory is a special leader. His dedication to the American worker ... his integrity and problem-solving are exceptional. As well, his devotion to his family and community is something I respect deeply."

Gamble has spoken publicly about burying his granddaughter, a nursing student, at age 21, and the effort to find substance abuse treatments for UAW families.

Stellantis: Tireless
While Barra and Ford have worked closely with Gamble for a longer period of time, Mike Manley, Head of Americas at Stellantis, has developed similar observations about the union leader.

"Rory has been a pioneer. During his term, he has steered the union through challenging and unprecedented times, which includes a global pandemic and our recent merger with Groupe PSA," Manley said in a statement Thursday.

"Rory has a reputation for being a problem-solver, recognizing the business needs and constraints, but with an eye toward finding solutions. ... Rory is respected as a trade unionist, advocating tirelessly for his members. His unwavering commitment and passion for the automotive industry, for the UAW and all of its members, for which he himself has been a member of for 47 years, is unmistakable and a true testament to his character."

Detroit roots
Being from Detroit may play a role in Gamble's approach.

"The UAW has been prominent in Detroit. It's more a part of everyday life and part of our lives growing up," Ricke said. "Rory's dad worked at Ford and was a union rep. My dad worked at Ford. We've families that are fifth-generation Ford workers."

Gamble's son and nephew work for Stellantis now.

When to hold, when to fold
An easygoing approach spilled into how Gamble handled federal officials during reform negotiations last year. He didn't fight or criticize the government or suggest the investigation was off base, as his immediate predecessors had done.

"He realized that wasn't the correct approach. We had all the cards; he had none," Schneider said. "The amount of corruption was pretty staggering. Workers were on strike and they were receiving a small fraction of pay for what they'd normally be getting paid. At the same time, you had leadership of the union out drinking thousand-dollar bottles of booze. They were living so extravagantly at the same time they pledged to defend and support workers who were struggling so badly. It really made me mad."

Schneider, an appointee of President Donald Trump who stepped down from his position in January as is routine during a change in administrations, said he was "infuriated" by what investigations revealed.

"I've worked in a factory in Saginaw and I've driven a forklift truck," he said. "I was not a unionized worker but having been a worker for many years, I understand the (union) perspective and appreciate it."

Lately, feedback has been positive from union and nonunion workers who took notice of COVID-19 protections advocated by the UAW. Gamble has a punch list of other priorities for the future:

  • Focus on new joint-venture partnerships in electric vehicle technology, where unionization isn't automatic, organizing new sites as needed. "Some of these companies don't have good track records."
  • Reassess labor organizing strategy in light of the recent loss at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama, organized not by the UAW but the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. Focus on highlighting successes brought by union membership. Don't assume people know.
  • Support Tesla workers and monitor. "Tesla workers are missing out on so much because they're not organized. They're being treated unjustly. It has a chilling effect when they start firing people."
  • Improve support for LGBTQ workers who may face obstacles in the workplace.
  • Be receptive to new organizing opportunities as workers reach out for support
The UAW said the Biden administration includes labor leaders in policy discussions regularly to share ideas and concerns, and Gamble has been on personal calls with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

"When I became president, even during the pandemic, I never heard a word from the (Trump) White House on what was needed to protect workers," Gamble said. "Even though they were pushing the Big Three to get back to work, not one phone call about what was needed for protection. The previous administration was pushing to get back to work but not doing anything to protect Americans. I think that's an unconscionable sin we should never forget."

A new era
Anti-union tactics around the country have gone unchecked by federal authorities for awhile and that has effectively suppressed union activism when workers need it more than ever, he said. Things will change under the new administration, Gamble predicted.

Bigger, better, stronger
The UAW is here to stay, Gamble promised.

"Even though we had a bad cloud of corruption hanging over our heads, we did well for our members. We delivered the contracts, maintained our influence in the American elections process, protected our members," he said. "I committed that I would deliver a clean union. I've done everything I said I would do. I took on hard decisions. I took actions on staff. I just thank God."

Stepping into the role, his meetings with the U.S. Attorney came "on the heels of a lot of broken promises" from predecessors, Gamble said. "I understood the skepticism. I could not go into the meetings empty-handed. I put in his hands four pages of reforms up in place and running. We took time to go through each and every thing. I really appreciated that. It could have went in a very bad way."

His term ends in the summer of 2022.

"My dad moved out the way so younger progressive leadership could move up," Gamble said. "I'm really assessing my role now. I believe in that concept. We're facing things now where we need to have someone who's going to have a footprint in the office for a long term, so everyone knows this person is going to be there."

One thing matters, he said. "All we have to do is the right thing and we'll be OK."


SOURCE: Detroit Free Press

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UAW and automakers headed for fight over battery plant wages

The United Auto Workers union is calling on General Motors to pay full union wages at electric vehicle battery factories, thrusting what was a festering conflict into the spotlight because automakers want to pay less.
Friday, April 16th 2021, 1:27 PM EDT
By Associated Press

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NASHVILLE (AP) — The United Auto Workers union is calling on General Motors to pay full union wages at electric vehicle battery factories, thrusting what had been a festering conflict into the spotlight.

The union, in a statement reacting to GM’s announcement Friday that it would build a second U.S. battery plant, said the company and its joint venture partner have a “moral obligation” to pay the higher wages at battery factories.

The statement sets the tone for the next round of contract talks in 2023 between GM, Ford and Stellantis (formerly Fiat Chrysler), all of which have plans to make significant numbers of battery-powered vehicles by then as they invest billions to transition from internal combustion engines.
However the conflict is resolved, it's likely to chart the course of American manufacturing wages into the next decade as the nation moves from petroleum-powered vehicles to those that run on electricity.

GM said wages at the battery plants would be determined by Ultium Cells LLC, the joint venture with LG Energy that’s running the factories.

GM and LG Energy Solutions, its partner on the new plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, and another under construction in Lordstown, Ohio, near Cleveland, should work with the UAW “to make sure these are good-paying union jobs like those of their brothers and sisters who make internal combustion engines,” the union statement said.

It also could draw President Joe Biden into the fray, because he is pushing the transition to EVs, which he says will create “good-paying, union jobs of the future.”

Currently, top-scale union production workers at internal combustion engine and transmission plants run by GM, Ford and Stellantis (formerly Fiat Chrysler) make more than $31 per hour. But when the Lordstown plant was announced in 2019, GM CEO Mary Barra said its worker pay would follow GM’s component manufacturing strategy, where workers are paid less than top union wages. She said the plant would have to be cost-competitive.

At a GM plant assembling batteries in Brownstown Township, Michigan, the union agreed in 2009 to $15 to $17 per hour wages to assemble battery cells into packs for the now-canceled Chevrolet Volt hybrid gas-electric vehicle. That's a little more than what Amazon pays at distribution centers and just above a proposed $15 per hour new federal minimum wage. GM also pays about $22.50 per hour at union-represented parts manufacturing plants.

Kristin Dziczek, senior vice president at the Center for Automotive Research, an industry think tank, said workers who make internal combustion engines and transmissions and associated parts are at "the epicenter of this industrial transformation from internal combustion engines to batteries.”
With thousands of union jobs at stake, the UAW will want the higher wages, she said, but joint venture companies fear they won't be competitive globally if they pay too much.

“There's lots of jobs on the line. The president talks about this transition being positive for jobs, but to do that it has to be very carefully orchestrated,” she said.

Guidehouse Insights Principal Analyst Sam Abuelsamid said Ford and Stellantis probably will follow a model similar to GM with joint ventures running battery plants, placing union jobs at combustion engine and transmission plants at risk.

“The union is going to lose a huge number of jobs from engine and transmission plants that are replaced by battery plants,” he said. “There are also going to be job reductions in the assembly plants due to simplified production of EVs with probably somewhere around 25-30% fewer people required to build same number of vehicles.”

The transition, he said, could cost the union half of its membership in the next 10 to 15 years unless it successfully organizes the battery plants.

The union statement came just after GM announced plans to more than $2.3 billion to build the second U.S. electric vehicle battery factory in Spring Hill, Tennessee.
The 2.8-million-square-foot plant is expected to create 1,300 manufacturing jobs in Maury County when it opens in 2023.

The joint venture already is building the Ohio plant, which will employ about 1,100 people.
“We are taking bold steps necessary to accelerate toward an all-electric future and to support our vision of zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion,” said GM CEO Mary Barra at a news conference in Nashville.

GM has previously announced that the Cadillac Lyriq electric SUV will be built at the Spring Hill complex. The SUV, due in showrooms during the first half of 2022, will go an estimated 300 miles (482 kilometers) per charge.

GM is likely to need far more battery capacity if it’s able to deliver on a goal of converting all of its new passenger vehicles from internal combustion engines to electricity by 2035.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee declared the new battery plant project “the largest single investment of economic activity in the state's history" while praising the project.

Lee, a Republican, and his top economic development chief declined to detail how much the state had provided in incentives but said that information would come out soon.
“We will accommodate the companies as they determine what strategies they're going to take for manufacturing," Lee told reporters. "The demand for their products is enormous, we think this is a very wise investment.”

Industry analysts have said automakers face a global shortage of batteries as the industry moves away from gasoline powered vehicles. Most of the world’s batteries are built in China and other countries.


SOURCE: WRCBtv
 
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Shift to electric vehicles poses threat to US union jobs
United Auto Workers frets over prospect of fewer jobs and a non-unionised supply chain

Fproduction%2F6fbd30c6-dc26-4424-a8d4-18bcfb03612f.jpg
Electric vehicles require fewer components overall, which means they require fewer people to make the parts and assemble the vehicles © Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/TNS/Abaca Press via Reuters

Claire Bushey in Chicago
YESTERDAY




SOURCE: FT
 
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Judge approves UAW watchdog, triggers referendum vote on direct elections
Robert SnellBreana Noble
The Detroit News

Detroit — A federal judge judge Wednesday appointed a government watchdog to oversee the corruption-plagued United Auto Workers on Wednesday, one day after former President Dennis Williams was sentenced to 21 months in prison.

The move by U.S. District Judge David Lawson to appoint New York attorney Neil Barofsky is part of a broader deal reached between federal prosecutors and the UAW to settle a long-running criminal investigation targeting the union. The appointment sets in motion a process that could give UAW members the first chance in the union's history to directly elect new leaders.

Within six months of selecting the monitor, the UAW must hold a referendum vote on amending the constitution to allow for the direct election of the UAW's executive board.

4f8c-846b-b269231052f5-2021-0512-mo-riverfront1845.jpg


For roughly 70 years, UAW officers have been voted upon by elected delegates representing their locals. With a few exceptions, the powerful Reuther Administrative Caucus effectively controlled who would ascend to top leadership — and who wouldn't.

“We have lots of organizing to do,” said Scott Houldieson, chairperson of the new Unite All Workers for Democracy caucus within the UAW and an electrician at Ford Motor Co.’s Chicago Assembly Plant.

He is a a proponent of the “one member, one vote” model, though he noted the closures of many of the auto plants resulting from the global semiconductor shortage have made such outreach difficult.

“We hope Mr. Barofsky will make that a fair process,” he said of the referendum vote.

The judge's order comes one day after former UAW President Dennis Williams was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison for scheming to embezzle union funds.

In all, the ongoing crackdown on auto industry corruption has led to the convictions of 15 people, including former UAW president Gary Jones. The investigation has revealed labor leaders and auto executives broke federal labor laws, stole union funds and received bribes and illegal benefits from union contractors and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV executives.

The government oversight is expected to last as long as six years, cost millions and subject the UAW to rigorous oversight. Barofsky will head a team tasked with implementing reforms that target union election, compliance, and investigations.

“We look forward to working with Mr. Barofsky and his team to help ensure democracy in the UAW and to help to do our part and clean up our union,” Houldieson said. “We look forward to setting up a meeting soon. We are hopeful that whatever he doesn’t know, we can help him understand.”

Barofsky was selected after UAW officials proposed multiple candidates, who have not been publicly identified. Federal officials — who had veto power — interviewed candidates and conducted background checks.

Barofsky and his team will have the power to combat fraud within the UAW and decide whether to discipline or remove high-ranking labor leaders. Barofsky served as special inspector general for the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, a series of moves created during the Great Recession to stabilize and strengthen the financial sector.

The UAW also will be subject to an adjudications officer. The monitor and adjudications officer will be able to employ the personnel necessary to perform their functions. The UAW will be responsible for compensating those positions and their activities.

Barofsky, a partner at the law firm Jenner & Block, leads the firm’s monitorship practice. He monitored Credit Suisse Securities LLC and Credit Suisse AG After billion-dollar settlements and was appointed by the Justice Department and New York State Department of Financial Services. He previously served as an assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York.

His team will include:

• Jenner & Block partner Kali Bracey, who would work on overseeing a referendum vote and other election issues. She participated in the Citigroup monitorship and is a former deputy assistant Attorney General.

• Glen McGorty, partner at the Crowell & Moring law firm in New York. He has served as independent monitor of the New York City District Council of Carpenters and is a former assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York.

• Jenner & Block partner Reid Schar, who would focus on investigating corruption within the UAW. He is the former lead prosecutor in the corruption case against former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

SOURCE: DETROIT NEWS
 


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Rivian, Lucid and Tesla have enough problems as it is. The last thing they need is union problems.
Unions are crooked. From the top down. Why would workers vote for Union representation if the companies are treating /paying employees fairly?
 

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Unions are crooked. From the top down. Why would workers vote for Union representation if the companies are treating /paying employees fairly?
This is why my family doesn't support unionized brands. And we show that by buying Hondas and Nissans. A huge issue with the Unionization of workers is the quality of end product and quality of work goes down the drain, which is notoriously shown with Ford, GM, and FCA products.
 

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Stating that unions are crooked, or that they're a problem with no evidence is a problem, and they show that you're crooked.

Employers have conflict of interest regarding employee safety and renumeration honesty - unions have different conflicts, but not regarding employee safety or renumeration. And so they create a countervailing force which keeps employers honest.

They largest monetary value of theft in the US is actually wage-theft, violations of labor law.

-Crissa
 
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Stating that unions are crooked, or that they're a problem with no evidence is a problem,
  • The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) has investigated and prosecuted union leaders for embezzling more than $100 million in union dues since 2001;
  • Investigations by the DOL’s Office of Inspector General, which investigates labor racketeering and organized crime’s influence within the labor movement, has resulted in more than $1 billion in fines, restitutions, and forfeitures;
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