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On 11 Nov 2022, Richard Clayton Wieber <
druggy.Wieber.thief@meth.whore>
posted some news:dEwbL.17798$
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>
DETROIT (AP) ? The United Auto Workers union expanded strikes against
Detroit automakers Friday, ordering 7,000 more workers to walk off the job
in Illinois and Michigan to put more pressure on the companies to improve
their offers.
It was the second time the union has widened the walkout, which started
two weeks ago at three assembly plants before the most recent addition of
a Ford plant in Chicago and a General Motors assembly factory near
Lansing.
Union President Shawn Fain told workers in a video appearance that the
strikes were escalated because Ford and GM refused ?to make meaningful
progress? in ongoing contract talks. Jeep maker Stellantis was spared from
the third round of strikes.
Ford and GM shot back as a war of words with the union also intensified.
Ford accused the UAW of holding up a deal mainly over union representation
at electric vehicle battery plants, most of which are joint ventures with
a Korean manufacturer.
?There is still time to reach an agreement and avert disaster,? Ford said
in a statement, adding that the strikes are starting to affect fragile
companies that make parts for factories affected by the walkouts.
GM?s manufacturing chief said the union was calling more strikes ?just for
the headlines, not real progress.?
The GM plant in Delta Township, near Lansing, makes large crossover SUVs
such as the Chevrolet Traverse and Buick Enclave. A nearby metal parts
stamping plant with 300 workers will remain open, Fain said.
The Chicago Ford plant makes the Ford Explorer and Explorer Police
Interceptors, as well as the Lincoln Aviator SUV. The Explorer Interceptor
is the nation?s top-selling police vehicle.
Fain said union bargainers are still talking to all three companies, and
he was hopeful they could reach deals.
Stellantis, he said, made significant progress moments before his
appearance on Facebook Live by agreeing to unspecified cost-of-living
raises, the right not to cross a picket line and the right to strike over
plant closures.
Raneal Edwards, a longtime GM employee who works at the Lansing-area
factory, said she was ?shocked but happy? to hear that her plant would
join the strike.
?I feel like they don?t understand that this is about more than wages,?
Edwards said. ?It?s about having security at our jobs.?
Edwards said she believes the UAW?s strategy of slowly adding more plants
will work. ?I love it because it keeps us on our toes. No one knows what?s
next,? she said.
But in a note to workers Friday, Edwards? boss, GM manufacturing chief
Gerald Johnson, said the company has yet to receive a counteroffer from
union leaders to a Sept. 21 economic proposal.
Ford CEO Jim Farley accused the union of holding an agreement hostage over
union representation of workers at future electric vehicle battery
factories.
Farley, on a conference call with industry analysts, said high wages at
battery plants would make Ford?s electric vehicles much costlier than
those from Tesla and other competitors.
?Record contract? No problem. Mortgaging our future? That?s a big problem.
We will never do it,? Farley said.
Ford?s battery plants, Farley said, have not been built and mostly are
joint ventures with a South Korean battery maker. ?They have not been
organized by the UAW yet because the workers haven?t been hired and won?t
be for many years to come,? Farley said.
Fain later accused Farley of lying about the talks and said the union gave
Ford a counteroffer on Monday but has not heard back. The union is far
apart on economic issues with Ford, Fain said, such as a defined-benefit
pension for workers hired after 2007 and health insurance for retirees.
Workers hired after 2007 get a 401(k)-style retirement plan.
But Fain did say ?job security in the EV transition? remains an issue.
Automakers have long said that they?re willing to give raises, but they
fear that a costly contract will drive up vehicle prices, making them more
expensive than models made at nonunion U.S. plants run by foreign
automakers, largely in the South.
The union counters that labor costs are only 4% to 5% of the cost of a
vehicle, and that the companies are making billions in profits and can
afford big raises.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said the expanded strikes show both sides are
digging in for a potentially long battle.
Ives wrote in a note to investors that President Joe Biden?s
administration is watching union demands collide with his push for cleaner
electric vehicles. Biden, who has billed himself as the most union-
friendly president in history, traveled Tuesday to the Detroit area to
walk picket lines with workers at a GM parts warehouse.
Republican front-runner Donald Trump also traveled to the Detroit area
this week for a rally at a nonunion truck parts maker.
Offers on the table from the companies will add $3,000 to $5,000 to the
cost of an average electric vehicle that would be passed on to consumers,
Ives wrote. Such costs ?would ultimately be a torpedo to the future
business models? of the automakers, he wrote.
The electric vehicle battery plants are a huge issue for the union?s
future. Some industry executives, including Farley, say it will take up to
40% fewer workers to make EVs because they have fewer moving parts. So the
union is looking to organize battery plants and win top wages so displaced
workers have somewhere to go, especially those making combustion engines
and transmissions.
Other industry officials, including GM CEO Mary Barra, say there will be
enough jobs for all as the industry moves away from gasoline vehicles.
The automakers? last known wage offers were around 20% over the life of a
four-year contract, a little more than half of what the union has
demanded. Other contract improvements, such as cost of living increases,
restoration of defined-benefit pensions for newly hired workers and an end
to tiers of wages within the union are also on the table.
The union went on strike Sept. 15, immediately after its contracts
expired.
The UAW initially targeted one assembly plant from each company. Then last
week it added 38 parts distribution centers run by GM and Stellantis. Ford
was spared from that expansion because talks with the union were
progressing then.
The union has structured its walkouts in a way that has allowed the
companies to keep making pickup trucks and large SUVs, their top-selling
and most profitable vehicles. Previously it shut down assembly plants in
Missouri, Ohio and Michigan that make midsize pickup trucks, commercial
vans and midsize SUVs, all of which are profitable but don?t make as much
money as the larger vehicles.
The new strikes against GM and Ford target crossover SUVs that are big
moneymakers for both companies.
In the past, the union picked one company as a potential strike target and
reached a contract agreement with that company to be the pattern for the
others.
But this year Fain introduced a novel strategy of targeting a limited
number of facilities at all three automakers.
About 25,000, or about 17%, of the union?s 146,000 workers at the three
automakers are now on strike, allowing it to preserve a strike fund that
was worth $825 million before Sept. 14.
https://apnews.com/article/autoworkers-detroit-general-motors-stellantis-
ford-e2c78274333bea20856b90126a6b831c
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