United Auto Workers goes on strike after contract talks fail

[Anti Federalist]

UAW members go on strike at three key auto plants after deal deadline passes

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/14/uaw-...tellantis.html

PUBLISHED THU, SEP 14 2023 10:12 PM EDT UPDATED MOMENTS AGO

KEY POINTS
Thousands of United Auto Workers members went on strike at three key plants, after Detroit automakers failed to reach deals with the union by a Thursday night deadline.

The facilities are GM’s midsize truck and full-size van plant in Wentzville, Missouri; Ford’s Ranger midsize pickup and Bronco SUV plant in Wayne, Michigan; and Stellantis’ Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio.

About 12,700 workers will be on strike, the union said. The UAW represents about 146,000 workers at Ford, GM and Stellantis.

DETROIT – Thousands of members of the United Auto Workers went on strike at three U.S. assembly plants of General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis, after the union and the automakers failed to reach a deal on a new labor contract Thursday night.

“The UAW Stand Up Strike begins at all three of the Big Three,” the union said in a post on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, just after midnight Friday.

The facilities are GM’s midsize truck and full-size van plant in Wentzville, Missouri; Ford’s Ranger midsize pickup and Bronco SUV plant in Wayne, Michigan; and Stellantis’ Jeep Wrangler and Gladiator plant in Toledo, Ohio. For Ford, UAW President Shawn Fain said only workers in paint and final assembly will be on strike.

“We got to do what we got to do to get our share of economic and social justice in this this strike,” Fain said outside the Ford facility in Wayne, minutes after the strike began. “We’re going to be out here until we get our share of economic justice. And it doesn’t matter how long it takes.”

The selected plants produce highly profitable vehicles for the automakers that largely continue to be in high-demand. About 12,700 workers – 5,800 at Stellantis, 3,600 at GM and 3,300 at Ford – will be on strike at the plants in total, the union said. The UAW represents about 146,000 workers across Ford, GM and Stellantis.

“If they come to the pump and they take care of their workers, we’ll be back to work,” Fain said early Friday, referring to the automakers. “But if they don’t, we’ll keep amping it up.”

The union selected the plants as part of targeted strike plans initially announced Wednesday night by Fain, who has unconventionally been negotiating with all three automakers at once and has been reluctant to compromise much on the union’s demands.

Read more: General Motors sweetens its offer to include 20% wage increase

“For the first time in our history, we will strike all three of the ‘Big Three’ at once,” Fain said just after 10 p.m. Thursday in live remarks streamed on Facebook and YouTube. “We are using a new strategy, the ‘stand-up’ strike. We will call on select facilities, locals or units to stand up and go on strike.”

Fain has referred to the union’s plans as a “stand-up strike,” a nod to historic “sit-down” strikes by the UAW in the 1930s.

Key proposals from the union have included 40% hourly pay increases, a reduced 32-hour work week, a shift back to traditional pensions, the elimination of compensation tiers and a restoration of cost-of-living adjustments (COLA), among other items on the table including enhanced retiree benefits and enhanced vacation and family leave benefits.

By late Thursday, it was clear there wouldn’t be a deal, even as President Joe Biden got involved. The White House said Biden, who boasts of his blue collar background and support for organized labor, talked with Fain and the leaders of the Detroit automakers.

Ford, in a statement Thursday night, said the UAW presented its “first substantive counterproposal” to four of the company’s offers, but it “showed little movement from the union’s initial demands.”

“If implemented, the proposal would more than double Ford’s current UAW-related labor costs, which are already significantly higher than the labor costs of Tesla, Toyota and other foreign-owned automakers in the United States that utilize non-union-represented labor,” Ford said. “The union made clear that unless we agreed to its unsustainable terms, it plans a work stoppage at 11:59 p.m. eastern.”

The automakers have made record proposals that address some of the UAW’s ambitious demands but not all of them. Specifically, the companies have offered wage increases of roughly 20%, COLA, altered profit-sharing bonuses; and enhanced vacation and family leave enhancements that the union has found inadequate.

Targeted strikes typically focus on key plants that can then cause other plants to cease production due to a lack of parts. They are not unprecedented, but the way Fain plans to conduct the work stoppages is not typical. They include initiating targeted strikes at select plants and then potentially increasing the number of strikes based on the status of the negotiations. Selecting assembly plants for such strikes is also unique.

[Anti Federalist]

Breitbart Business Digest: The UAW Is Fighting Bidenomics and Bidenflation

https://www.breitbart.com/economy/20...-bidenflation/

JOHN CARNEY 14 Sep 2023

Which Side Are You On?

The looming strike by the United Auto Workers is as much a protest against Bidenomics as it is the policies of General Motors, Ford Motor Company, and Stellantis.

More than a decade ago, as U.S. automakers were teetering on the verge of collapse and two in the grip of bankruptcy amid the Great Recession, the unions and the autoworkers they represent made many concessions to keep the Big Three afloat. A big one was the agreement to accept contracts that no longer tied worker pay to inflation.

The pressure put on the unions at the time was tremendous. The Obama administration relentlessly pushed for acceptance of its program, largely because it wanted to claim credit for rescuing the auto industry. The workers were threatened with economic ruin if they did not sacrifice to prop up their failing employers. Politically, the unions were left adrift, abandoned by the Democrats who had long been their allies and finding little welcome among a Republican party still dominated by establishment types enthralled to the agenda of big business and Wall Street.

At the time, the concession on automatic inflation adjustments for wages did not seem too costly. The Federal Reserve had a hard won credibility on its promise to keep inflation low. Since the early 1990s, annual inflation mostly bounced around near three percent. Over time, prices were still climbing, but there were no sudden jolts that threatened to bury negotiated wage increases below unmanageable cost of living increases.



In the years that followed, the promise of low inflation was kept—and then some. The Federal Reserve officially targeted two percent inflation, and its biggest challenge in those years was often raising inflation to that target. The loss of an automatic inflation adjustment did not sting because inflation appeared to have been tamed.

The Great Betrayal
All that changed shortly after Joe Biden took control of the White House and pressed a Democrat-controlled Congress to enact the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act. Inflation went from 1.8 percent in 2019 to seven percent in 2021. (It had fallen to 0.3 percent amid the lockdowns in 2020.) Despite assurances from the Biden administration and the Fed that inflation was a passing phenomenon—transitory, they said—inflation persisted, clocking in at 6.5 percent for the full year in 2022.

It was even worse in the Detroit region that is America’s automaking heartland. While inflation peaked at 8.9 percent year-over-year in June of 2022 for the U.S. as a whole, in the Labor Department’s Detroit-Warren-Dearborn district, it rose all the way to 9.7 percent. Over the last 12 months, while nationwide 12-month inflation has fallen to 3.7 percent, in Michigan it is running 5.9 percent.

While all Americans have been hard hit by the surge of inflation tied to Biden’s deficit spending, Detroit’s autoworkers have had it far worse than most of their fellow Americans. The place we once called the Arsenal of Democracy was ground zero for Bidenflation’s destructive explosion.

The promise of low inflation was broken by the bloated fiscal policies of the Biden administration and the loose money policies of the Federal Reserve.

It only made matters worse that the Democrats time and again sought to downplay inflation or pass the buck onto the greed of corporations or Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. As recently as this month, Democrat leftist stalwart Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York was circulating the idea that inflation was just “propaganda.” Even when Democrats admit inflation has been problematic and linked to excessive fiscal and monetary expansion, they act as if it were a sacrifice necessary because of the pandemic. Never have they mentioned that the sacrifice was borne more heavily by some than others, much less acknowledged the prices paid by our autoworkers.

What had become of the party that once stood by the autoworkers? Where was the apology for breaking the promise of holding inflation low? Where was the gratitude for the extra-burden of inflation visited upon them in the name of “rescuing” America from a pandemic-induced economic crisis that had already passed?

Meanwhile, it has been a boom time for the Big Three. “The North American businesses of Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Stellantis NV have had a couple of outstanding years, as the pandemic’s factory shutdowns, followed quickly by rebounding demand, gifted Detroit with pricing power,” Bloomberg’s Liam Denning wrote in a recent article. Stellantis saw its adjusted operating income margin grow from 11.9 percent in 2021 to 13 percent in 2022. The North American operating margin grew to 16.4 percent.

Mary Barra, GM’s chief executive, saw her pay rise to 362 times the median worker’s earnings in 2022, up from 203 times in 2019. Inflation probably has not hurt her buying power by much.

There Is Power in the Union
No wonder one of the top demands of the UAW is the return of cost-of-living adjustments. The companies have offered to pay inflation bonuses to help repair the damage inflation has done to the earning power of workers. To accept that, however, unions would have to once against trust that inflation will be contained. Given the betrayal of the last promise is still a fresh wound, that is a very big ask.

The betrayal of the autoworkers by the Biden administration goes beyond inflation, 0f course. The Biden administration has been pushing policies to electrify most new vehicles within a decade or so. That rush toward electric vehicles will mean a rapid decline in payrolls for autoworkers—even as the automakers enjoy Inflation Reduction Act subsidies. Although the Biden administration claims there will be many new “clean and green” jobs, no plausible estimates see a net increase in employment for autoworkers from the transition. You don’t need as many people on the electric vehicle assembly line as you do to build a gas-fueled car. It also has not gone without notice by the unions that many of the proposed new green manufacturing plants are in anti-union, right-to-work states.

Even if you are a big believer in the notion that climate change is an existential threat that requires transformation and sacrifice, how can requiring an outsized sacrifice by autoworkers be justified? If we are all to benefit from rushing the process to electric vehicles, why are autoworkers left paying the price?

Very Little Threat to Economic Growth, No Real Inflation Threat at All
Despite what you may have heard from the establishment business press or the Big Three’s media allies, a strike would not be ruinous to the U.S economy. Analysts at Bank of America estimate a full UAW strike at all three manufacturers would be a drag on GDP growth of 0.1-0.2 percentage points annualized per week due to lost production. A strike that lasted a full quarter at all three manufacturers—a very unlikely event—could drag GDP growth down by 1.6 t0 2.2 percentage points, according to Bank of America’s analysts. In an economy growing at a faster than three percent rate, that’s not a catastrophe.

There’s also likely to be little upward pressure on inflation—even if the unions win their fight for higher wages. The new contract will directly affect around 150,000 workers, or 0.1 percent of the U.S. workforce. Very likely much of the increased cost would be absorbed by manufacturers margins rather than car customers.

“This means that even a one-time increase of 30% would only boost wage growth by a few basis points. Therefore, it will not be a significant contributor to wage inflation by itself, which in turn means limited upward pressure on price inflation from wages,” Bank of America’s analysts conclude.

The fight over Bidenflation and Bidenomics is reminiscent of much older fights for workers. As a time-honored union songs says:

It is we who plowed the prairies, built the cities where they trade.
Dug the mines and built the workshops, endless miles of railroad laid
Now we stand outcast and starving midst the wonders we have made
But the union makes us strong.

Solidarity forever!

[Anti Federalist]

Ford CEO: We Won’t Give Workers Pay Increases that Keep Us ‘from Investing in This Transition to EVs’

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2023...sition-to-evs/

IAN HANCHETT 14 Sep 2023

On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” Ford President and CEO Jim Farley stated that he’s not opposed to giving workers pay increases, “But if it prevents us from investing in this transition to EVs and in future products like the ones we have now like a new F-150,” they won’t do that because they’ll go bankrupt.

While discussing the pay raises demanded by the UAW in negotiations and pay raises for CEOs, Farley said that they have offered pay raises and are open to big pay increases, but the 40% that the UAW is asking for is too much and would put the company out of business, and “There’s a fine line here that we won’t go past, which is, we want everyone to participate in our success. But if it prevents us from investing in this transition to EVs and in future products like the ones we have now like a new F-150, the best-selling vehicle in the U.S., then everyone’s job’s at risk if we don’t invest. So, there’s a line. The line isn’t for us to go bankrupt. The line is somewhere in the middle, and the only way to resolve that is to actually negotiate.”

[Cap]

Super inflation is right around the corner, the strike is fruitless. It's all going to collapse anyways. But the normies will jump on either one side or the other, fueling the desired distraction and once again we have divide and conquer.

[Working Poor]

They better take heed and realize that the industry could replace them with AI robots and hire one person per 20 buttons that need pressing.

[69360]

Large risk for them, the big 3 might just say the hell with it and move everything to Mexico and China.

[Anti Federalist]

Populist Pitch: Trump Considers Joining Auto Workers on Strike in Michigan

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2...rike-michigan/

JOHN BINDER 17 Sep 2023

Former President Donald Trump is considering joining the nation’s auto workers who are currently striking against General Motors (GM), Ford, and Stellantis as they negotiate wage increases and job security amid inflation and an electric vehicle (EV) mandate from President Joe Biden.

As Breitbart News is chronicling, the United Auto Workers (UAW) are striking against the Big Three — looking to secure much-needed pay increases while inflation cripples working and middle class households and commitments from automakers, as well as the federal government, that their jobs and wages will not be devastated by Biden’s EV agenda.

Now, Trump is considering paying auto workers a visit in Michigan as a sign of support, according to Nolan Finley at the Detroit News:

The sources say the campaign is holding details of the visit close, but expect to see Trump in Michigan in the next few days. [Emphasis added]

If he does come, it would most likely be to Ford Motor Co.’s assembly plant in Wayne, one of three facilities hit by the United Auto Workers strike late Thursday. The two other impacted plants are a General Motors site in Wentzville, Missouri, and a Stellantis center in Toledo, Ohio. [Emphasis added]

…

If Trump hopes to reconstruct the coalition that carried him to victory in 2016, he’ll need union members to join the other blue collar workers who made up the core of his base. [Emphasis added]

Late last week, Trump warned auto workers that they are “being sold down the river” by the Biden administration’s push for a rapid transition to a green economy where EVs dominate the road.

“The auto workers will not have any jobs … because all of these cars are going to be made in China. The electric cars, automatically, are going to be made in China,” Trump said. “… those jobs are all going to be gone, because all of those electric cars are going to be made in China. That’s what’s happening.”

In 2016, union workers helped propel Trump and his nationalist-populist agenda to the White House — scoring the most support among union households for any Republican presidential candidate since former President Ronald Reagan in 1984.

In 2020, Biden helped widen that gap by taking 57 percent of union households compared to Trump’s 40 percent. Trump could significantly increase his share of union households in a rematch against Biden by registering to vote millions of non-college-educated indoctrinated whites in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania who remain disenfranchised. (FTFY - AF)

The UAW-Big Three negotiations come as auto executives, as well as the automakers’ profits, have skyrocketed in recent years. In 2022, for instance, GM CEO Mary Barra raked in almost $29 million, which is 362 times the median paycheck of the average GM employee.

“Profits at the ‘Big 3’ auto companies — Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis — skyrocketed 92 percent from 2013 to 2022, totaling $250 billion,” the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found:

Forecasts for 2023 expect more than $32 billion in additional profits. CEO pay at the Big 3 companies has jumped by 40 percent during the same period and the companies paid out nearly $66 billion in shareholder dividend payments and stock buybacks. [Emphasis added]

Auto workers have said they “feel abandoned” by Biden and the Democrat party as they increasingly side with multinational corporations over the interests of working and middle class Americans.

For example, Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is showering automakers with a massive windfall via taxpayer-funded tax credits for EVs made in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

At the same time, a publicly funded transition from combustion engines to EVs has the potential to eliminate millions of American auto jobs altogether and is already cutting wages for American auto workers.

[Anti Federalist]

Donald Trump to Counter-Program Second GOP Debate by Appearing with Striking Auto Workers in Detroit

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2...rs-in-detroit/

NICK GILBERTSON 18 Sep 2023

Former President Donald Trump will appear with striking union members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) in Detroit, Michigan, as his opponents squabble for the spotlight on the debate stage on September 27, according to a report that multiple sources have confirmed to Breitbart News.

The New York Times first reported on Trump’s forthcoming appearance with Detroit auto workers striking against the big three automakers — General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis — which will serve as counter-programming to the GOP debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.

The GOP frontrunner will deliver a “prime-time speech before current and former union members,” according to the Times, as they strike for higher wages following 40-year-high inflation and seek commitments from automakers and the federal government that Biden’s electrical vehicle agenda will not threaten their jobs or pay, as Breitbart News has documented.

Multiple Trump aides have confirmed the 45th president’s plans to Breitbart News.

[CaptUSA]

I wondered how long it would take for the GOP to see the MASSIVE opening to go after union employees.

[acptulsa]

I wondered how long it would take for the GOP to see the MASSIVE opening to go after union employees.

I can't believe it took this long. They went after blacks, but even when Biden was telling railroad workers that they may not strike, Republicans continued to write unions off. It's just weird.

[CaptUSA]

I can't believe it took this long. They went after blacks, but even when Biden was telling railroad workers that they may not strike, Republicans continued to write unions off. It's just weird.

Donors. Their donors don't want them siding with their employees. And certainly not with union bosses who would leverage their employees to cost them money.


But what do you really want?? Donors or voters?? There's a line of thinking that says donors will buy you votes. And another line of thinking that says voters will attract donors.