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Stickin’ with the union

Published by digby on September 16, 2023

Gallup:

Labor unions continue to enjoy high support in the U.S., with 67% of Americans approving of them, similar to the elevated level seen in recent years after more than a decade of rising support. Mirroring this trend, Americans have gradually become more likely than a decade ago to want unions’ influence to strengthen and to believe unions benefit various aspects of business and the economy.

In contrast to the incremental changes seen in U.S. adults’ support of unions over time, the new poll documents an unprecedented uptick since the prior measure, in 2018, in perceptions that unions in the country will become stronger in the future than they are today. A third of Americans (34%) believe this today, compared with 19% five years ago and no more than 25% at any time in the trend since 1999.

Union Approval Steady Near Recent High Point

The 67% of Americans who approve of labor unions today is down slightly from 71% a year ago but marks the fifth straight year this reading has exceeded its long-term average of 62%.

Here’s Trump, ignorant as always:

Trying to stop the manufacture of EVs is ridiculous which seems to be what he wants. It’s happening. But then this is someone who says windmills cause cancer so when it comes to anything more complicated than rank racism and payoffs it’s best to ignore him.

There are many issues involved in the strike that have nothing to do with the emerging electric car market. But it is one of the issues. I can ‘t vouch for this analysis by Axios and I’m pretty sure that they lean toward management but as a simple overview I think it manages to lay out the complexities reasonably well:

A big sticking point in contract talks between Detroit automakers and the United Auto Workers union is the popular assertion that it takes fewer workers to manufacture electric vehicles (EVs) than conventional cars.

In fact, the opposite may be true: Researchers at Carnegie-Mellon University recently found that EVs require more labor hours, primarily to produce battery cells.

Today, those cells are manufactured mostly in Asia. Yet a slew of companies are shifting production to the U.S. to take advantage of new tax incentives — though the resulting jobs will likely be non-unionized and lower-paying.

Why it matters: The EV transition is fraught with risks for both auto workers and Detroit’s big three manufacturers: General Motors, Ford and Stellantis.

For UAW members, it’s the risk that good-paying union jobs building engines, transmissions and exhaust systems will disappear.

For auto companies, it’s the risk that they’ll fall further behind Tesla and other non-unionized rivals that already have a significant labor cost advantage.

The big picture: EVs have fewer moving parts than gas-powered vehicles, with no engines, transmissions or exhaust systems.

That makes them easier to maintain and — according to some industry experts — simpler to build.

Even Ford CEO James Farley says so: Last November, he bluntly asserted that EVs will require 40% less labor to produce than traditional cars.

To preserve jobs, Farley said, Ford will need to build more EV components in-house — similar to the way founder Henry Ford operated nearly 100 years ago.

For example, Ford workers at a former transmission plant near Detroit are now making EV motors and transaxles, while workers at another parts facility are assembling battery packs.

The intrigue: Manufacturing battery pack cells is the most labor-intensive part of EV production, according to Turner Cotterman, a McKinsey consultant who worked on the Carnegie-Mellon study.

Yes, but: Even as cell production shifts to the U.S., that labor will likely be done by non-union workers at factories co-owned by foreign battery partners, and they’ll make less money than workers at traditional powertrain factories.

For example, battery cell factories under construction in Kentucky and Tennessee and co-owned by Ford and Korea’s SK On just started hiring workers for $21-$29 per hour, compared to the $28-$35 union workers earn making engines and transmissions at Ford’s existing plants.

A GM battery plant co-owned with another Korean company, LG Energy Solution, opened in Ohio in 2022 with a starting wage of $16.50 an hour, and a promised rise to $20 after seven years.

What’s happening: The UAW successfully organized employees at the Ohio plant, called Ultium Cells, last December, making it the country’s first unionized battery cell factory.

But the two sides still have to negotiate a contract.

GM and Ford insist these new battery plants aren’t covered by the national bargaining agreements for existing autoworkers because they are technically owned by separate companies.

I think we can agree that this is about more than China stealing jobs and the unions know it. There’s a reason the UAW president said another Trump presidency would be a disaster.

Meanwhile:

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