February 8, 2025
More cargo ships from Ukraine use civilian corridor despite Russian threats

[ad_1]

DETROIT (AP) – 46% pay increase. 32 hour week with 40 hour pay. Restoration of traditional pension.

The more combative demands the United Auto Workers union has placed on General Motors, Stellantis and Ford — demands that even the UAW’s own president calls “daring” — are moving it closer to a contract strike on Sept. 14 .

Automakers, who are raking in billions in profits, have rattled off the UAV wish list. They argue that its demands are unrealistic at a time of stiff competition from Tesla and low-wage foreign automakers as the world shifts from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles. The widening gulf between the two sides could mean a strike against one or more automakers, which could push up the already inflated vehicle prices even more.

The potential strike by the 146,000 UAW members comes against a backdrop of growing boldness among US unions of all types. The number of strikes and threats has been increasing, involving Hollywood actors and authors, massive agreements with the railroads, and major concessions by corporate giants such as UPS.

Sean Fein, the aggressive new leader of the UAW, has described contract negotiations with Detroit’s automakers as a war between billionaires and ordinary middle-class workers. Last month, in an act of showmanship during a Facebook Live event, Fenn denounced a contract offer from Stellantis as “garbage” – and tossed a copy of it in the trash, “where it belongs,” he said.

Over the past decade, the Detroit Three have emerged as strong profit earners. They have collectively reported $164 billion in net income over the past decade, of which $20 billion is this year. The CEOs of all three major automakers earn several million as annual compensation.

Speaking to Ford workers at a plant in Louisville, Kentucky, last month, Fain complained about one standard for the corporate class and another for ordinary workers.

“They get salaries out of control,” he said. “They get pensions they don’t even need. They get top rate health care. They work on any schedule they want. Most of our members do not get pension nowadays. this is madness. We get substandard health care. We don’t get a chance to work remotely.”

UAW members have voted overwhelmingly to authorize their leaders to call the strike. So are Canadian auto workers, whose contract expires in four days and who have named Ford as their target.

The UAW has not said whether it will choose a target automaker. It can strike all three, although doing so could deplete the union’s strike fund within three months.

On the other hand, if the strike lasts even just 10 days, it will result in losses of about a billion dollars for all three automakers, Andersen Economic Group has calculated. During the 40-day UAW strike in 2019, GM alone lost $3.6 billion.

Last week, the union filed a charge of unfair labor practices against Stellantis and GM, saying they have yet to submit a counteroffer. As for Ford, Fain insisted that its response, by rejecting most of the union’s demands, “insults our values.”

All three automakers have countered that the union’s allegations are baseless and are seeking a fair deal that will allow them to invest in the future.

Maric Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, suggested that the strong US job market and the high profits of companies gave Fein a negotiating advantage. Besides, he said, automakers are set to release several new electric vehicles, which will be delayed due to the strike. And they have only a limited supply of vehicles to withstand long walkouts.

“They’re vulnerable,” Masters said.

“Really the question is,” he said, “are the parties on the table willing to move forward on some of these things? It is not clear yet.

Fein, who this spring won the UAW chairmanship in the first direct election by members, has set hopes high. He has assured the workers that they can make significant gains if they are willing to go on strike.

Yet Fein has described the union’s proposals in seeking the restoration of traditional defined-benefit pensions for new workers as “audacious”; end of pay levels; increase in pensions for retirees; and – perhaps most audaciously – 32-hour weeks for 40-hour pay.

Currently, UAW workers hired after 2007 do not receive defined benefit pensions. Their health benefits are even less generous. For years, the union abandoned normal wage increases to help companies control costs and lost pay increases to the cost of living. Although top-level assembly workers earn $32.32 an hour, temporary workers start at less than $17. Still, full-time employees received profit-sharing checks this year ranging from $9,716 at Ford to $14,760 at Stellantis.

Chris Lindsay, a union member who builds Ford trucks at the Louisville plant, argues that workers deserve a bigger share of Ford’s huge profits.

Lindsey said, “We keep giving up, but we get nothing in return.” “We just want something reasonable.”

Perhaps the biggest issue blocking contract agreement is union representation at the 10 EV battery plants the companies have proposed. Most of these plants are joint ventures with South Korean battery makers, who want to pay less.

Fenn told members, “These battery workers deserve the same pay and wage standards that generations of auto workers have fought for.”

The union fears that since EVs are easier to make, with fewer moving parts, fewer workers will be needed to assemble them. In addition, workers in combustion engine and transmission plants will likely lose jobs in the transition; They’ll need a place to go.

Fain, a 54-year-old electrician fired from a Chrysler factory in Kokomo, Indiana, is among many labor leaders across the economy raising their demands and flexing their muscles. So far this year, there have been 247 strikes involving 341,000 workers – the most since Cornell University began tracking strikes in 2021, though the number is still well below what it was during the 1970s and 1980s.

Masters suggested that the automaker would not be able to immediately replace the striking workers. A tight job market, low interest in manufacturing jobs, and comparatively modest wages will make it difficult to hire enough workers.

Some auto workers consider the UPS contract, which has a maximum wage of $49 per hour for experienced drivers, a benchmark for their negotiations. Others say they are simply hoping to get close to that figure.

But automakers say a generous agreement will make them far more expensive than their competitors as soon as they start producing more EVs. The inability to unionize the Hyundai-Kia, Nissan, Volkswagen, Honda and Toyota factories has weakened the UAW’s leverage, said Harry Katz, a Cornell labor professor.

If you include the value of their benefits, Detroit 3 automakers’ workers make about $60 an hour. The corresponding figure for foreign-based automakers with American factories is only $40 to $45, Katz said. Most of the disparity reflects in pensions and health care.

If Detroit companies’ labor costs go up, they’ll pass it on to consumers, making vehicles more expensive, said analyst Sam Fiorani with AutoForecast Solutions, a consulting firm.

“More than half of the vehicles manufactured in the US are in non-Union plants,” he said. “So if you raise the price to build a unionized vehicle, you could be out of competition with vehicles already built in North America.”

More than a few weeks of strike would reduce the still-short supply of vehicles on Detroit automakers’ dealer lots. With demand still strong, prices will rise.

UAW members are “reminding management that management cannot operate those factories without an agreement,” said Katz.

Masters and Katz say there is still time to reach a settlement without a strike. Katz predicts a solution to the lackluster UPS numbers, possibly a 3% general pay increase as well as a cost-of-living adjustment, an increase in company contributions to 401(k) accounts for new employees, and a faster top salary increase. shift.

That said, suggested Katz, Fenn has to back up his tough point: “He has to prove himself.”

,

AP writers Bruce Schreiner in Louisville, Kentucky, and Christopher Rugaber in Washington contributed to this report.

Tom Krisher, The Associated Press

Source

[ad_2]

Leave a Reply