What the Auto Workers’ Unions Want to Learn about Autonomous Vehicles in the UAW: Are They Really Interested in More Negotiable Deals?
So far, the companies have failed to present wage offers that the union sees as adequate, though the automakers say they’ve already put generous offers on the table. The UAW wants 40% wage increase over the length of the contract.
UAW President Shawn Fain is expected to announce at 10 a.m. ET which plants will join the group of workers who were the first to walk off the job last week, when the union’s contracts with the automakers expired.
Roughly 13,000 workers at three Midwest auto plants — a General Motors assembly plant in Wentzville, Mo., a Stellantis assembly plant in Toledo, Ohio, and part of a Ford plant in Wayne, Mich. — are currently on the picket line.
“If we don’t make serious progress by noon on Friday, September 22nd, more locals will be called on to stand up and join the strike,” Fain announced in a video posted to Facebook Monday night, while not revealing which plants or how many would be called on next.
Fain’s so-called “stand up” strike strategy is intended to keep Ford, General Motors and Stellantis on their toes with sudden, targeted strikes at strategic locations, rather than having all of the nearly 150,000 UAW auto workers walk off their jobs at once.
A majority of the 2,000 unionized workers at the Fairfax assembly plant in Kansas have been laid off because of the UAW strikes. The other two companies have also announced layoffs.
Concerns have also mounted about job losses after Ford’s CEO estimated that EVs would require 40 percent less human labor, although the true number remains a subject of debate. The UAW is seeking job security provisions to protect members during the transition, such as the right to strike over plant closures and compensation if a factory shuts down.
“We haven’t had a raise in years, a real raise,” said Gil Ramsey, a Ford employee who’s on strike in Wayne, Mich. “And everything that we gave up when the company was down on the ropes — we haven’t even got that back yet.”
On Tuesday, a caravan of big rig trucks roared into Sacramento as the Teamsters union rallied support for a bill banning driverless trucks in California. Far away in the US industrial heartlands, autoworkers picketed outside Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis for better pay and job security as the industry transitions to electric vehicles. Meanwhile, newly expanded fleets of robotaxis tootled around San Francisco collecting fares, despite the objections of city leaders and unions concerned about the vehicles obstructing emergency vehicles and transit.
“When you have an introduction of new technology into a mature industry, there are opportunities where it can be used by employers to undermine strong collective bargaining contracts,” says Greg Regan, president of the Transportation Trades Department, a coalition of 37 transportation unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO, the US’s largest labor federation.
Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis have all launched joint ventures with South Korean electronics companies to make battery components for EVs. Workers at the plants are not covered by the UAW’s contracts, and the union says workers get unfairly low pay.
The Teamsters union is likewise worried about job loss from autonomous trucks. Truck driving is the most common job in 29 states, according to Peter Finn, a vice president for the union. “This is going to have a dramatic and potentially disastrous impact on jobs, on communities, and on the economy.” The caravan on Tuesday was meant to pressure California governor to sign Assembly Bill 316 which requires the presence of a human safety driver in all self-destructive vehicles weighing over 10,000 pounds. Standard delivery trucks would be included. The bill passed both the State Assembly and Senate, with over 90 percent of the vote and 73 percent support among residents, but that may not be enough to save it, according to a poll by the office of the governor.
These are warehouses that ship out parts. That means that although these new strikes won’t cause much disruption to vehicle manufacturing, they could relatively quickly start to interfere with vehicle repairs.
Pete is a member of the union that represents dealership workers. The UAW has stepped up their activity, especially from a car owner’s perspective.
It’s possible that cars are stuck for two to three months at dealerships or body shops if they can’t get a part. “Now, in some situations, dealers have been stockpiling as many parts as they can get their hands on, but that can only last so long.”
The industry had recently had experience with this. Parts shipments were disrupted during the UAW’s strike against GM. “It doesn’t just snap back into place,” DeVito says. It will take months to deal with the shortages that are coming.
De theo thinks that it will not be enough to avoid disruptions. Among the popular vehicles affected are GM’s Chevrolet, Buick and Cadillac brands, as well as the Stellantis brands of Jeep, Chrysler and Ram.
How the UAW strikes could impact car shoppers: A study of the Big 3’s factories, dealerships, and assembly facilities in America, and the size of spare parts
The number of vehicles that are already built and ready to be sold, a closely watched metric in the auto industry, just crossed 2 million for the first time in two years.
It’s not high by historical standards. And some of the vehicles targeted by the strike – like the Ford Bronco, for instance – were in short supply to begin with. America isn’t on a car shortage like it was just a couple of years ago.
“With the current inventory levels in place, we don’t expect a short-lived strike to impact consumer prices in any meaningful way, at least in the near term,” wrote Rebecca with Cox automotive last week.
If the auto industry doesn’t make enough concessions the union will reduce its locations and ramp up production if it needs to.
Instead of shutting down the Big 3’s operations entirely by stopping engine production, for instance, the union has focused on a few assembly plants and warehouses that supply dealerships, not plants.
Even factoring in the knock-on effects, which resulted in a few thousand temporary layoffs, the vast majority of production facilities are still running.
Decades ago, Ford, GM and Chrysler made up 90% of the domestic auto market. But that’s ancient history today, when Toyota, Honda and Hyundai are also market leaders and the Big Three are just 39% of the market.
Source: How the UAW strikes could impact car shoppers
A strike of the auto industry could save the Big Three from a shortage of new materials and the impact on the bottom-up of the automotive price
The union had more power in its heyday. It also makes this strike very different from the massive, industry-wide supply disruption sparked by the pandemic.
The impact on retail will be slow coming, according to Jonathan Smoke, the Chief Economist of Cox automotive.
Analysts tell NPR that aside from shortages of specific models, the likeliest impact on consumers will be the absence of incentives at the Big Three automakers – the zero-down-payment, 0% interest loans and cash-back offers that have slowly been coming back to dealership ads.
A strike could help prevent the Big Three from going ahead with their push for more metal at the end of the year, says Ed Kim, an analyst at AutoPacific.
“We just don’t know at this point,” Jessica Caldwell, Executive Director of Insights at the automotive data company, told NPR on the sidelines of the Detroit Auto Show last week. If it drags on, that is definitely a risk.
Rival companies like Toyota could see this as an opportunity to seize market share, which could mute the price impacts, she notes. But only if they can actually increase production enough to take advantage of their moment.
The biggest, most lucrative models are being sold by automakers for more than the cost of making them. The union is aware of that.
S&P Global Market Intelligence wrote that a rise in productivity over the past 20 years provides a buffer against the need to increase vehicle prices. The 4% raise for workers would increase companies’ costs by 2% over the next 4 years.
The price of a car went up 30% in the last four years, but then it stopped at an average of $65,000 and $49,000 for all vehicles and trucks, according to Kelley Blue Book.