General Motors expects it will work with the United Auto Workers union at its Ultium Cells LLC battery plants in the United States.
Speaking to Reuters this week, GM executive vice president Gerald Johnson said the company expects to “work together with the UAW going forward,” at its Ultium Cells LLC battery plants, though he refrained from outright endorsing unionization at the facilities.
“We are supportive of the UAW, we are partners with the UAW. We believe there has been good that has come out of that partnership and that good is transferrable to other operations,” Johnson was quoted as saying.
While GM assembly plants in the U.S. are staffed by UAW workforces, the Ultium battery plants are operated by a separate company called Ultium Cells LLC – the result of a joint venture partnership between the automaker and Korean battery manufacturer LG Energy Solution. Ultium Cells LLC is in the process of building two separate battery plants in the United States, one in Ohio and another in Tennessee – representative of a $4.6 billion combined investment that will ultimately create 2,400 jobs.
GM CEO Mary Barra said previously that the Ultium Cells LLC jobs would follow the automaker’s pay structure for components plants, which typically pay less than jobs on vehicle assembly lines. The top UAW wage at assembly plants is around $32 an hour, while components plants workers could make half that or $10 less an hour.
The Ultium Cells LLC plants will produce GM’s new line of Ultium battery packs, which will range in size from 50 kWh to 200 kWh. The 200 kWh battery pack will enable certain future GM EVs to travel up to 400 miles on a single charge, the automaker claims. The Ultium batteries will also be used in future Honda and Acura electric vehicles as part of the two company’s technology sharing partnership.
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Comments
This should make the costs go way up.
As a stockholder, GM desperately need to cut wage costs.
Gerald Johnson is where I would start.
Then Mary Barra and the rest of the leadersheep.
I’m surprised the IBEW isn’t making threats.
I used to be anti-UAW when I was younger but have come around realizing that it plays a pivotal role in keeping any automotive manufacturing in the US.
There has been a successful decades-long effort to drive public opinion against against unions and it’s end result in full display in the comments section of this website.
Without the UAW, most of what we would be driving today would be built out of the country and any US auto workers would be paid a pittance in wages.
I realize I will be downvoted for saying that but people need to realize that unions are beneficial for the working class.
Always have been. It’s a shame 10’s of millions are so easily convinced otherwise.
Yet, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Subaru, BMW, Hyundai/Kia, Mercedes, Volvo all manufacture in the US at non-union plants.
It has nothing to do with UAW, and all to do with the chicken tax. Put a hefty tariff on foreign cars, problem solved.
And they pay wages and provide benefits on par with the unionized shops. Because….unions.
i thought the chicken tax only applied to light trucks. subaru/bmw/volvo/mb doesn’t make those.
also thanks to trump, new nafta allows trucks manufactured in canada and mexico to be excluded from the chicken tax.
They always have been.
No. The definition of light truck basically includes everything that’s not a sedan, over 70% of US sales are light trucks. SUVs/CUVs are basically all light trucks. Subarus, excepting the BRZ, meet the definition of light truck due to AWD plus ground clearance. BMW makes the X series in the US because they are light trucks.
Not true on your second point. Chicken tax has never included Canada. NAFTA lifted it for Mexico, so that would be Clinton.
thanks for correction.
GM has been negotiating and strategizing against the UAW for years. Many years ago I visited the UAW Black Lake retreat for a week of fun and training. The instructor in one of the classes mentioned how Unions have been modeling themselves after corporations. Meaning as long as the leadership are making money the constituency will just have to fall in line.
Remember over the years GM has outsourced Union jobs to what they call “Independent parts suppliers”. Independent parts suppliers are business models producing the same parts the plants were making but under a different umbrella. They would run Help wanted campaigns and rehire the Union employees who were displaced. Pretty cunning I thought. Eventually the pissed of union workers would give in and take the job offers for far less money. One good thing came from it. They no longer paid union dues.
biden is pushing an extra $2500 tax credit if the EV is produced with union labor.