New United Auto Workers (UAW) president Shawn Fain recently said there is “no excuse” for automakers to set up electric vehicle manufacturing facilities in Detroit without unionized workforces.
Fain vowed to do whatever is necessary to meet UAW objectives during upcoming contract negotiations with GM, Ford, and Stellantis later in 2023, per Reuters reporting.
The UAW president zeroed in the hourly $16.50 wage GM says it will pay to new workers at its Ultium Cells plant in Warren, Ohio as an example of “unacceptable” feature of employment at the new EV battery plants springing up in the U.S., including those making Ultium batteries as a joint venture between GM and LG Energy Solution.
Instead, Fain wants to see GM, Stellantis, and other automakers offer higher salaries than those at the established “Detroit Three” plants for workers at the cutting-edge EV battery factories. He also wants a fully unionized workforce at Ford’s gigantic Blue Oval City electric vehicle manufacturing complex in Tennessee.
Ultium responded to Fain’s statements by saying it is “committed to the collective bargaining process” and wants to reach an accord with the UAW that “positions our employees and our Ohio battery cell manufacturing facility for success.”
Workers at Ultium Cells in Ohio
Other negotiating goals Fain will pursue include elimination of the two-tiered wage system at auto plants, along with revival of the retirement and cost of living benefits eliminated almost 15 years ago in the “Great Recession.”
Shawn Fain was elected to the UAW presidency last month by a margin of just 500 votes, after a fiercely contested election process. The instability of the union’s leadership in recent times is highlighted by the fact that Fain is the fifth president over the past five years.
Marick Masters, a business professor analyzing the situation, expects the new UAW leadership to be “militant and antagonistic” and to seek to “achieve a maximum amount of gains, even at the expense of long-term relationships.”
Negotiations over wages and working conditions at GM’s Ultium Cells plants may be particularly important because of The General’s major electrification push. The automaker wants 2023 through 2025 to be breakout years for its EV initiative.
GM plans to introduce 30 new electric vehicles worldwide by 2025, and recently said it will have EVs in one third of automotive segments by the same date. The segments it’s aiming for are the most popular, accounting for 70 percent of vehicle sales each year.
As part of its strategy, GM fully developed its Ultium batteries, electric GM Ultium Drive motors, and highly scalable BEV3 platform as a jumping-off point for vastly increasing EV production to meet its electrification goals. In his recent remarks, new UAW president Shawn Fain also said he wants displaced internal combustion production workers to be offered unionized jobs at the new EV facilities.
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