As GM Authority previously covered, Ultium Cells LLC – the joint venture between General Motors and LG Energy Solution – claimed that there isn’t a viable way to include it’s workers in the United Auto Workers (UAW) union’s national labor contract. Now, a U.S. Senator is stating that the joint venture has no valid excuse for not folding its workers into the contract.
U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) released the following statement regarding Ultium Cells LLC’s claims. “This response is just more excuses from a bunch of overpaid, out-of-touch executives. In case they didn’t read my letter the first time, I’ll keep it simple: fold your workers into the national UAW contract – just like GM, Ford, and Stellantis – and pay them what they deserve to be paid.”
For reference, 28 other U.S Senators have also been calling on Ultium Cells workers to be included in national labor agreements before current contracts expire in September 2023. They have condemned the joint venture for paying low wages at its Ohio plant, and noted that current workers make half as much as former workers did at the former GM Lordstown assembly plant.
If the Ultium Cells LLC workers were to be included under the current national labor agreement, they would likely receive better pay and benefits.
Of course, GM Authority has been closely following labor negotiations between General Motors and the UAW, the latter of which has been attempting to elicit the help of the U.S government. In fact, UAW Present Shawn Fain was in Washington D.C for some time meeting various representatives, including a brief sit-down with U.S. President Joe Biden, in an attempt to garner more support for the labor union.
For now, negotiations are ongoing, as the UAW is fighting for retiree benefits, cost-of-living adjustments, and the aforementioned unionization of the GM Ultium battery plants, among a wealth of other items. It’s worth noting that the labor union has stated that it isn’t afraid to go on strike if it doesn’t receive what it perceives as a fair offering from the Big Three.
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Comments
The UAW are on thin ice with their insane demands,
Brown needs to learn from the past. We have lost thousands of jobs in NE Ohio due to too much over reach by the unions. You demand too much the jobs leave.
Also the more they pay the more we have to pay and cars are too expensive now.
If you want to improve your life you gain more skills or education. The union asking for crazy money is a dead end.
I work at General Motors and I have a few facts for you. First, our demands are high and I’m sure they will be met in the middle. Second, wages and benefits of the autoworkers is less than 10% of the total cost of the car. The manufacturers are profiting billions every quarter. They could afford to lower the prices and still make a killing. Third, there are plenty of educated people at GM. Everybody always imagines the production worker, but theres thousands of electricians like me, tool and die makers, sub station electricians, welders, chemical control, even nurses. Truthfully, there’s more production workers with college degrees than management. I personally work with a former sheriff, former NYC chef, and a chemist. Most of the engineers and salary in the plant do not have college degrees at all. My boss is a “GM engineer” and he has his bachelors in anthropology. The other 2 engineers in my area have no college at all. They both worked for one of our machine manufacturers. You don’t know the half of being an auto worker. I’m averaging 3500 hours a year in the plant. We are on mandatory 9 hour days and 2 out of every 3 Saturdays. If you call in on a Saturday you get disciplined. In our contract they can force 7 12s for 90 days. Last year September, October, November was mandatory 7 days a week 12 hours a day. We don’t get any extra vacation or sick pay for all the hours we work. If you hire in for production than I feel bad for you. For every 100 they hire about 10 stay. Most production workers are making under $20 a hour with reduced benefits. Ford is saying their average worker is making 120k a year with benefits. That’s because their average production worker is averaging 60 hours a week and trade guys like me are averaging 67 a week year round. Labor day, memorial day, 4th of July, all days I had to work. I make $37 a hour with my shift premium, meanwhile the outside contractor electricians in my plant are making $46 a hour. Until you walk in a autoworkers shoes, you don’t have a clue.
I don’t know what state you work in but here in Michigan you have your regular time and a half each day you work over eight hours, double time on Saturdays, and triple time on Sundays. Plus your benefits.
I am a GM and Ford stockholder which I guess makes me an owner. There are many millions of us if you consider all of the investors with pension funds, mutual funds etc. I would hope the UAW workers are invested in the companies they work for but by their actions you would think they have no interest in the success of the companies. GM shareholders make less than 1% dividend and have been making no gains on their capital since the re-organization. One of the main reasons for this is the belief that they will run into future problems again as a result of absorbent costs associated with the unions. Both sides need to figure out how to get the workers invested and involved in the success of the business. Also the ridiculous UAW demands need to stop.
Senators are highly overpaid!
Scott, you’re a victim of cranial-rectal inversion. CEO bonuses and salary are absurd at GM. No human being deserves that much.
There needs to be a compomise or no one wins in the long game.
Unless it is YOU getting that much. Realistically, how is it worth putting screw “A” in hole “B” over and over again. I was at Fort Wayne for M-5 project. A whole lot of robots were put in. Be careful the Lordstown Saga doesn’t happen again. If that happens, they may keep screwing “A” but hole “B” no longer exists at any plant. Just sayin’. Sorry.
If GM deferred major business decisions to Sharrod Brown, GM would be bankrupt in short order. If GM were forced to include Ultium Cells in their contract, GM would sell their interest in Ultium Cells. Paying a worker making batteries the same as an assembly line worker is economically untenable. The UAW’s insistence on a pattern agreement caused GM to consolidate its parts manufacturing operations under Delphi and eventually spin Delphi off. The UAW’s pattern agreements destroyed vertical integration at the American car companies and also helped drive America’s independent companies out of the automotive industry, Studebaker, Packard, etc. could not afford what GM and Ford was paying its UAW workers.
How about an overpaid out of touch senator. He should keep his political nose out of private businesses.
Dem Senator is richly rewarded by the union like bidet with the ccp . As for workers who aren’t happy with schedule or pay its a free country, find another job. Every company I worked at including GM in the 80s the union was a total drag on productivity , morale and paying the dues sucked ! My family has always bought Chevrolets since the 50s but recently my brother bought a Toyota because of his disdain for the uaw.
Any comparison out there with Asian auto manufacturing paid workers vs. UAW in the USA.
It would be interesting to see the difference in pay and benefits .
Not sure how true this is, but I heard a report that KIA replaced most workers with robots in a Georgia assembly plant, because robots don’t need lunch breaks, restroom breaks, don’t get covid.
I know there are some jobs robots can’t do, or would be cost prohibited.
It used to be American manufacturers were competing with other American manufacturers and they could afford to pay a respectable salary. However, when Asian companies entered the market with lower prices and dependable cars, American companies began losing business. Frankly, I don’t know how they can compete without lowering wages and costs. That includes overpaid executives. I’m a member of the steelworkers union and I know how important unions were in building the middle class. I hope management and the workers can come together to find a compromise to keep all in business.
The real problem has nothing to do with The uaw or management. The real problem is that the greedy self serving politicians have allowed anything and everything to be imported. This has driven too much work overseas and is a huge security threat. How do you win any future war when you have no manufacturing base to convert to war products. Many countries have large tariffs, as much as 60%, on products being imported. This is very effective at retaining manufacturing. Ktm and triumph both were force to build bikes in Thailand in order to compete. All of the problems In the US are 100% the fault of our crooked, greedy politicians. They aren’t held accountable, are above the law. We pay every day for their terrible decisions, and someday or sovereignty will be the price to pay.
There is a lot of truth to that. It all started during the Reagan administration. That and his “trickle down economy” which never worked.