What the Ultium Environmental Impacts on the Environmental Impact of Green EVs: The Case for a Just-Transition Movement and the Biden Administration
The lithium in EV batteries can react violently with water, and Surgenavic’s job involves controlling humidity in the battery plant’s rooms to precise levels. But he says wages are too low to attract enough qualified workers to maintain the huge building. When Ultium opened, production workers started at $16.50 an hour and maxed out at $20 an hour, a level far below GM’s own plants and one that 28 US senators called “a national disgrace” in a July letter to battery plant owners. Ultium staff voted to unionize with the United Auto Workers (UAW) in December, but are still bargaining their first contract. Chemical spills, exposures to toxic substances, and other safety problems have landed Ultium with $31,000 in fines from US federal regulators, with six investigations still open. Surgenavic and others say the green EV revolution isn’t looking good for workers because Ultium doesn’t prioritize safety.
Strike fever is about to sweep through the nation’s auto industry, with the United Auto Workers preparing to walk off the job on September 14th if the “Big Three” automakers — Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler’s parent company, Stellantis — don’t agree to the union’s demands for pay increases, shorter working days, and stronger pensions.
The philosophy says that workers and communities shouldn’t shoulder the burden of unsustainable industries in the future. J. Mijin Cha, an assistant professor of environmental studies at UC Santa Cruz, says research shows that the just-transition approach has wider benefits by decreasing opposition to new sustainable industries. “By making a more just society overall, we can actually accelerate an energy transition,” she says.
Big Three are pumping billions of dollars into electric vehicles in order to catch up withTesla, which employs a nonunion workforce. These investments are being subsidized by the Biden administration, which has put EVs at the center of its efforts to fight climate change.
The Union of Automobile Workers (UAAW) and the Big Three: Why the EV Market isn’t Going to the Top of the Charts
Pretty likely! At least 85% of the workers at the three companies are on strike according to analysts at Evercore ISI. The union’s most recent proposal was a 36 percent wage increase, down from 40 percent, which suggests talks are still ongoing. But the two sides still seem far apart on most issues.
Fain was elected president of UAW in March (the first time a UAW president was picked through a democratic vote by the union’s membership) on a promise of “no corruption, no concessions, no tiers,” according to Labor Notes, which likened his election to the shakeup at the Teamsters. The union can be taken in a more militant direction by the man who says he has a mandate to fight for his membership.
Their biggest issue is the cost gap they have with their nonunion factories in the South which are owned by foreign companies. They say this puts them at a major disadvantage competitively because it means they’re spending roughly $64-$67 an hour on total labor costs, including benefits, while their rivals only spend around $55 an hour.
Meanwhile, Tesla incurs labor costs of $45 to $50 per hour for its nonunion workforce. This is one reason why the Big Three couldn’t keep up with Tesla, which is still dominating the EV market in the US.
Good question! This is one of the major arguments put forward by the union. They claim that in years past, they’ve been willing to come to the table to make major concessions to ensure the Big Three stay afloat. At a time when the industry is posting record profits of $21 billion in just the first six months of 2020, companies are unwilling to share the success with the workforce.
EVs are not the main source of contention between the union and the Big Three, but they are certainly a supporting player. UAW members are paid the same as autoworkers on EVs.
The assembly line needs more parts and fewer workers. Union leadership is concerned that a wholesale shift to electric would dramatically hurt its membership, which has been declining over the decades.
According to The New York Times, Fain called the shift to EV a “race to the bottom” in an internal memo.
Analysts warn of a “potential nightmare situation” for GM and Ford, especially, which have set the stage for a massive EV transformation over the next decade that will likely define their future success.
Is it possible to do nothing to save the American economy? An independent dealership owner asks why labor isn’t valued by a strike
Often, the cost of a strike is portrayed in terms of its effect on a state or nation’s economic output. For example, Bloomberg reports that a 10-day strike would “reduce US gross domestic product by $5.6 billion and likely push the Michigan economy into a recession.”
The independent dealership owner with the hat on wrote on the other day that he hoped the issue would be resolved before it got to that point. I don’t think it is.
The union insists that it’s actually much higher to do nothing. In a video on September 8th, Fain commented that corporations want people to believe there is nothing they can do to change things. When labor isn’t valued, we have the power to refuse it. The power of a strike is what we have. The cost of a strike might be high, but the cost of doing nothing is much higher.”