When the United Auto Employees (UAW) began its strike in opposition to Ford, GM, and Stellantis earlier this 12 months, a grim storyline took form within the press: This strike pitted President Biden’s push for a transition to electrical autos (EVs) in opposition to his help for employees.
Writing in regards to the strike and the transition to zero-emitting autos, the New York Occasions put it this manner: “The political problem posed by the trade’s transition to electrical automobiles could also be solely starting.” Politico was one in every of any variety of publications issuing a easy warning: “UAW Strike May Disrupt EV Rollout.” Two so-called details had been seemingly inarguable: Electrical autos require far fewer employees to construct, and not one of the new battery vegetation could possibly be unionized.
However now that the strike is over—extra rapidly than many assumed and on significantly better phrases for employees than analysts had mentioned was attainable—a unique set of classes are clear, and they’re the precise reverse of what many within the media and sizzling take market had predicted:
- The Huge Three automakers can spend money on each their employees and the factories to make new EVs.
- Employees at most of the new battery vegetation can take pleasure in the identical union safety as different autoworkers or have a neater pathway to hitch the union.
- Constructing EVs can create extra jobs over the following few many years because the trade builds up its capability and know-how.
Earlier than analyzing every of those three factors, it’s necessary to right one misunderstanding.
Whereas many commentators tried to pit union employees in opposition to electrical autos, neither the UAW nor environmental teams ever did so. Simply the alternative. Again in March of 2021, the UAW issued a white paper that referred to as for particular methods the brand new EV trade may benefit employees: “The expansion of EVs should be a possibility to reinvest in American manufacturing, with union employees making the autos of the long run.”
In the meantime, NRDC was one in every of greater than 100 inexperienced teams that despatched a letter to the CEOs of the Huge Three and particularly endorsed the UAW’s bargaining place: “Solely by means of assembly these calls for will the US guarantee a simply transition to a renewable power future.”
Because the UAW strike started in mid-September, the Huge Three executives and outdoors commentators pitted the employees’ calls for for truthful wages in opposition to the necessity for brand spanking new investments in battery vegetation and EV factories. Ford CEO Jim Farley went as far as to warn that the employees’ calls for would drive Ford to scrap its investments in electrical autos, saying the UAW’s contract calls for would drive the corporate to “select between going out of enterprise and rewarding our employees,” in response to CleanTechnica.
However the actuality was a lot completely different. The auto corporations have billions of {dollars} in earnings to attract from for these new investments, and employee salaries are only a small slice of their prices.
The Huge Three made $21 billion in earnings up to now this 12 months and $250 billion over the previous decade. All the CEOs have been raking in tens of millions of {dollars} of their salaries and incentives. Employee salaries, however, make up simply 5 p.c of the price of remaining meeting of a brand new automobile, a examine cited by the New York Occasions concluded.
And now, with the UAW contract in hand, autoworkers can get long-overdue pay hikes whereas automakers proceed to make the investments they should make (and admittedly, ought to have made years in the past) in constructing electrical autos.
An enormous a part of these investments is in constructing new battery vegetation. The auto corporations have arrange joint ventures to construct lots of them, and the UAW made it a high precedence throughout bargaining to make sure these new vegetation are captured underneath every automaker’s grasp settlement or that the employees at these vegetation produce other pathways to unionization. At first, the automakers balked, and outdoors analysts mentioned this may be a bridge too far.
The Related Press reported: “Ford’s Farley accused the union of holding an settlement hostage over union illustration of battery plant employees. On a convention name with trade analysts, he mentioned excessive wages at battery vegetation would increase the value of Ford’s electrical autos above these from Tesla and different rivals.”
However then the bottom began to shift. In a dramatic, Friday night announcement within the midst of the strike, UAW President Shawn Fain introduced that GM had agreed to unionize its battery vegetation. “We’ve had a serious breakthrough that has not solely dramatically modified negotiations however goes to vary the way forward for our union and the way forward for our trade,” Fain mentioned.
Stellantis quickly adopted, and even Ford agreed to create robust pathways for employees at future battery vegetation to fast-track union illustration. There will likely be laborious work forward to make sure that all of those vegetation get union illustration, however the settlement goes a good distance towards making it occur.
Final, whereas this wasn’t a part of the strike itself, one factor we realized alongside the way in which is that job progress and electrical autos can go hand in hand. For years, a shadowy estimate has circulated round this transition: EVs, it was mentioned, require 30 p.c fewer employees to make; the reason is that an EV has fewer shifting elements and fewer elements means fewer employees.
Besides that it’s simply not correct. A beautiful story from Emily Pontecorvo at Heatmap concludes: “Whether or not or not the U.S. is ready to construct up home battery manufacturing, early proof of the EV transition in the US reveals that EVs could require extra labor, even within the remaining meeting phases.” When you embody the battery manufacturing figures, this new trade may create 1000’s extra good manufacturing jobs on this nation. (Pontecorvo’s full article is value taking the time to learn. There’s a lot to it.)
So, the outcomes are in, and the conclusion is evident: With a union settlement in place that features new measures to assist unionize battery vegetation, the predicate is about to make sure that employees profit whereas the US transitions to electrical autos. Sure, as we have now seen lately, the highway forward isn’t flat and straight. There will likely be twists and turns, ups and downs. However the normal path is crystal clear. We’re on the highway to a greater tomorrow.
Initially revealed on NRDC Skilled Weblog. By Luke Tonachel, Senior Director, Clear Automobiles & Buildings, Local weather & Clear Vitality Program.
