An agreement to terminate the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike was struck with General Motors (GM) following the enlistment of thousands of autoworkers from Canada.
American auto workers are warning that they will have to live on “poverty wages” because of President Joe Biden’s rules for electric vehicles (EVs). The UAW strike is still going on.
This week, over 4,300 Canadians from three General Motors (GM) facilities in Ontario joined the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike. GM potentially faced a production problem because the plants make a lot of different cars, including the very profitable Chevrolet Silverado trucks.
The Canadian labor group Unifor, which is comparable to the United Auto Workers (UAW), has officials accusing General Motors executives of “stubbornly refusing” to match a deal the union has with Ford that calls for compensation increases of up to 25 percent.
“During the negotiation process, our bargaining team made it very clear to the company that our employees are united and prepared to strike, no exceptions,” stated Unifor GM Master Bargaining Chairman Jason Gale in a written statement.
“The work that our members do is very important to GM’s bottom line. This includes building engines and transmissions, delivering parts, and assembling trucks. There is only one way for this disagreement to end: GM must agree to the same terms as with Ford.”
But soon after Unifor joined the strike, they said they were able to negotiate a deal with GM leaders.
At the same time, UAW President Shawn Fain keeps saying that Biden’s EV rules, which the Big Three automakers are happy to follow, could force American auto workers to work for “poverty wages” because tens of thousands of them will be laid off right away.
According to CBS News:
“Although automakers say their employees will have safe jobs, Fain said that the union does not believe that as the switch to electric cars gets underway. Rather,” he claimed, “the businesses want to drive down industry pay by paying ‘poverty wages’ at the new operations.”
“According to Farley and other auto executives, EV assembly will require 30% to 40% fewer people than gasoline-powered automobiles since EVs have fewer moving components. However, Mary Barra, the CEO of GM, is adamant that there will be sufficient work to advance everyone.”
Automaker CEOs stand to gain billions in tax credits from Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which would encourage the development and sale of electric vehicles, but auto workers fear that their jobs may be gone.
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