I can relate to the car staff who are protesting Detroit’s Big Three because I am a former United Auto Workers Union part who spent three summers working in UAW companies during my college career. I also covered organized work for The Wall Street Journal in Washington from 1977 to 1980. However, I am concerned that what they are looking for is not in their best interests over the long term.
When the businesses were struggling, the UAW made significant agreements in prior contracts. Detroit is currently very successful, and the major car executives are earning millions. People working on the factory floor inevitably believe they should receive a portion of the bounty, especially given that other unions have been winning significant contracts. That makes sense to me. On the shop floor, I worked.
As a work reporter, I had the opportunity to interact with many union presidents. For some of the same factors that it has been enjoyable to cover farmers in more recent times, covering them was enjoyable. Farmers, union leaders, and corporate executives are all not afraid to divulge data. They enjoy conversation, and reporters enjoy conversing with them.
Leaders of the Union are officials. In contrast to business managers, they are elected to office. People on the factory floor you choose someone else if they are dissatisfied. Provide the voters what they want, bright union frontrunners— and these men aren’t dummies.
They have a lot of demands from the manufacturers this season, and UAW leader Shawn Fain appears decided to fulfill them. Their initial demand called for a 32-hour work week with 40 hours of pay, an increase in wages of 40 % over the course of four years, and numerous expensive benefit increases.
According to one estimate, accepting this first requirement would raise the Big Three’s typical hourly labour costs from$ 66 to$ 136. Since then, the union has reduced its demand for wage increases to 35 %. The organizations have been offering top 20 % discounts.
A hit was unavoidable with a space like that. It may take a while because it began on September 15. The union initially had an$ 825 million strike fund to maintain the viability of its picketing members. The UAW is rotating its focus on a few companies rather than all of them at once in order to extend the fund’s life.
The businesses may lose billions of dollars during a protracted strike, money they would otherwise have to invest in making electric vehicles. However, giving in would be detrimental to the Big Three.
For starters, they aren’t as large as they once were; Tesla and foreign-owned businesses produce the majority of the cars made in the US. That is a piece of Detroit’s issue.
Worse, because these rivals are non-union, they have a significant labor-cost benefit. The average hourly labour costs for Tesla are calculated to be$ 45, which is 20 dollars less than Detroit’s. A four-day workweek and double-digit monthly raises would make the Big Three yet less competitive.
For decades, GM, Ford, and Chrysler have all experienced decline. A contract that was incredibly weak had force them to contract even more. The people working on the shop floor may be making a significant action toward pricing themselves out of their employment if they get what they want.
Electrical vehicles are a part of the issue for the coalition. According to standard wisdom, since they have fewer parts, building them didn’t require as many auto workers. Even those who disagree with regular knowledge believe that switching to electric cars will result in job losses.
However, in the long run, car staff can only compete with their employers in terms of performance. However, it’s difficult for them to understand that, and coalition officials don’t win re-election by discussing the future. The history of our nation’s labor-management relationships with us against them has conditioned work to fight for better pay and problems right now while administration worries about competitiveness.
Different nations have made an effort to foster a more unified feeling of we’re all in this together. Labor officials in Germany hold positions on the boards of directors of businesses. There are business organizations in Japan. Even though labor-management relationships are also frequently uncomfortable, they are typically less hostile than in the US. Attacks are uncommon in Japan.
The US won’t be imitating Japan or Germany. That makes sense. Giving employees financial incentives to advance their employers’ fight is one of the more British ways to align labor and management interests. Employees of Tesla receive share in the business.
Some employees have benefited from the Big Three’s profit-sharing agreements with the UAW, which have brought in up to$ 12, 000 annually. As much as I feel sorry for the employees, a better deal for them and managing may be lower pay raises and more scrumptious profit-sharing plans.
Urban Lehner, a longtime editor and correspondent for the Wall Street Journal Asia, is now the editor emeritus of DTN / The Progressive Farmer. & nbsp,
Copyright 2023 DTN / The Progressive Farmer is the title of this article, which was first published on October 2 by the latter news organization and is now being republished with authority by Asia Times. All right are reserved. Urban Lehner follows @ urbanize on Twitter.