Tag Archives: UAW

Skip the May Pole. Grab a Banner Instead. (Really?)

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By Gary S. Vasilash

A country’s GDP—gross domestic product—is a measure of the value of goods and services produced for sale. A higher GDP is generally a reflection of comparatively higher economic health for a given country compared with others.

According to the United Nations, the top 10 countries measured on GDP per capita are:

  1. Luxemburg
  2. Ireland
  3. Norway
  4. Switzerland
  5. United States
  6. Demark
  7. Netherlands
  8. Sweden
  9. San Marino
  10. Belgium

What do all of these countries have in common?

They are not generally associated with wide-spread labor actions (a.k.a., massive strikes).

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has released information about union membership rage in the U.S.: 10%, or 14.4 million workers. That 10% is flat compared with 2022.

The BLS started tracking these numbers in 1983. Back then there were 17.7 million union workers. That represented 20.1% of the workforce.

And while many people (likely you, as you are reading something about the auto industry) might think that the auto industry is where there is the greatest number of represented workers, turns out that in the private sector the number-one industry for union workers is utilities, at 19.9%. Then the BLS buckets transportation and warehousing at 15.9%, followed by educational services (12.9%) and motion picture and sound recording (12.9%).

If people are interested in money first and foremost, then union membership is certainly a positive, as the median weekly earnings for a union worker in 2023 was $1,263 compared with $1,090 for a non-union worker.

Which brings us back to the list.

On Monday, speaking at the UAW national political conference in Washington, DC, UAW president Sean Fain said that he wants an organized strike, a general strike, a mass strike across the board, to occur on May 1, 2028.

“We want everybody walking out just like they do in other countries.”

If GDP is important, then one wonders about the wisdom of emulating the labor practices or activities of other countries where it isn’t particularly high.

People deserve good pay, benefits and working conditions. But somehow a scheduled across-the-board strike doesn’t seem to articulate the needs of a utility worker, which are probably different than those of a barista, which are coincidental at most with a university teaching assistant, which are undoubtedly not the same as someone working the line in a Chevy plant.

Biden and Belvidere

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“Congratulations to Stellantis and the UAW for their dedication and focus in coming together to reach a hard-won tentative agreement. The significance of this historic achievement coming just days after the UAW and Ford reached an agreement cannot be overstated.

 “This tentative agreement includes a number of important provisions including a commitment to reopen the Belvidere plant in Illinois, which will bring good, union jobs back that community. The parties are also charting a future of good middle-class jobs in battery manufacturing, consistent with the President’s vision for a just transition where building a clean economy and creating good union jobs go hand-in-hand.

 “Today’s agreement demonstrates what is possible when workers have a voice and a seat at the table. On behalf of the most pro-worker, pro-union administration in history, we applaud the parties on what they have achieved.”—Julie A. Su, U.S. Acting Secretary of Labor

A couple of considerations.

  1. What does it matter that there is the self-proclaimed “pro-worker, pro-union administration in history”? Wasn’t this contract worked out by the UAW and Stellantis? How was the Biden Administration involved? One of the points that the UAW used in bargaining was that the Administration is shoveling money into battery plants and while the OEMs can take advantage of that, there was no certainty that the workers would benefit from it, as that wasn’t written into the language of the Fed’s largess, only geography and material sourcing, not worker representation. Pro-labor?
  2. That plant in northern Illinois had been closed earlier this year because the Jeep Cherokee that was built there wasn’t selling. Obviously, making something that someone doesn’t want to buy is not a good idea. (OK: that only a few people want to buy.) According to UAW vice president Rich Boyer, the plant will build a midsize pickup and there will also be jobs at a battery plant in Belvidere. Should that midsize pickup be an electric pickup, given what’s happening in the market right now, that may put the workers back in the situation that had occurred with the Cherokee. EVs are not selling at the rate that had been anticipated, which is causing Ford to cut a shift from its F-150 Lightning production and GM to push back the construction of an EV assembly plant. Seems like more EVs isn’t what’s required at present. However, UAW president Shawn Fain pointed out: “We not only won the right to strike over plant closure, we won the right to strike over product and investment. That means if the company goes back on their word over any of these plans, we can strike the hell out of them.” Stellantis better hope its product planning is on target for Belvidere as well as its other U.S. plants.