The Teamsters Outraged: Proposed Action for Driverless Trucks in the US, or Why Future Automakers Should Not Become Unorganized
On Tuesday a caravan of big rig trucks roared into the capital city of the state of California as the Teamsters union called for the passage of a bill banning driverless trucks. In the US industrial heartlands, autoworkers are picketing for better pay and job security as the industry transitions to electric vehicles. Meanwhile, newly expanded fleets of robotaxis tootled around San Francisco collecting fares, despite the objections of city leaders and unions concerned about the vehicles obstructing emergency vehicles and transit.
The new assembly plants that the legacy automakers need to pull off the transition have been stood up mostly in US states hostile to union organizing, such as Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama. Since these plants are joint ventures between auto companies and foreign battery companies, they aren’t subject to previous union contracts.
Concerns have also mounted about job losses after Ford’s CEO estimated that EVs would require 40 percent less human labor, although the true number remains a subject of debate. The UAW is seeking job security provisions to protect members during the transition, such as the right to strike over plant closures and compensation if a factory shuts down.
Over the last few years, there has been an increasing amount of pressure on the legacy automakers to cut costs. According to industry analysts, Musk’s non-unionized EV company spends less on labor when compared to the Big Three.
Tesla’s Silicon Valley roots also helped it become the first automaker to envision the car as a software-first, iPhone-like “platform” that can be modified via over-the-air updates. The company wants to automate more factories and get more of the materials it needs to build its batteries.
The United Auto Workers are Up Against The Stagnant Wage and Benefit Promises of the Big Three Automakers: a Video Streaming Comparison
The United Auto Workers is going to escalate its strikes against the Big Three automakers as it battles to make up for stagnant wages and concessions from its members.
UAW President Shawn Fain is expected to announce later today which plants will be added to a group of workers who walked off the job last week.
Roughly 13,000 workers at three Midwest auto plants — a General Motors assembly plant in Wentzville, Mo., a Stellantis assembly plant in Toledo, Ohio, and part of a Ford plant in Wayne, Mich. — are currently on the picket line.
“If we don’t make serious progress by noon on Friday, we will call in more locals to join the strike and we won’t be able to do anything anymore,” Fain said in the video, which was posted to Facebook Monday night.
Fain’s so-called “stand up” strike strategy is intended to keep Ford, General Motors and Stellantis on their toes with sudden, targeted strikes at strategic locations, rather than having all of the nearly 150,000 UAW auto workers walk off their jobs at once.
General Motors has temporarily laid off most of the approximately 2,000 unionized workers at its Fairfax assembly plant in Kansas as a result of the ongoing UAW strikes. The other two companies have also announced temporary layoffs at a smaller scale.
The two sides disagree over a number of economic issues, including the restoration of pension and retiree health care and cost of living adjustments. The effects of concessions made to the auto industry in 2008 are still felt by workers today.
“We haven’t had a raise in years, a real raise,” said Gil Ramsey, a Ford employee in Wayne, Mich. “And everything that we gave up when the company was down on the ropes — we haven’t even got that back yet.”
Transportation workers are on the front lines of two profound and accelerating shifts that promise to make getting around easier and greener but also threaten jobs. The Biden administration has devoted hundreds of billions of dollars toward greening the nation’s energy system, speeding the shift toward electric cars, trucks, buses, and rail lines. Some of the funding requires that employers pay union wages, but some of the green jobs being created pay less and are not as good as fossil-fuel dependent jobs. Meanwhile, driverless vehicles are beginning to perform paid work previously done by humans. Labor leaders say that if the government doesn’t act now, there will be widespread job loss and degradation.
“When you have an introduction of new technology into a mature industry, there are opportunities where it can be used by employers to undermine strong collective bargaining contracts,” says Greg Regan, president of the Transportation Trades Department, a coalition of 37 transportation unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO, the US’s largest labor federation.
Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis have all launched joint ventures with South Korean electronics companies to make battery components for EVs. The plants aren’t covered under the UAW’s existing contracts, and the union says workers risk exposure to dangerous chemicals and receive unfairly low pay.
The union is worried about job losses from the trucks. Truck driving is the most common job in 29 states according to Peter Finn, a vice president for the union. This could potentially have a big impact on jobs, communities, and the economy. The caravan to Sacramento was designed to get the governor of California to sign a bill requiring human safety drivers in all cars weighing over 10,000 pounds. That would include even standard UPS or Fedex delivery trucks. According to a poll, a bill with more than 90 percent support in the Assembly and Senate and more than 73 percent support among Californians, may be vetoed by the governor because he does not like it.