One of the biggest issues in the United Auto Workers’ contract negotiations with Detroit’s three automakers is over jobs that don’t exist yet.
Wages and retirement benefits have been central issues in talks over new four-year contracts between the union and General Motors (GM), Ford (F), and Stellantis (STLA).
Yet pivotal to the companies’ and the union’s futures are nearly a dozen U.S. battery factories that the carmakers have in the works, many still only a collection of steel beams and piles of dirt.
On Friday, the UAW opted to forgo additional walkouts at the three automakers, with union leader Shawn Fain citing progress in negotiations. The UAW still has about 25,000 workers on strike at five assembly plants and dozens of parts-distribution centers, as the labor action enters its fourth week.
At GM specifically, Fain said the car company agreed to include battery production work in the UAW’s national bargaining agreement. That suggests workers at the companies’ U.S. battery facilities could be covered by the union’s main contract with GM, although it is unclear if they would be under a separate wage structure from employees at assembly plants and other facilities.
GM declined to comment directly on Fain’s remarks, saying that it continues to negotiate.
Union leaders have expressed concern about job losses as the industry shifts to electric vehicles, because many of the engine and transmission factories that have long been core to auto manufacturing are destined to disappear. Fain has said future battery plants should be unionized and receive fair wages and benefits.
Bob King, former president of the UAW, said it would be “an existential threat to the UAW’s viability if these plants were not under the master agreement.” He said protection under that broad contract typically provides workers improved safety on the job, and better pay, benefits and job security.
However, the battery factories being developed by the Detroit carmakers are joint ventures with Asian companies, which complicates the union’s fight to include them in the contract negotiations.
These future factories will still have to be organized by the UAW once employees are hired. That means a majority of workers would have to support joining the union.
GM, for example, is building three of its U.S. battery plants with Korea’s LG Energy Solution, including an Ohio factory that the UAW organized last year after it opened.
An LG spokeswoman declined to comment on the union’s disclosure of GM’s decision to include its battery production in the union contract.
In addition to GM, Ford has four battery plants under construction, and Stellantis is developing two.
Combined, the companies are investing more than $20 billion, and expect to add tens of thousands of new jobs over the next several years at plants from Tennessee to Michigan. Many of the factories are set to come online during the union’s four-year contract.
The UAW is currently bargaining over new labor agreements that cover about 146,000 U.S. auto-factory workers at the three car companies.
When the union delivered its core demands to the automakers this summer, unionizing the battery plants wasn’t explicitly listed. However, UAW leaders have focused on achieving what they call a “just transition,” to EVs, with an emphasis on worker pay and safety in these future electric-vehicle and battery facilities.
The issue has come to the fore in recent weeks. Ford’s Chief Executive Jim Farley said the union was holding up a deal over discussion of the battery plants, a characterization the union denies.
The companies are working to keep costs competitive at these battery plants, and some are already adjusting their development plans in part because of the contentious talks.
Ford last month said it would pause construction at its battery plant in Marshall, Mich., citing the need to evaluate how the continuing negotiations will affect its labor costs.
The battery plants have drawn hefty government subsidies. Ford earlier this year received a $9.2 billion loan from the Energy Department to fund its joint-venture facilities in Kentucky and Tennessee. GM received a similar $2.5 billion loan last year.
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