| Thanks for reading Hyperdrive, Bloomberg's newsletter on the future of the auto world. Read today's featured story in full online here. The United Auto Workers union wants to emerge from its strike against Detroit's three major automakers with at least a 30% pay raise, according to people familiar with the matter. That's the level — which is lower than the around 40% hike it initially proposed to Ford, General Motors and Stellantis — that the union believes will allow it to satisfy existing members and organize non-union plants. It takes into account a cost-of-living allowance, or COLA, and a general wage increase, according to the people, who asked not to be named because the talks are private.  United Auto Workers members and supporters on a picket line Monday outside GM's Davison Road Processing Center in Burton, Michigan. Photographer: Emily Elconin/Bloomberg Automaker stocks were buoyed by the news. GM and Stellantis' US shares each gained 2.5% on Thursday, while Ford rose 1.4%. GM and Ford have seen steep declines since July amid uncertainty about the negotiations. Stellantis is the outlier, up 36% so far this year. A wage bump of at least 30% is expected to generate interest from non-unionized auto workers and help grow the union's membership, according to the people. The union's president, Shawn Fain, is on a mission to expand the UAW by organizing future electric-vehicle battery plants and by targeting workers at Tesla and the US plants of Asian and European automakers, two people said. Its membership has fallen to 400,000 from more than 1 million in the 1970s. A UAW spokesperson declined to comment. GM, Ford and Stellantis also declined to comment. Ford has already offered a 20% pay increase, plus COLA payments on top of it. The UAW also had lowered its demand for pay raises to 36%. If the COLA formula gives workers additional raises, it represents a smaller gap between the two sides on pay. A UAW source said the union submitted a counterproposal to Stellantis on Thursday. The wage increase is part of a complex puzzle that also includes how much the automakers will invest in their factories to secure jobs for the UAW. Other issues include compensation for workers at future battery plants and retiree benefits, including the union's demand for a return to traditional pensions. Each piece has to be agreeable to all parties or the deal will fall apart. The UAW has been striking the automakers since Sept. 15, the first time it has targeted all three simultaneously. Fain is threatening to widen the strike on Friday if the companies don't show progress at the bargaining table. Fain already had workers walk out at 38 GM and Stellantis parts distribution facilities last week, saying that there was too little progress in talks. — By David Welch, Keith Naughton, and Gabrielle Coppola  Former US President Donald Trump speaks Wednesday during a campaign event at Drake Enterprises in Clinton Township, Michigan. Photographer: Emily Elconin/Bloomberg President Joe Biden dismissed Republican frontrunner Donald Trump's attacks on his push for electric vehicles in a fight between the 2024 contenders over support from organized labor. "This guy, the argument he's making now about autoworkers is 'Biden's your problem because Biden wants to have electric vehicles,'" Biden said Thursday, making the sign of the cross, at a fundraiser for his reelection campaign in Phoenix. Biden also knocked Trump for delivering a speech at a nonunion auto supplier in Michigan. "The idea he goes to a union hall — not a union hall, it's management — and he pays them to hold up signs saying they're union members? Come on," Biden said.  The 2024 Honda Prologue. Source: Honda Honda is trying to crack into the US market for electric vehicles with a new model and an old strategy: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. The Japanese carmaker unveiled the brand's first electric SUV on Thursday, marking a renewed push into fully electric vehicles to complement its hot-selling gas-electric hybrids. But the 2024 Prologue is only a half-step in Honda's broader EV efforts. Co-developed with General Motors, it's being built in a GM plant and shares key parts with GM models, including its Ultium batteries. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment