CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Report says close associates of India's Adani Group secretly purchased large numbers of shares

Associated Press
Thu, August 31, 2023 

FILE- Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani attends the "Invest Karnataka 2016 - Global Investors Meet" in Bangalore, India, Feb. 3, 2016. Associates with alleged links to the conglomerate, used offshore entities to invest millions into publicly traded company stocks, a report from a network of investigative journalists Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project claimed on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023. It identified two investors as Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli and Chang Chung-Ling, and said they have long-time business ties to the Adani family and have served as directors and shareholders in the group’s companies.

 (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade, File)

NEW DELHI (AP) — Two people closely linked to India's Adani Group, one of the country's largest conglomerates, secretly purchased millions of dollars of stocks in the group's companies, possibly violating Indian law, according to a report Thursday by a network of investigative journalists.

Market rules require that at least 25% of a company's shares be available for public purchase. The report by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project said the two men used “opaque investment funds based in the island nation of Mauritius" to obscure their involvement in controlling up to nearly 14% of the public shares.

The findings by the non-profit project were reported by The Guardian and The Financial Times. The project said they were based on files from multiple tax havens, bank records and internal Adani Group emails.

It identified the two investors as Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli and Chang Chung-Ling, and said they have longtime business ties to the Adani family and have served as directors and shareholders in the group’s companies.

The two investors traded large amounts of shares in four Adani companies between 2013 and 2018, the report said.

The Adani Group rejected the report, saying all of its publicly listed entities were in compliance with the law.

Stocks in all 10 of the Adani Group’s listed companies fell by up to 4% in trading Thursday afternoon.

The AP has not independently verified the allegations.

The report said that through the Mauritius funds, the two men bought and sold Adani stock and “made considerable profits in the process.”

“The question of whether this arrangement is a violation of the law rests on whether Ahli and Chang should be considered to be acting on behalf of Adani promoters,” it said. “If so, their stake in the Adani Group would mean that insiders altogether owned more than 75% allowed by law.”

In January, the U.S.-based short-selling Hindenburg Research firm accused the Adani Group and its head, Gautam Adani, of “brazen stock manipulation” and “accounting fraud.”

Following those accusations, which the Adani Group denied, Gautam Adani’s net worth, which once made him Asia’s richest man, shrank by over $30 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index. At an estimated net worth of $64 billion today, Adani now occupies the 20th spot on the list.

Adani, 61, is perceived as having close ties to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. His critics say much of his success stems from his proximity to the government and to Modi, who at times has campaigned using an Adani jet. The tycoon has denied receiving preferential treatment from the government.

His companies, including infrastructure, coal, renewable energy and media, lost tens of billions in market value as investors dumped Adani stocks after the Hindenburg claims.

In March, India’s top court directed the country’s market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, to investigate whether there had been a violation of rules or manipulation of stock prices by the Adani Group.

The board told the Supreme Court last week that its investigation was nearly complete and included an examination of offshore deals, without outlining its findings, local media reported.

Guyana's Oil Boom Is Changing The Global Energy Landscape

Editor OilPrice.com
Thu, August 31, 2023 

Since the discovery of 11 billion barrels of proven oil reserves offshore in 2015, Guyana’s oil industry has gone from strength to strength. The tiny Caribbean country has attracted billions in international investment in its energy sector, with billions more expected to follow thanks to several successes. And recent legislation passed by Guyana’s parliament is expected to encourage new production and ensure that the small country earns a significant share of its oil revenues in the coming decades.

Guyana, with a population of around 800,000 people is thought to be sitting on top of oil reserves with a value of more than half a trillion dollars. Following significant investment in exploration and production activities over the last decade, it can expect to produce around 1.2 million barrels of crude a day by 2028, according to current estimations. This is a significant increase from the current production rate of 400,000 bpd from two vessels. That’s equivalent to around 1.1 percent of the global supply, a contribution that was recently unthinkable in this previously untapped region. This figure means Guyana would be producing more oil per person than any country in the world.

So far, ExxonMobil Corp. has been the biggest investor in Guyana’s oil industry, dominating the exploration and drilling activities. In July, Guyana’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved an Exxon Mobil-led consortium to drill 35 new offshore exploration and appraisal wells. The consortium consists of Exxon, US oil company Hess, and China’s China National Offshore Oil Corporation. This allowed the consortium to drill wells within its 6.6-million-acre Stabroek offshore block. The EPA deemed that the drilling could be “conducted in accordance with good environmental practices, and in a manner that avoids, prevents and minimises any adverse effects which could result from the activity”.

In June, the consortium entered into discussions with Guyana about the return of 20 percent of unexplored or undeveloped areas in the blocks, as per the 2016 production agreement. This includes parts of the Stabroek block and the Kaieteur and Canje blocks. However, Exxon stated that it plans to continue oil and gas drilling even in a reduced area. It expects to begin this drilling in the third quarter of this year and continue through to 2028. This follows several successful drilling operations in recent years. Exxon stated, “The project is being developed to discover new and re-evaluate existing recoverable hydrocarbons from reservoirs in the Stabroek Block, thereby enabling potential future development projects.”

In August, the consortium announced plans to spend a further spend $12.93 billion to develop their sixth offshore oil project in the South American country, with the hope of starting production operations at the Whiptail project in 2027. To date, the consortium’s production activities have provided $2.8 billion in direct revenue to Guyana, as well as supported the creation of 4,400 jobs. The sixth project is much like the group’s $12.7-billion fifth project, Uaru, and is expected to provide an output of between 250,000 and 263,000 bpd. It expects to drill up to 72 wells commencing in 2024, continuing exploration through to 2030. The project could provide up to 540 jobs in the drilling and installation stages and between 100 and 180 during production activities, according to Exxon.

In terms of core markets, this year, Guyana has had success in capturing a larger share of the European market. Vessel monitoring data showed that Guyana’s crude exports to Europe in the first semester of the year increased to 215,000 bpd, equivalent to around 63 percent of the country’s total exports. Last year, Europe accounted for around 50 percent of Guyana’s crude exports. This rise in exports reflects the changing geopolitical structure of the global oil industry, with many European refiners looking for new crude suppliers following the sanctions introduced on Russian oil in 2022.


The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has meant that many refiners have had to establish new partnerships in alternative oil markets, with Guyana’s strong oil potential over the coming decades looking highly attractive for companies looking to change suppliers in the longer term. Much of Guyana’s crude has been traded in Rotterdam, according to the data. Apart from Europe, Guyana is also exporting to Asia, around 90,000 bpd and Brazil, 22,000 bpd. Meanwhile, there have been no exports to U.S. Gulf Coast's refiners so far in 2023.

Guyana is seeing a major influx of money into its economy following the development of its oil and gas sector, with reported earnings from royalties and profits of $439 million in the second quarter of this year. By the end of June, the country’s national oil fund reached a reported $1.72 billion. And Guyana hopes to raise this figure even further thanks to the passing of new oil legislation aimed at encouraging new production and increasing the country’s share of oil revenues.

By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com

United Auto Workers strike – if it happens – should channel the legacy of Walter Reuther, who led the union at the peak of its power

Marick Masters, Professor of Business and Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Wayne State University
Thu, August 31, 2023

THE CONVERSATION

UAW President Walter Reuther, center, shakes hands with a Ford executive after agreeing on a three-year contract in 1967. Bettmann via Getty Images

The United Auto Workers are engaged in high-stakes labor negotiations that could lead to the union’s first simultaneous strike against all of Detroit’s Big Three automakers: General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, the company that owns Chrysler.

After decades of making concessions to their employers, the union’s demands for pay increases and better benefits exceed what some automotive industry executives say are reasonable. Unless the two sides reach an agreement by midnight on Sept. 14, 2023, 97% of the 150,000 UAW members employed by the three companies have authorized their leaders to call a strike.

It would be the industry’s first walkout since a monthlong GM strike in 2019. UAW President Shawn Fain, elected in March 2023, and other new UAW leaders have a decidedly more militant approach than their recent predecessors – some of whom landed in prison after being convicted of embezzling union funds.

As a labor and business scholar who has studied the history of UAW collective bargaining with the Detroit Three, I believe that whether or not the union does hold a strike against one or more of the automakers in the near future, it would benefit from heeding some lessons from its own past. In particular, it should consider the legacy of Walter Reuther, the labor leader who served as the UAW’s president from 1946 until his death in 1970. By balancing his vision and aspirations with pragmatism, Reuther showed that bold labor leaders can score big wins.

Miscalculations can be costly for workers

Although strikes can lead to victories, workers can end up worse off than they would have been had they not walked off the job. People who go on strike can even end up unemployed. That means unions must carefully calculate whether the risk of going on strike is worth taking.

Strikes that fail to meet their objectives, often due to miscalculations by unions of their power to win concessions from employers, litter U.S. labor history.

These failures were particularly common in the 1980s and 1990s, as companies and other employers demanded concessions and replaced workers during and after strikes.

That trend began with the ill-fated strike by 11,500 air traffic controllers in August 1981. Soon after Robert E. Poli assumed its presidency, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers went on strike. The union, known as PATCO, underestimated President Ronald Reagan’s resolve and overestimated its members own irreplaceability.

Reagan’s swift termination of the striking workers and his success in replacing them with new employees destroyed PATCO and normalized the replacement of strikers by employers.

More strikes would lead to similar failures, including one by Hormel meatpackers in Austin, Minnesota, which lasted 13 months starting in August 1985. A 15-month walkout by International Paper workers at several plants in 1987 and 1988 was also disastrous for the strikers.

In both cases, the local union leaders launched prolonged strikes over corporate demands for wage cuts and other givebacks to compete with their lower-cost nonunion rivals. The unions underestimated management’s resolve and proved incapable of conducting effective publicity campaigns or applying other kinds of pressure to combat the companies.

The companies fired strikers, replacing them permanently with other workers.

Lessons from Walter Reuther

A UAW strike today could also miss the mark, given that Detroit’s Big Three face relentless competition from foreign automakers, along with Tesla and newer U.S.-based companies that only manufacture electric vehicles. What’s more, GM, Ford and Stellantis are spending billions to phase in large-scale EV production.

Here are three lessons that I believe Fain and other UAW leaders should draw from Reuther’s legacy:

1: Articulate a clear vision

In 1945, a year before he became the UAW’s longest-serving president, Reuther led 320,000 GM workers on a 113-day strike that ended with pay raises, overtime compensation and paid vacation days. The way he spelled out the philosophy behind the strike helped inspire the workers’ confidence.

After autoworkers had done their part to win World War II, Reuther later said, they struck for “the right of a worker to share – not as a matter of collective bargaining muscle, but as a matter of right – to share in the fruits of advancing technology.”

Like many of Reuther’s poignant comments, those words still resonate today as technology upends the automotive industry.

2: Recognize the limits of what’s within reach

In 1950, following a 102-day strike by 95,000 Chrysler workers, Reuther negotiated breakthrough agreements with GM, Ford and Chrysler known collectively as the “Treaty of Detroit.” The pacts included big increases in wages, health care benefits and retirement pensions.

But pragmatism tempered Reuther’s determination to achieve all the union’s objectives. He knew when to strike and when to settle. Reuther understood the union’s capacity to hold a strike and how much harm it could inflict upon a company before the costs became prohibitive for both sides.

He used strikes strategically, knew which company to target – and when. Reuther knew to settle when the union’s ability to push a company for further concessions had reached a ceiling beyond which the losses on both sides exceed any possible future gains.

And he realized that worker priorities that could not be won in a current round of bargaining could be pushed to the next. Reuther understood that autoworkers and their employers depended on each other to make progress.

3: Balance competing interests

Reuther also understood the limits of the UAW’s power, and he knew how to bargain for a contract that both autoworkers and automotive executives could accept.

In a speech he made on Labor Day in 1958, Reuther defined labor’s task as “to cooperate in creating and sharing abundance … [which] requires working out a proper balance between competing equities of workers, stockholders and consumers.”

New reality

Reuther’s reign coincided with Detroit’s dominance. At least 85% of the vehicles U.S. drivers bought through the mid-1960s were made by the Big Three automakers.

Those companies’ total U.S. market share is less than half of that now – a total of about 41%, with 16% for GM, 14% for Ford and 11% for Stellantis.

Autoworkers also wield less power today than they did back then.

UAW membership has dwindled to fewer than 400,000 members, including the 150,0000 people directly employed by GM, Ford and Stellantis who may soon go on strike. Some 1.5 million workers belonged to the union at its 1979 peak. Unions represent only 16% of the workers employed in the U.S. motor vehicle and parts industry in 2022, down from nearly 60% in 1983.

GM, Ford and Stellantis have vowed to resist any demands they deem unreasonable. Both labor and management could incur potentially substantial losses in a strike, which would compound over time. Even a 10-day strike could cause an estimated US$5 billion in economic damage or more, according to the Anderson Economic Group consulting firm.

I believe that the path to a settlement requires understanding how an avoidable strike would put both sides behind, while their competitors move forward.

And I keep on wondering what Walter Reuther would do – and whether Shawn Fain is doing that too.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. If you found it interesting, you could subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

It was written by: Marick Masters, Wayne State University.

Read more:

• Waves of strikes rippling across the US seem big, but the total number of Americans walking off the job remains historically low

• US autoworkers may wage a historic strike against Detroit’s 3 biggest automakers − with wages at EV battery plants a key roadblock to agreement

Marick Masters is the director of Labor@Wayne at Wayne State University. The university has received contributions from the joint training funds from the UAW and the Big Three to support education in labor-management relations. These contributions were used strictly for this purpose.

Why a looming UAW strike is focused on temp workers, tiered employment

Jeanne Whalen
Thu, August 31, 2023 

Demonstrators during a United Auto Workers practice picket outside the Stellantis Mack Assembly Plant in Detroit on Aug. 23.

 (Jeff Kowalsky/Bloomberg News)

TOLEDO, Ohio - Crystal Foutner earns $17.53 an hour assembling Jeep Wranglers on the night shift. Many of her colleagues doing the same earn nearly twice as much.

So when she finished work at 3:30 a.m. last week, she joined hundreds of her co-workers in a caravan to their union hall to support a vote taking them one step closer to striking. That vote, which passed with 97 percent support last week, gives leaders of the United Auto Workers permission to call a strike after workers' current contract expires on Sept. 14 - a development many in the industry say is increasingly likely.

One of the biggest changes most workers say they want is an end to a tiered employment system that puts newer workers on lower pay scales with worse benefits. So-called supplemental employees like Foutner, also known as SEs or temps, are on the lowest rung.

"I want all of us to be equal because you can't split full time and SE," Foutner said from the union hall's late-night parking lot, where hundreds of workers broke out drinks and charcoal grills to celebrate their vote. "We do exactly everything that full-timers do. We just don't get none of the benefits."

A UAW strike against one or all of the Big Three automakers - General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, the parent company of Jeep and Chrysler - would destabilize an industry that makes up about 3 percent of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP). UAW workers produce nearly half of the light vehicles manufactured in the United States, according to GlobalData.

Eliminating tiered employment is a top priority for the UAW's new president, Shawn Fain, who has also demanded a 40 percent pay hike over four years, regular cost-of-living adjustments to wages and more paid time off.

During an update to members on Facebook Live last week, Fain said temps were "living paycheck to paycheck, scraping to get by, while they're working seven days a week for 12 hours a day in some places with no commitment to the future."

Ending employment tiers has been a big focus of other unions lately, too. Last week, UPS workers and their union, the Teamsters, approved a new contract that contained significant wage increases for part-time employees and ended a tiered wage system that paid newer part-time employees less.

The Big Three automakers have said they are aiming to negotiate a fair contract but have cautioned that their U.S. labor costs are already higher than those of non-unionized rivals such as Tesla.

In an emailed statement, Stellantis said the Toledo factory, where Foutner builds Jeeps, has a larger temp workforce than its other factories "due to the plant's operating pattern that allows full-time employees to choose how many hours each week they want to work."

Supplemental employees allow the factory "to operate efficiently while providing full-time employees with this flexibility," the company said.

The tier structure was solidified in the 2007 contract that the union signed with the Big Three, when the auto industry was struggling on the eve of the Great Recession. Anyone hired after that contract was ratified became part of a "second tier" of full-time workers with lower wages and benefits. They lost company-financed health care in retirement, and instead of defined benefit pensions, they got 401(k) retirement accounts with a company contribution equaling 6.4 percent of workers' wages.

Temps are essentially on a worse, third tier. Automakers have long used them to keep labor costs down, particularly when they are meeting temporary surges of demand, but workers complain that they are left in temp status for too long.

In their 2019 contracts with the UAW, Ford and GM agreed to convert temps to permanent roles after two years. Stellantis agreed only to give temps preferential treatment when filling full-time jobs, leaving some workers in temp status for five years or more.

Ford says only 3 percent of its hourly employees are temps. GM says 5 percent to 10 percent of its UAW-represented manufacturing workers are temps, depending on the plant and time of year. Stellantis declined to give a percentage. All three companies say they have converted thousands of temps to permanent positions during the current four-year contract.

Many full-time UAW workers say eliminating tiers - and especially what they see as the poor treatment of temp workers - is the change they most want to see in the new contract.

"They work side by side with me, make half the money, get half the benefits, don't get any of the bonuses," said Phil Reiter, who makes $31.77 an hour after 10 years as a full-timer at the Toledo factory. "My belief is, this contract needs to finally be fair for everybody."

Benjamin Hinsey, who makes $29 an hour hauling parts around the factory, said tiers are the "biggest issue" for him because they erode worker solidarity. "If we didn't have that, we could fight for a lot of other things," he said. "It just creates a divide."

The temporary workers at the Jeep plant start at $15.78 an hour and max out at $19.28 after four years, when they stop qualifying for raises.

Foutner has been a temp for almost three years, working 10 hours a day, six days a week. Even with that 60-hour schedule, she says she still lives paycheck to paycheck.

"Everything went up. Rent went up. Groceries definitely went up," she said. The low starting wages are less than what some fast-food restaurants pay, she added. "Our cars start at $50,000 and we're making $15.78."

Temps also miss out on annual profit-sharing checks and other bonuses that full-time UAW workers earn. Over the past four years, amid high profits at the Big Three, those bonuses have amounted to tens of thousands of dollars per worker.

Jay Kania, who has been a temp at the Jeep factory for almost five years, figures he has missed about $100,000 in profit-sharing and raises over that time. "I've just been waiting and waiting and watching and waiting," he said after voting to support the strike authorization.

Long working hours and little paid time off are another frustration. Kania works a 10-hour night shift, often as much as six days a week. The mandatory 50- or 60-hour week leaves him little time to see his two children, he said. "The time away from them is horrible. Like, I have a 2-year-old that's in the prime of his life growing up, and I'm here 50, 60 hours a week."

Stellantis said temps get two paid days and one unpaid day off after 120 days of service, and one week of paid time off after one year.

The company added that it converts temps to full-time status when positions open up. But Stellantis's decision to shut down a plant in Belvidere, Ill., this year has made those conversions rarer. Full-timers from Belvidere must be offered jobs at other Stellantis factories, under the union contract, leaving fewer openings for the temps.

C'ne Bailey, who has been a temp for 4 1/2 years, said she's even had to train some of the full-timers coming from Belvidere. She has been moved around the plant so much that she knows many of the jobs, she said.

"I'm working 10 to 12 hours a day - how come I'm not getting bonuses? How come I'm not getting profit-sharing? I'm working more than the full-timers," she said. Sometimes, when her 5 p.m.-to-3:30 a.m. shift is wrapping up, managers walk around and tell the temps that they need to stay an extra two hours, for a 12-hour shift, Bailey said.

"When they call two hours over, the full-timers are leaving. They're not staying," Bailey said. "So then we're there from 5 in the evening to 5:30 in the morning. Forced. And my daughter's got to be on the bus at 7:15."

US NLRB to probe if GM, Stellantis failed to bargain in good faith

Updated Fri, September 1, 2023

The headquarters of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is seen in Washington, D.C.

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) said Friday it will investigate unfair labor practice charges filed by the United Auto Workers union against General Motors and Chrysler-parent Stellantis.

The UAW said Thursday both automakers have refused to bargain in good faith. GM and Stellantis on Thursday denied the unfair labor charges.

The current four-year labor agreements covering 146,000 workers at the Detroit Three automakers expire on Sept. 14.

Both charges say the automakers over the last six months have refused to bargain in good faith over wages and benefits.

Separately, Ford Motor said Thursday it had offered a 9% wage increase through 2027, much less than the 46% wage hike being sought by the union.

UAW President Shawn Fain said in online remarks Thursday evening that the sides are far apart.

"We're going to fight like hell to get our equitable share of justice for workers," he said. "We can get there - but these companies better buckle down and they better get serious."

Fain said the Detroit automakers want the ability to close U.S. auto plants and move them to low-wage countries, adding that threats by the automakers to close American plants are "economic terrorism."

Ford said its "generous offer" would provide hourly employees with 15% guaranteed combined wage increases and lump sums, and improved benefits.

The union's demands include a 20% immediate wage increase, defined-benefit pensions for all workers, shorter work weeks and additional cost-of-living hikes.

Fain said neither GM nor Stellantis have made counteroffers.

Last week, the UAW said about 97% of members had voted in favor of authorizing a strike if agreements are not reached by Sept. 14.

The UAW also wants all temporary workers at U.S. automakers to be made permanent, enhanced profit sharing, substantial increases in paid time off, and the restoration of retiree healthcare benefits and cost-of-living adjustments.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

UAW

Labor Chief Shawn Fain Worries the Big Three—and the White House
Timothy Noah

THE NEW REPUBLIC
Fri, September 1, 2023 

Labor Day may be September 4, but it will remain summer, and therefore Hot Labor Summer, until the September 23 autumnal equinox, by which time the United Auto Workers (UAW) may be on strike. UAW workers last week voted overwhelmingly to authorize strikes at Ford, GM, and Stellantis (the Big Three auto manufacturer formerly known as Fiat Chrysler), and if negotiators don’t agree on a contract by September 14, says UAW President Shawn Fain, 150,000 workers will walk off the job.

Born into a union family—three of his grandparents were auto workers represented by the UAW—Fain started as an electrician for Chrysler in Kokomo, Indiana. He held a variety of positions in UAW’s Kokomo local where, according to his official UAW biography, he was often “ostracized for speaking up,” then moved up to the international union. Fain was elected UAW president in March, in an upset victory over incumbent Ray Curry, after pledging to clean up and re-invigorate the scandal-plagued union, which sent two former presidents to prison for embezzlement. Fain is the first UAW president ever to be elected directly by the rank and file instead of by convention delegates, a procedural change initiated by a 2021 consent decree with the Justice Department to resolve the corruption scandal. I caught up with Fain by phone Wednesday as he was en route to Lansing, Michigan, to attend a speech by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

I began by asking how negotiations were going. Slowly, Fain answered. “We’ve given our demands up front,” he said. Management’s strategy, Fain said, is to “slow walk everything,” much as they’ve done in the past under similar circumstances.

When Fain, in early August, outlined the UAW’s contract demands for the Big Three, he called them “audacious.” They live up to that billing. The UAW seeks a 40 percent pay hike over four years, a 32-hour work week at full pay, the elimination of a two-tier wage structure initiated during the Great Recession as GM and Chrysler were going bust, and restoration of defined-benefit pensions for new hires that the UAW gave up in 2008 to help secure the Obama administration’s auto company bailout.

“We have a tradition in this union of aiming low and settling lower,” Fain said. “We have to get away from that.”

The 40 percent increase, Fain said, would catch up workers, after inflation, to what they were making in 2007. And anyway, he said, CEO pay at the Big Three rose 40 percent over the current four-year contract. (That’s about right, according to the Detroit News; GM’s Mary Barra is up 34 percent since 2019.) Fain won’t get UAW workers 40 percent, but it’s a defensible (if audacious) negotiating position.

The 32-hour week? “If Covid taught us anything, it’s that our time is very valuable,” he said. Why should it be OK for white collar workers to cut back hours by working at home, he said, but “obscene” when auto workers demand shorter hours?

The two-tiered wage structure? Variations have existed since the 1980s, when domestic auto manufacturers were rapidly losing ground to foreign manufacturers. Why eliminate them now? Because they’re divisive, Fain said, and anyway, UPS recently got rid of theirs.

Defined-benefit pensions? Aren’t generous pensions a thing of the past? Not for Big Three executives, Fain said. (See my May TNR article on special “top hat plans”—that’s actually what they’re called—available exclusively to corporate big shots.) Fain reminded me that in 1949 former UAW president Walter Reuther (“the most underappreciated American in American history”) secured defined-benefit pensions for retired auto workers with the slogan “too old to work, too young to die.” That hasn’t changed.

I asked Fain about reports that the UAW is withholding its expected endorsement of President Joe Biden, with whom Fain met in July. “It was a good meeting,” Fain said, but “we’ve made it clear that our endorsements are going to be earned, not freely given.” The Biden administration, which issued a report earlier this week touting the benefits of union representation (“Labor Unions and the Middle Class”), dodged a bullet during the past year averting threatened strikes by rail unions, west coast port workers, and United Parcel Service (UPS) drivers. It could use an autoworkers’ strike like a hole in the head.

The Inflation Reduction Act introduced tax credits that prompted, by the end of 2022, a $73 billion investment in United States plants to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles. The Big Three are forming partnerships with other companies to build batteries, and they’ve signaled they’re willing to hire union labor. But Fain says that’s not enough. “The battery work, specifically, that’s the future power train of the automobile,” he said. That power train right now is built by workers covered by the UAW contract. Its replacement, he said, should be built by workers covered by the same contract. “We stand to lose 20 percent of our workers” to battery production, Fain said. “It has to be a just transition.”

I asked Fain more broadly about how to revive the union movement. This Labor Day unions are more popular with the public than they’ve been in 60 years, and strike activity is way up, but the proportion of private-sector workers who belong to a union has fallen to an objectively dismal 6 percent. Fain didn’t try to explain that away, as some labor leaders do. When I asked him about the NLRB’s Cemex decision last week, which will make it easier to organize workplaces through the informal collection of union authorization cards (“card check), he said it’s a “good start.” But “the Democratic Party has to get back to its roots,” he said. He meant its working-class roots. Still, Fain is optimistic. “There can be a great revitalization of labor,” he told me. If there is, I predict Fain will play a big part in the transformation.

UAW files unfair labor charges against GM and Stellantis; Ford proposal tossed in trash


Jamie L. LaReau, 

Detroit Free Press
Thu, August 31, 2023 

The UAW has filed unfair labor practice charges against General Motors and Stellantis for "an illegal refusal to bargain in good faith” during ongoing contract negotiations, union President Shawn Fain announced Thursday night.

The news "shocked" Stellantis, which said it will "vigorously defend" itself against the charge. GM also was "surprised" and said it will strongly refute the charge.

Meanwhile, Fain told viewers of his online livestream that Ford Motor Co. responded to the union's demands, but fell short of what he considers to be a fair contract. The union asked for a 40% hourly wage increase and a return of a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). Fain said Ford offered a 9% general wage increase over the life of the contract and instead of COLA, a one-time lump sum bonus. He then showed a trash can with the Ford proposal tossed into it.

UAW Shawn Fain gives a contract update to workers via a Facebook and YouTube live presentation on Aug. 31, 2023.

"Ford’s proposal not only fails to meet our needs, it insults our very worth," Fain said. "As of today, the company’s on track to reward shareholders, on our hard work, with a whopping 150% increase in dividends. We will not accept anything less than consistent living wages that will grow with the economy.”

The news prompted Ford CEO Jim Farley to issue a lengthy rebuttal detailing the proposal Ford made and calling it, a "generous offer" that still protects the financial future of the company.
Sept. 14 'a deadline, not a reference point'

Fain gave the UAW's demands to the Detroit carmakers four weeks ago and told them he expected a response by this week, he said.

"I’ve told them repeatedly that Sept. 14 is a deadline not a reference point," Fain said, referring to the current contract's expiration at 11:59 p.m. that day and his promise he would not seek an extension.

"I am sad to report the Big Three are either not listening or not taking us serious," Fain said. "Their top leadership has ditched bargaining and refused to do the work to get a fair contract. So today our union filed unfair labor charges against GM and Stellantis with the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board)."

In a statement, Stellantis spokesperson Jodi Tinson said the company had not received the filing, but "is shocked by Mr. Fain’s claims that we have not bargained in good faith. … This is a claim with no basis in fact, and we are disappointed to learn that Mr. Fain is more focused on filing frivolous legal charges than on actual bargaining. We will vigorously defend this charge when the time comes, but right now we are more focused on continuing to bargain in good faith for a new agreement. We will not allow Mr. Fain’s tactics to distract us from that important work to secure the future for our employees."

GM indicated it was equally taken off guard by the union filing charges.

“We are surprised by and strongly refute the NLRB charge filed by the International UAW,” Gerald Johnson, executive vice president of Global Manufacturing, said in a statement. “We believe it has no merit and is an insult to the bargaining committees. We have been hyper-focused on negotiating directly and in good faith with the UAW and are making progress. The pace of negotiations is based on how quickly both parties resolve nearly 1,000 UAW demands, including more than 90 presented this week. Our goal remains the same — to achieve an agreement without a disruption that rewards our team members and protects the future of the entire GM team.”
Ford's proposal fails

Fain said he met with Ford leaders on Tuesday and the company gave him the counterproposal. He reminded viewers that Ford made $10.4 billion in profits last year and is on track to surpass that this year.

Fain said:

Ford rejected the union's proposal to end tier wages.


Ford rejected all of the UAW's job security proposals.


The UAW proposed an enhanced profit-sharing formula of $2 for every million Ford spends on stock buybacks. Ford countered with a formula that would pay workers 21% less than the current formula, he said.


Ford rejected all demands to increase retiree pay, he said.


Ford has rejected the union's quality of life proposals, including a 32-hour workweek or allowing members to have Juneteenth as a holiday.
Ford's response

In a statement, Ford CEO Farley said the automaker has exceeded its commitments to add union jobs and invest in facilities over the last three contracts. He said the 9% hourly wage increase is the largest since the 1999 contract and most of it would take effect in the first year, with 6% lump sum rewards.

That means wages (including overtime) and lump sum bonuses for hourly workers would increase from an average of $78,000 a year in 2022 to $92,000 in the first year of the contract.

"After extensive negotiations, Ford has presented a generous offer on the upcoming contract that would provide our hourly employees with 15% guaranteed combined wage increases and lump sums, and improved benefits over the life of the contract," Farley said.

On top of $92,000 annually in wages and bonuses, workers would receive health care coverage worth $17,500 and other benefits worth an additional $20,500 in the first year. Full-time permanent Ford employees at the top wage rate could be paid $98,000 that includes wages, cost-of-living adjustment bonus, ratification bonus, profit-sharing and overtime, in the first year of the contract, Farley said.

Farley called it an "important" deal for workers that would also give Ford the flexibility to transition to more electric vehicles.

"This offer would also allow Ford to compete, invest in new products, grow and share that future success with our employees through profit-sharing," Farley said.

He said the offer "fully eliminates wage tiers so all employees can achieve industry-leading wages."
Popular support

Fain said Wednesday a Gallup poll showed 67% of Americans approval of labor unions and three out of four support the UAW's 150,000 members in their demands with the Detroit carmakers.

The UAW, which officially started its negotiations with the Detroit carmakers in mid-July, has decided to forego naming a target company to secure a contract with and use as a pattern for the other two. On Friday, after union members voted to give leaders the OK to strike if a tentative contract agreement cannot be reached when the current contract expires, Fain said, “We’re not picking a target company. We expect all three to bargain with us and all three to be done by Sept. 14. We want contracts by Sept. 14 by all three.”

Unifor — the union that represents autoworkers in Canada — is following a more traditional route. On Tuesday, it chose Ford Motor Co. as the automaker it will negotiate a new labor contract with first.

Fain ended his presentation saying it has been a difficult week, but is still confident the union can reach a fair contract with the Detroit Three.

"We can get there, we can get there, but these companies have to buckle down and get serious," Fain said.

More: The balance GM's Barra and Ford's Farley must hit between UAW demands and EV affordability

More: Biden touts EV funding encouraging better-paying jobs with UAW strike looming

UAW files unfair labor practice charges against GM, Stellantis

David Shepardson
Updated Thu, August 31, 2023 





United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain greets workers at Ford Motor Michigan Assembly Plant

By David Shepardson

(Reuters) -The United Auto Workers union said on Thursday it filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board against General Motors and Chrysler-parent Stellantis, saying they have refused to bargain in good faith.

Both GM and Stellantis denied the unfair labor charges.

Ford Motor said it offered a 9% wage increase through 2027, much less than the 46% wage hike being sought by the union.

Both charges seen by Reuters say the automakers over the last six months refused to bargain in good faith over wages and benefits

UAW President Shawn Fain said in online remarks that the sides are far apart.

"We're going to fight like hell to get our equitable share of justice for workers," he said. "We can get there - but these companies better buckle down and they better get serious."

Fain said the Detroit automakers want the ability to close U.S. auto plants and move them to low-wage countries, adding that threats by the automakers to close U.S. plants are "economic terrorism."

Ford said its "generous offer" would provide hourly employees with 15% guaranteed combined wage increases and lump sums, and improved benefits.

"Overall, this offer is significantly better than what we estimate workers earn at Tesla and foreign automakers operating in the U.S.," Ford said.

The union's demands include a 20% immediate wage increase, defined-benefit pensions for all workers, shorter work weeks and additional cost of living hikes.

The current four-year labor agreements covering 146,000 workers at the Detroit Three automakers expire on Sept. 14.

Fain said neither GM nor Stellantis have made counter offers.

Stellantis said it was shocked by the UAW claims "that we have not bargained in good faith. This is a claim with no basis in fact." Stellantis also said it was disappointed that Fain "is more focused on filing frivolous legal charges than on actual bargaining."

GM manufacturing chief Gerald Johnson said the company strongly refuted the unfair labor charge. "We believe it has no merit and is an insult to the bargaining committees. We have been hyper-focused on negotiating directly and in good faith with the UAW and are making progress," Johnson said.

Last week, the UAW said about 97% of members voted in favor of authorizing a strike if agreement is not reached by Sept. 14.

The UAW also wants all temporary workers at U.S. automakers to be made permanent, enhanced profit sharing, substantial increase in paid time off, and the restoration of retiree health-care benefits and cost-of-living adjustments.

The UAW said Ford wants no cap on temporary workers and that those workers would not participate in profit sharing, would earn less than 60% of the top wage rate for permanent workers and receive inferior health-care benefits.

Ford said it would boost starting pay for temporary workers to $20 an hour, up 20%, and offer permanent employees $12,000 in cost-of-living adjustments over the contract.

Ford said only 2-3% of Ford’s hourly workforce are temporary employees, the lowest among the Detroit Three.

The UAW said Ford's profit-sharing formula change would have cut payouts by 21% over the last two years, while Ford said it was offering a $5,500 signing bonus upon the contract's ratification for permanent and temporary workers.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chris Reese and Leslie Adler)

Auto workers leader slams companies for slow bargaining, files labor complaint with government


TOM KRISHER
Thu, August 31, 2023 

FILE - United Auto Workers members walk in the Labor Day parade in Detroit, Sept. 2, 2019. The United Auto Workers union says it has filed unfair labor practice complaints against Stellantis and General Motors for failing to make counteroffers to the union's economic demands. Ford was the only company of the Detroit Three automakers to make such an offer, but it rejected most of the union's proposals, President Shawn Fain told workers Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023, in a Facebook Live meeting. 

(AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File) 

DETROIT (AP) — The United Auto Workers union says it has filed unfair labor practice complaints against Stellantis and General Motors for failing to make counteroffers to the union's economic demands.

Ford was the only company of the Detroit Three to make a counteroffer, but it rejected most of the union's proposals, President Shawn Fain told workers Thursday in a Facebook Live meeting.

Fain's statements and strong responses from the companies showed both sides appear to be digging in with just two weeks before contracts with the union's 146,000 members expire. Fain is once again threatening to strike when the pacts end at 11:59 p.m. Sept. 14.

He told members that the companies have been warned not to wait until the last minute to get serious about bargaining.

“The Big Three are either not listening or they are not taking us seriously,” Fain said, calling the refusal to respond “insulting and counterproductive,” and also illegal. He said the union filed the complaints with the National Labor Relations Board on Thursday.

In a statement, Stellantis said the unfair labor charges are not based on fact, and that it will vigorously defend itself against them.

“We are disappointed to learn that Mr. Fain is more focused on filing frivolous legal charges than on actual bargaining,” the statement said. “We will not allow Mr. Fain’s tactics to distract us from that important work to secure the future for our employees.”

Ford said it made a fair economic proposal that is better than the pay at Tesla or foreign automakers.

“We will not make a deal that endangers our ability to invest, grow and share profits with our employees,” CEO Jim Farley said in a statement. “That would mortgage our future and would be harmful to everyone with a stake in Ford.”

GM said it strongly refutes the union's labor accusation.

“We believe it has no merit and is an insult to the bargaining committees,” GM said in a statement. “We have been hyper-focused on negotiating directly and in good faith with the UAW and are making progress.”

Automakers have said they're facing an uncertain transition from gas-powered vehicles to those that run on batteries. They're also reluctant to take on labor costs that grow even farther beyond those at Tesla and foreign automakers with U.S. factories.

Fain, who won the UAW’s presidency this spring in its first direct election of officers by members, has set expectations high, telling workers that they can make significant gains if they’re willing to walk picket lines.


But even he has described union demands as audacious. Union members are seeking 46% pay raises over four years, restoration of traditional defined-benefit pensions for new hires, an end to tiers of wages, pension increases for retirees, and a 32-hour work week for 40 hours of pay.

Top-scale assembly plant workers now make $32 per hour, but the union's proposal would raise that to $47.

Ford offered a 9% general wage increase over the life of the four-year contract, with lump sum payments instead of the union’s proposed cost-of-living adjustments, Fain said. The company also rejected demands to end tiers of wages, instead proposing that it take six years for new hires to reach the top of the pay scale rather than the current eight, he said.

Ford also turned down union demands to increase pension payments to retirees and for companies to pay workers if their plants are closed, Fain said. And it still plans to move battery work to what Fain called low-paying jobs outside of Ford at joint venture battery plants.

“Our union isn't going to stand by while they replace oil barons with battery barons,” Fain said.

Ford said offered to end wage tiers and said its proposal would give workers 15% guaranteed wage increases and lump sums, and improved benefits during the four-year contract. It said wages, including overtime and lump sum bonuses, would rise from an average of $78,000 per year last year to $92,000 in the first year of a new contract.

Workers would get $5,500 in ratification bonuses and $12,000 in cost-of-living payments during the contract, Ford said.

In addition, workers would get health care coverage worth $17,500 and other benefits worth another $20,500, the company said.

Fain has said the union could strike all three automakers at once, or it could pick a target company. Earlier this week, Canadian auto workers, whose contracts expire four days after the UAW's, selected Ford as their target.

Union alleges GM, Stellantis not bargaining in good faith

Chris Isidore, CNN
Thu, August 31, 2023 

Bill Pugliano/Getty Images


United Auto Workers union President Shawn Fain said Thursday the union has filed an unfair labor practice complaint against General Motors and Stellantis, a new sign of how far apart the union and the automakers remain as they negotiate a new contract only two weeks before a strike deadline.

The complaint accuses the automakers of not bargaining in good faith by not providing any response to the union’s economic demands at the bargaining table.

“We are now 14 days out from our contract expiration and both General Motors and Stellantis have failed to give us any economic counters,” Fain said in prepared remarks obtained by CNN to members on Facebook and YouTube Thursday evening.

The complaint itself has almost no legal significance at this point because it will likely take weeks, if not months, for the National Labor Relations Board to act.

The claims are more of a negotiating tactic than a legal maneuver, said Todd Vachon, professor of labor studies at Rutgers University.

“It shows there’s definitely a lot of stress and tension between the two sides that there are unfair labor practice charges being filed at this point,” said Vachon. “It’s also a way to get members fired up.”

Fain acknowledged that the unfair labor practice is not nearly as significant a step by the union as its threat to strike.

“At the end of the day our strongest line of defense is each other and our abilility to take collective action,” he said.

Both GM and Stellantis, which makes vehicles under the Jeep, Ram, Dodge and Chrysler brands, deny the union’s charge that they are not bargaining in good faith.

“Stellantis has not received the filing, but is shocked by Mr. Fain’s claims,” said the company’s statement. “We are disappointed to learn that Mr. Fain is more focused on filing frivolous legal charges than on actual bargaining.”

Gerald Johnson, GM executive vice president of global manufacturing, said in a statement that GM was “surprised by and strongly refute the NLRB charge filed by the UAW.”

“We believe it has no merit and is an insult to the bargaining committees,” Johnson said. “We have been hyper-focused on negotiating directly and in good faith with the UAW and are making progress. The pace of negotiations is based on how quickly both parties resolve nearly 1,000 UAW demands, including more than 90 presented this week. Our goal remains the same - to achieve an agreement without a disruption.”

Fain said the automakers’ playbook in negotiations is “delay, delay, delay.”

“I still believe it’s possible to reach a deal before the deadline but only if both parties show up ready to bargain,” he said.

The UAW is on record with an ambitious set of bargaining demands, including raises of more than 40% over the four-year life of the next contract and the elimination of differences in pay and benefits between long-time employees hired before 2007, and those hired after.

Among those differences are a traditional defined benefit pension plan and retiree health care coverage that long-time employees currently have but that newer employees do not.

The union also objects to the even lower pay levels for workers who can remain stuck on temporary status for years. And it wants a return of the cost-of-living adjustment that raises pay an additional amount annually based on the rate of inflation.

Fain said that Ford is the only one of the three companies to respond to the union’s economic demands. That is why the union did not file an unfair labor practice against it. But he said the Ford offer was not sufficient, offering only a 9% raise in pay over the four-year life of the contract.

“Ford’s wage proposal not only fails to meet our needs, it insults our very worth,” he said.

Ford said its offer is better than how Fain characterized it in his remarks to members Thursday. It said that between raises in hourly wages and annual bonuses beyond any profit sharing payments, Ford’s UAW members would see guaranteed annual earnings increase by 15% over the life of the contract. It said it would pay workers far more than employees at the nonunion US auto plants operated by Tesla and foreign automakers.

“This would be an important deal for our workers, and it would allow for the continuation of Ford’s unique position as the most American automaker,” said Ford’s statement. “But we will not make a deal that endangers our ability to invest, grow and share profits with our employees. That would be harmful to everyone with a stake in Ford, including our valued UAW workers.”

The UAW’s contracts with GM, Stellantis and Ford all end at 11:59 pm on September 14, and the union has said it will not extend the contracts and stay on the job if tentative labor ageeements are not reached. There are 145,000 UAW members at the nation’s three unionized automakers. The rank-and-file members voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike in a vote concluded August 24.

The UAW has never struck all three automakers at the same time. But UAW President Shawn Fain, who was elected earlier this year in the first popular election held to select the union’s leader, is raising the possibility this time, saying there will be no extensions granted to any of the automakers.