Toyota raises pay across the board in response to historic UAW deals
Chris Teague
Wed, November 1, 2023
The UAW and the Detroit three automakers have reached tentative agreements, and while the two sides haven’t officially voted on the deals, they’re already impacting the rest of the auto industry. The pay raises and other benefits doled out by American companies have put pressure on the non-unionized automakers, leading Toyota to increase pay at all its U.S. facilities.
Toyota VP for corporate resources Chris Reynolds told Axios, “We value our employees and their contributions, and we show it by offering robust compensation packages that we continually review to ensure that we remain competitive within the automotive industry.” Early reports note that production workers got a $2.94 pay increase and skilled trades workers got a $3.70 bump, but a Toyota spokesperson declined to confirm those numbers.
Toyota’s factories aren’t unionized, but UAW president Shawn Fain aims to change that. He’s repeatedly hinted at wanting to draw in non-union auto workers, saying earlier this year, "Non-union auto workers are not the enemy. Those are our future union family. We’re going to organize non-union autoworkers everywhere. Together, we’re going to stand up and take on corporate greed.”
The UAW’s influence had been on the decline for decades, but these recent negotiations have given it a significant boost. Fain and union leaders came to the negotiating table with a tough but risky strategy that ultimately paid off. Workers will see immediate pay raises of double-digit percentages, and they will regain cost-of-living pay increases that the union lost more than a decade ago.
UAW officials also got a five-year deal, longer than most in recent history. As Axios reported, that will give the union a longer runway to attract workers from other automakers, including Tesla, Toyota and perhaps even the Korean automakers. Either way, Toyota’s pay raises are likely just the start, and they will add to the pressure created by the union’s deals. That means we’ll probably see similar moves by the other non-union automakers in the near future as they seek to retain workers and stay competitive.
Wed, November 1, 2023
The UAW and the Detroit three automakers have reached tentative agreements, and while the two sides haven’t officially voted on the deals, they’re already impacting the rest of the auto industry. The pay raises and other benefits doled out by American companies have put pressure on the non-unionized automakers, leading Toyota to increase pay at all its U.S. facilities.
Toyota VP for corporate resources Chris Reynolds told Axios, “We value our employees and their contributions, and we show it by offering robust compensation packages that we continually review to ensure that we remain competitive within the automotive industry.” Early reports note that production workers got a $2.94 pay increase and skilled trades workers got a $3.70 bump, but a Toyota spokesperson declined to confirm those numbers.
Toyota’s factories aren’t unionized, but UAW president Shawn Fain aims to change that. He’s repeatedly hinted at wanting to draw in non-union auto workers, saying earlier this year, "Non-union auto workers are not the enemy. Those are our future union family. We’re going to organize non-union autoworkers everywhere. Together, we’re going to stand up and take on corporate greed.”
The UAW’s influence had been on the decline for decades, but these recent negotiations have given it a significant boost. Fain and union leaders came to the negotiating table with a tough but risky strategy that ultimately paid off. Workers will see immediate pay raises of double-digit percentages, and they will regain cost-of-living pay increases that the union lost more than a decade ago.
UAW officials also got a five-year deal, longer than most in recent history. As Axios reported, that will give the union a longer runway to attract workers from other automakers, including Tesla, Toyota and perhaps even the Korean automakers. Either way, Toyota’s pay raises are likely just the start, and they will add to the pressure created by the union’s deals. That means we’ll probably see similar moves by the other non-union automakers in the near future as they seek to retain workers and stay competitive.
Toyota to raise wages following UAW deals with 3 major automakers
Julia Shapero
Thu, November 2, 2023
Toyota said it will raise wages at its U.S. factories just days after the United Auto Workers (UAW) union reached a tentative agreement with the three major automakers to suspend a weekslong strike.
The Japanese automaker will reportedly increase wages for hourly manufacturing workers at the top rate by about 9 percent Jan. 1, according to Reuters. It will also cut the amount of time it takes workers to reach the top wage rate to four years and increase paid time off.
“At Toyota, we take great pride in showing respect for people,” Chris Reynolds, the executive vice president and chief administrative officer of Toyota Motor North America, said in a statement.
“We value our employees and their contributions, and we show it by offering robust compensation packages that we continually review to ensure that we remain competitive within the automotive industry,” he added.
UAW wins back Obama-era concessions from financial crisis, as strike nears end
The announcement follows the UAW’s decision on Monday to suspend its strike against the three major U.S. automakers — Ford, General Motors (GM) and Stellantis — after reaching a tentative deal with GM.
GM was the last of the three to strike a deal with the union, agreeing to largely the same terms as Ford and Stellantis. All three companies agreed to a 25 percent general wage increase over the life of a 4 1/2-year contract, including an immediate 11 percent raise.
They also agreed to reinstate cost-of-living adjustments and to cut the time it takes workers to reach the top wage rate to three years.
As the strike showed signs of winding down Sunday, UAW President Shawn Fain signaled that the union plans to turn its attention to organizing at other automakers.
“One of our biggest goals coming out of this historic contract victory is to organize like we’ve never organized before,” Fain said during livestreamed remarks. “When we return to the bargaining table in 2028, it won’t just be with the big three. It will be the big five or big six.”
Joseph White and David Shepardson
Thu, November 2, 2023
DETROIT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Leaders of the United Auto Workers signaled the next step in their campaign to capitalize on the union's success in bargaining with the Detroit Three: launching organizing drives at Toyota, Tesla and other nonunion U.S. auto factories.
"What could @Toyota workers win if they joined the #StandUpUAW campaign?" UAW organizing director Brian O. Shepherd posted on social media on Wednesday, commenting after Toyota agreed to boost wages for U.S. workers by 9%, and to cut in half the time it takes new hires to reach the top pay rate.
Other foreign automakers are reviewing recent auto-sector wage hikes. Honda told Reuters it is evaluating the recent UAW deals with the Detroit Three automakers and will remain competitive.
UAW President Shawn Fain is expected to deliver a video address at 7 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT) on Thursday to outline details of the union's new contract with Stellantis.
Fain has used recent video addresses to telegraph the union's determination to organize workers at Toyota, Tesla and other nonunion U.S. automakers, using the record wage increases won in tentative agreements with Stellantis, General Motors and Ford.
"One of our biggest goals coming out of this historic contract victory is to organize like we’ve never organized before," Fain said on Sunday. "When we return to the bargaining table in 2028, it won’t just be with the Big Three, but with the Big Five or Big Six."
UAW Region 8 director Tim Smith, whose territory covers many nonunion auto factories in the southern United States, said workers at those plants have been reaching out to the UAW.
"You cannot believe the calls coming in," Smith told Reuters.
UAW staff are keeping track of the calls, many from Toyota's sprawling assembly operation in Georgetown, Kentucky. The Toyota complex is not far from one of the UAW's largest local unions, which represents Ford's Kentucky Truck and Louisville Assembly plants.
Smith said it was important workers consider the total wages and benefits and not just the wage rate. "We got them a raise," he said. "If (Toyota workers) come calling, which they have, we're going to educate them and be there for them."
The UAW has tried and failed for years to organize nonunion U.S. auto factories, most of them built by Asian and European legacy automakers in southern U.S. states where so-called right to work labor laws make it optional for workers to pay union dues.
Recently, the union tried and failed to win enough support from workers at Tesla's Fremont, California, factory to hold an organizing vote. Tesla's Fremont plant was once a UAW shop when it was jointly owned by GM and Toyota and known as NUMMI.
"Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union. Could do so tmrw if they wanted. But why pay union dues & give up stock options for nothing?" Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk tweeted in 2018.
The UAW filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board over that tweet, and the NLRB ruled the tweet violated labor laws prohibiting management threats against workers for supporting unionization. Earlier this year, a U.S. appeals court upheld the NLRB ruling.
WIDENING COST GAPS
The UAW's organizing efforts from 2015 through 2020 were hindered by a federal investigation of corruption in the UAW's top ranks.
Fain earlier this year won the UAW presidency by vowing wide-ranging reform.
Toyota's move earlier this week to raise wages is in line with the strategy the Japanese automaker and other nonunion automakers have used to keep UAW organizers at bay.
Nonunion automakers have kept hourly wages close to the UAW rates at the Detroit Three. But they have lower labor costs overall because they pay less for health and retirement benefits than the unionized automakers. They also use more temporary workers, who are paid less.
The result is that average hourly labor costs in total at foreign automakers are $55 an hour, compared with $64 an hour under the old UAW contract, Ford sources estimated ahead of the new contract agreements. U.S. labor costs at Tesla are estimated at $45 to $50.
The gaps will get wider, assuming UAW workers at the Detroit Three ratify agreements that call for increasing pay for veteran workers by 25%, restoring cost-of-living allowances and boosting pay for temporary workers by as much as 150%.
(Reporting by Joseph White in Detroit and David Shepardson in Washington; Additional reporting by Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
The UAW won big against Detroit automakers. Unionizing Tesla and Toyota will be tougher
Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN
Wed, November 1, 2023
The United Auto Workers hopes the significant wage and benefit gains in tentative agreements with Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, the parent of Jeep and Chrysler, will spark unionization efforts throughout the US auto industry.
But the UAW’s ambitious plans to organize Tesla and other non-union automakers face steep odds.
“One of our biggest goals coming out of this historic contract victory is to organize like we’ve never organized before,” UAW President Shawn Fain said Sunday, signaling that the union plans to marshal the new contracts at the Detroit automakers to win over other workers. “When we return to the bargaining table in 2028, it won’t just be with the Big Three. It will be the Big Five or Big Six.”
In the 1970s, the UAW had 1.5 million members. Today, its membership has dwindled to 380,000, even while American automobile manufacturing has surged in recent decades. To grow, the UAW will need to gain a foothold at non-union automakers, which produce more than half of the cars assembled in the United States.
Yet big wins at the Detroit automakers won’t change the significant obstacles the UAW must surmount to unionize foreign-owned auto plants in the South — including Toyota, Hyundai, Honda, Volvo, Mercedes, BMW, Nissan and Volkswagen — and Tesla, which has non-union plants in California and Texas.
These companies have been elusive targets for the union in the past. In order to make progress, the UAW will have to overcome fierce management resistance, employee surveillance, unfavorable labor laws and political leaders in the South who are hostile to unions.
“This is a sizable victory. I wouldn’t minimize that,” said Harry Katz, a professor at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. “I just don’t know that it’s going to overcome all the difficulties facing organized and un-organized labor.”
Even if union efforts fail, however, the contract agreements could force non-union automakers to preemptively increase workers’ wages and benefits to try stave off union pressure.
Historically, UAW talks with the Detroit automakers have been closely watched by non-union automakers and suppliers.
Already, Toyota has raised wages in the wake of the UAW’s tentative settlements, which raise the top wage to more than $40 an hour and increase starting wages to more than $28 an hour.
Pro-union publication Labor Notes reported Tuesday that Toyota workers got pay increases of $2.94 to a maximum of $34.80 per hour for production workers and $3.70 to a maximum of $43.20 per hour for skilled trades employees. (Toyota confirmed it raised wages, but did not say by how much.)
Anti-union companies
The UAW will have to overcome weak protections for labor organizing in the United States and automakers’ aggressive tactics to defeat unions.
Companies often try to persuade workers against voting in favor of a union, hiring “union-avoidance” consultants in an attempt to dissuade employees and weaken workers’ unionization efforts. Even if a majority of workers casts ballots in favor of a union, negotiations on pay, benefits and other areas can drag on for years — and the longer companies can stall, the better it is for them, and worse it is for workers.
Employers also generally face weak remedies for violations of workers’ rights to organize under the National Labor Relations Act. Employers do not face monetary penalties for illegally retaliating against workers for exercising their rights, and workers do not receive compensatory damages when they face illegal retaliation.
“It’s very difficult to organize in the face of serious and significant management opposition,” said Thomas Kochan, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Many automakers in recent decades have moved to the South, drawn by cheaper labor, fewer regulations, tax incentives and anti-union laws. Every state in the South has “right to work laws,” which allow workers to opt out of paying fees to a union at their workplace, even if they benefit from union bargaining agreements, undercutting a union’s financial resources to strategize and collectively bargain.
Tesla's Fremont, California, factory is likely to be a target of union efforts. - Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Workers have also outright rejected the UAW in recent years at Nissan and Volkswagen in Tennessee; Toyota in Kentucky; Mercedes-Benz in Alabama; and other foreign-owned plants in the South, sometimes with help from Republican state officials. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee in 2019 visited Volkswagen’s plant in Chattanooga to encourage workers to reject the union. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, now a contender for president, said in 2015 she was a “union buster” when recruiting automakers to the state.
President Joe Biden, in contrast, became the first President to speak at a UAW picket line during the recent strike, when he briefly joined a protest in Michigan.
As automakers race to build electric vehicles, though, many are opening new facilities in the South. The region has picked up 66% of planned EV jobs, according to a recent report by the Environmental Defense Fund.
Pay at southern auto factories is lower than top UAW wages, according to a study this year by researchers at Alabama A&M University and Jackson State University, but the wages are typically higher than other industries in the South.
This means that auto companies have more leverage over their employees if they threaten to leave, Kochan said.
Companies “will argue, with some basis of reality, that jobs in their plants are higher paying than workers can achieve in other jobs in the South,” he said.
The Fain factor
Despite the challenges, the UAW’s seeming victories against the Detroit automakers put the union in its best position in years to mount successful campaigns at foreign automakers, experts say.
“These settlements send a strong message to non-union workers in other automakers and across the auto supply chain that this is what a strong union can do for you,” Kochan said. “There’s going to be more organizing on the basis of these settlements and the UAW’s intent to try to recoup organizing losses.”
The UAW for years has been plagued by corruption, which has hurt its ability to organize new workers. But it could be harder for anti-union forces to make that argument against Shawn Fain, who ran on an anti-corruption platform, and the current UAW leadership.
“Fain will bring incredible energy and an inspired organizing staff and will no doubt build on workers in the transplants who have been following what he’s won in Detroit,” said Harley Shaiken, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkley. “All that said, it could prove to be a long uphill fight.”
UAW President Shawn Fain, center left, stands for pictures with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, bottom center, after a rally for striking workers in Chicago last month. - John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service/Getty Images
The UAW could have the strongest shot unionizing Volkswagen in Chattanooga, Tennessee, labor experts say. The union lost a close vote there in 2019.
It may be easier for UAW to organize Volkswagen and other European automakers like BMW and Mercedes-Benz than automakers from Asia, experts say.
In Europe, automakers are unionized, and European labor leaders could push the automakers to remain neutral on US organizing efforts. European companies may be more amenable to US unions due to their deep and mutually beneficial experience with them. Union representatives at Volkswagen, for example, are on the company board.
UAW also has its sights set on Tesla, which controls around 60% of the US electric vehicle market.
The UAW has tried and failed to organize at Tesla, led by Elon Musk, in the past. Musk, the world’s richest man, is an outspoken opponent of unions and the National Labor Relations Board has repeatedly cited Tesla and Musk for illegal or improper anti-unionizing activities . Last year, the NLRB said it was unlawful for Tesla to prohibit employees from wearing shirts bearing union logos, and the agency directed Musk to delete a 2018 tweet saying employees would lose their stock options if they formed a union.
Employees at Tesla’s Fremont California factory have formed an organizing committee with the UAW, Bloomberg reported, in what could be a first step to trying to form a union again. (A UAW representative declined to comment to CNN.)
“Tesla will be the biggest and most public battle, given what we can expect as all-out resistance from Elon Musk,” Shaiken said.
Calling on Biden
Union advocates want President Joe Biden to help the UAW advance its efforts at non-union companies receiving federal funds.
Now that the UAW has tentative agreements at the Detroit automakers, some union advocates are calling on Biden to use his administration’s influence to set standards at non-union electric vehicle plants in the South.
The Biden administration is giving federal incentives to speed up automakers’ transition to EVs. Union organizers and supporters want the Biden administration to push automakers that receive federal funding to adopt a position of neutrality on unions and negotiate a set of baseline standards.
“The Big 3 and other automakers are locating EV manufacturing plants, battery and other supply-line facilities in rural, Black communities in the South,” a group of more than 60 Black elected officials wrote to Biden this week. “With the influx of transplant companies…the Biden Administration must do more to ensure the standards of the current UAW agreements are the norm, not the exception.”
Erica Smiley, executive director of the advocacy group Jobs with Justice, which helped organize the letter to Biden, said the UAW must expand organizing in the South, a region that is now crucial in the auto industry.
If the union fails to expand, the rise of non-union labor in the region could undercut the UAW’s strong contracts with the Detroit automakers, Smiley warned.
“This isn’t the time to say ‘we’ve won’ and move on,” she said. “The strength of this agreement won’t be widely felt and will be quickly undermined if the rest of the industry isn’t held to higher standards.”
Some Tesla workers say they'd never work in a unionized factory, even as Ford and GM workers are set to get a major pay boost
Grace Kay
Updated Thu, November 2, 2023
The UAW wants to unionize more US automakers after reaching tentative agreements with the Big Three.
A major Tesla factory is reported to have a UAW organizing committee that's speaking with workers.
Some Tesla workers said they wouldn't join a unionized company, and the UAW would struggle at Tesla.
The United Auto Workers might have set its sights on Tesla, but some workers at the EV company told Insider they'd be hard-pressed to join a union.
After reaching tentative agreements with Detroit automakers, the union's president, Shawn Fain, said last week the UAW was aiming to expand its reach. And what better target than the most valuable car company in the world?
Musk, for his part, has in the past publicly invited the UAW to hold a union election at Tesla, expressing confidence that his workers would vote against organizing and saying that "former UAW members who work at Tesla are not huge fans of UAW." Tesla employs over 127,000 workers across the globe, including over 20,000 at its Fremont factory in California.
With the new UAW contracts, Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis are set to spend up to $35 more per hour than Tesla on labor costs, including hourly wages and benefits. Even before the 36-day strike, Ford and GM already spent more than $20 more per hour on factory workers than Tesla, analysts said. Musk said on X in September that Tesla paid more than the UAW and Tesla workers could also benefit from the company's employee stock offerings, saying that "quite a few of our factory techs who work on the line have become millionaires."
Yet even as the UAW made headlines this year and some experts speculated that Tesla could benefit from the autoworkers strike, nine Tesla workers told Insider the strike was far from a topic of conversation at Tesla — and few factory workers were even aware of the UAW's initial demands.
Despite the pay difference, seven Tesla workers told Insider they wouldn't want to work in a unionized factory and predicted that the UAW would struggle to find its footing at the EV company. The workers spoke under the condition of anonymity in order to avoid potential repercussions for speaking publicly about their employer.
Tesla's 'startup culture'
"Tesla still very much has a startup culture, and that's a lot different than a union culture," one Tesla worker at the Fremont factory told Insider. "I think people join Tesla because they want to work hard. They want to push themselves. They want to find ways to stand out by going above and beyond, and that's difficult to do in a union."
Two Tesla workers previously told Insider they'd joined the company's factory line straight out of engineering school in hopes they could work their way up to an engineering role at Elon Musk's company. But even internal applications at Tesla are highly competitive, and the workers said they had yet to make their way off the factory floor. The carmaker has no shortage of interest, with over 3.6 million people applying to work at the company last year.
Three workers said the company also probably knew how to weed out pro-union employees.
"That kind of person probably wouldn't even make it through the interview process," a Tesla engineer said.
The electric-car maker and its CEO aren't exactly known for being union-friendly. The company has been accused of prohibiting workers from wearing union paraphernalia and unlawfully terminating employees who sought to unionize. Earlier this year, the National Labor Relations Board alleged that Tesla laid off dozens of workers at its Buffalo, New York, site after the employees had announced plans to unionize. Similarly, in 2021, the NLRB ruled that Tesla and Musk "unlawfully threatened" the workers hoping to unionize in 2017 and ordered the company to rehire a union-activist worker it had fired even after Tesla attempted to appeal the decision. The group said Tesla "interrogated" employees involved in the effort and ordered Musk to delete a tweet it deemed "anti-union."
Tesla has never held a union vote at any of its US facilities. But the German union IG Metall said last month that some Tesla workers at the company's Brandenburg plant had joined its union.
Tesla has never held a union vote at any of its US facilities.Christian Marquard/Getty Images
"I would say no one talks about unionizing, but it also might be an unfair gauge," another Fremont worker said. "It's not like it's something you would talk about openly at Tesla."
Still, other workers told Insider they wouldn't jump ship even for a better pay package at a unionized company.
"I think for a lot of the people that work at Tesla, it's not just a job," an additional Fremont factory worker said. "People are proud of what they do here. They believe in the mission of the company."
Nonetheless, there are some signs that some workers within Tesla are at least exploring the option of unionizing. Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported that Tesla's Fremont factory had a UAW organizing committee that was talking to workers.
Two Tesla factory workers told Insider they wished they could be paid more for their work and would be open to some of the benefits of a union, especially when it comes to combatting the high cost of living near Tesla's factories.
"I don't think anyone would think twice about getting paid more," an Austin worker said. "At the end of the day, you've got to take care of your family."
Fain has previously said Tesla's pay is "pitiful" and workers are just getting by so that "greedy people like Elon Musk can build more rocket ships."
"Workers in this country have got to decide if they want a better life for themselves, instead of scraping to get by paycheck to paycheck, while everybody else walks away with the loot," the UAW boss said in an interview in September.
A spokesperson for Tesla did not respond to a request for comment from Insider ahead of publication. In September, Musk said the UAW's initial strike demands would drive the Big Three automakers "bankrupt."
Business Insider Found Seven Tesla Workers Who Aren't Sure About A Union So That Settles That
Steve DaSilva
Thu, November 2, 2023
Photo: David Butow/Corbis (Getty Images)
The United Auto Workers strike against the Big Three earlier this year led to some massive — and well-deserved — gains for the workers that actually build GM, Ford, and Stellantis’s cars. The folks over at Tesla, though, appear uninterested in such benefits — at least, according to the handful that spoke with Business Insider, who are kind of hoping their personal hustle will get noticed by .
Business Insider leads with the fact that UAW workers will earn $35 more per hour in total compensation — inclusive of pay and benefits — than their compatriots at Tesla. Oddly, this is couched as a cost to the company rather than a benefit to the workers, but such is the world of business (I went to college for it, I should know). The piece goes on to quote some Tesla workers about just why they want to do more work for less money:
The company also likely knows how to weed out pro-union employees, three workers said.
“That kind of person probably wouldn’t even make it through the interview process,” a Tesla engineer said.
The electric-car maker and its CEO aren’t exactly known for being union-friendly. The company has been accused of prohibiting workers from wearing union paraphernalia and unlawfully terminating employees who sought to unionize. Earlier this year, the National Labor Relations Board alleged that Tesla laid off dozens of workers at its Buffalo New York site after the employees had announced plans to unionize. Similarly in 2021, the NLRB ruled that Tesla and Musk “unlawfully threatened” the workers hoping to unionize in 2017 and ordered the company to rehire a union activist worker it had fired even after Tesla attempted to appeal the decision. The group said Tesla “interrogated” employees involved in the effort and ordered Musk to delete a tweet it deemed “anti-union.”
Tesla’s attitude towards unions has been antagonistic to say the least. Layoffs at the company have long been accused of really being thinly veiled anti-union activity, and that trend of behavior has never stopped. Are Tesla’s workers simply too hard-working, too eager to please, to ever join up with the United Auto Workers? Or have workers that know their worth simply given up on the company?
Jalopnik
A "UAW On Strike" sign held on a picket line outside the General Motors Co. Spring Hill Manufacturing plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, on Oct. 30, 2023.
UAW aims to expand union organizing after Big Three deals
Julie Hyman and Eyek Ntekim
Tue, October 31, 2023
Tue, October 31, 2023
The UAW has reached tentative deals with all of the Big Three automakers Ford (F), General Motors (GM), and Stellantis (STLA), and union president Shawn Fain is looking ahead to expanding union participation.
Arthur Wheaton, Cornell University Director of Labor Relations, expects union expansions to broaden out even to EV leader Tesla (TSLA).
“It's tough to organize an anti-union company," Wheaton tells Yahoo Finance, also predicting other auto plants to match Big Three wage hikes for UAW workers.
For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.
Video Transcript
JULIE HYMAN: The UAW has now reached tentative agreements with all of the big three automakers for GM and Stellantis. UAW President Shawn Fain is already thinking about the next steps in the union's fight, including expanding union participation.
SHAWN FAIN: One of our biggest goals coming out of this historic contract victory is to organize like we've never organized before. When we return to the bargaining table in 2028, it won't just be with the big three but with the big five or big six.
JULIE HYMAN: So obviously, Fain has big ambitions here. But there also are maybe big ambitions for what this means more broadly for unions in the US. For perspective on that, we turn to Arthur Wheaton, Director of Labor Studies at Cornell University. Thanks so much for being with us. This is a question that we have consistently been asking here and exploring.
Let's focus first on autos. Are we going to see a bump in unit participation? And are we going to see an expansion to-- I don't know-- attempts at Tesla, for example, in the wake of this?
ARTHUR WHEATON: There is already a negotiating group for organizing Tesla already. So they are already getting set to do that. And you have to remember the main plant in Fremont, California, used to be a UAW plant. So it was where General Motors and Toyota joint venture. So it's had unionization in that building, so they're going to try to fight and get more organizing again. But it's tough to organize an anti-union company.
JULIE HYMAN: What can they do to overcome that? I mean, are there any paths that you see for Tesla to potentially become unionized?
ARTHUR WHEATON: The biggest path they just accomplished. They got a tentative agreement. Once that agreement gets ratified and it's confirmed, then a lot of the non-union auto companies will either have to pay more or face the possibility of having organizing drives in their plant. So Tesla used to claim that they paid more than the UAW wages, but this contract really raised the lower paid temps, and newer hires raised their wages a lot. So it was massive increases. So they will be looking for that in other auto plants as well.
