The
United Auto Workers (UAW), a union of nearly
150,000 workers at America’s “Big Three”
automakers, are
on strike.
On
the face of it, UAW’s demands sound
audacious. They’re calling for a 46%
pay raise and
a four-day workweek,
among other things. But in the broader context
of a decades-long decline in labor rights and
wages, they’re perfectly reasonable.
What’s
unreasonable is massively profitable
corporations’ insistence on squeezing every last
drop of productivity from their workers with
paltry wages, long hours, and little-to-no job
security — and then feigning outrage at union
demands.
The
Big Three made more than $20 billion in profits in
the first half of 2023 alone. Their CEOs
are compensated to
the tune of tens of millions of dollars a year.
Meanwhile, even the top-paid auto workers earn
less than six figures a year. Temporary workers
start at only $17 an hour.
After
years of making concessions, auto workers
believe they — and not just their bosses —
should share in the industry’s record profits. “Record
profits mean record contracts,”
as UAW president Shawn Fain put it.
Linking
worker pay to CEO compensation is a savvy move.
As unions remain
popular,
the idea of sharing the wealth appeals to a
basic sense of fairness among the public.
It
also makes financial sense for the automakers
themselves. When GM workers went on strike in
2019 for 40 days, the cost to the company was
far greater than anticipated — nearly
$4 billion.
NBC estimates
that meeting the union’s salary demands today
would cost the companies comparable amounts —
but spread out over much longer periods. “A 40
percent wage bump for UAW members would cost GM
$4 billion to $5 billion and Ford $5 billion to
$6 billion over four years,” they report.
But
rather than offer salaries that enable workers
to budget their lives, buy homes, and project
expenses, the Big Three want to pay
workers individual
bonuses during
years when profits are high. Their ostensible
reason is to remain flexible as the industry is
pressured into evolving
away from fossil-fuel based vehicles to
all-electric vehicles in the face of a warming
climate.
But
President Joe Biden’s administration just
announced a massive funding plan to
boost EV production and tied it to labor rights.
“Building a clean energy economy can and should
provide a win-win opportunity for auto companies
and unionized workers who have anchored the
American economy for decades,” Biden said.
In
short, automakers can unlock federal funding,
avoid disruptions to their inventories, and ensure
that their financial losses are spread out over
several years rather than just a few months —
all by simply meeting UAW’s salary demands.
What
more incentives do the big companies need?
There’s
another beautiful win-win opportunity for
workers and automakers in the EV transition. It
takes significantly less labor to
make an EV compared to a gas-run car. According
to Ford, it’s 40 percent more labor efficient to
make EVs.
According
to UAW,
auto workers “are working 60, 70, even 80 hours
a week just to make ends meet.” But if they’re
making EVs, they could work fewer hours at a
higher rate without impacting production or
their yearly salaries. Studies
show that
the companies would likely remain profitable and
retain employees better if they switched to a
four-day workweek with no loss of pay.
UAW’s
demands, in short, are hardly unreasonable. But
with corporations insistent on squeezing more
profits no matter the cost, merely pointing out
the mutually beneficial rewards of meeting union
demands isn’t enough to sway shareholders and
their allies.
So the striking
workers are fighting for
their demands. It
remains to be seen
how much autoworkers
can flex their
power. The Big Three
can certainly test
their patience and
find out.
This
commentary was produced by
Economy
for All,
a project of the
Independent
Media Institute.
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