GM EV battery production agreement a key win for UAW as striking voters vow to not let up
GM EV battery production agreement a key win for UAW as striking workers vow to not let up
The EV battery agreement was enough for the UAW president to spare the Big Three any additional strikes this time around with more than 25,000 workers already off the job and on the picket lines since mid-September.
CENTER LINE, Mich. (FOX 2) - UAW members at the Stellantis - Mopar facility in Center Line like the progress they heard union president Shawn Fain announce on Facebook Friday.
GM put EV battery production under the main, eventual agreement with the UAW, prompting Fain to praise their targeted protest - about to enter week four.
It was enough for Fain to spare the Big Three any additional strikes this time around with more than 25,000 workers already off the job and on the picket lines since mid-September.
"We’re getting things back that we never - we were told you’ll never get that stuff back ever again," said one worker. "We got our COLA back, GM, the EV plants as of today are UAW. Huge wins for us."
"Theatrics don’t result in GM battery cell manufacturing to be under our national agreement," Fain said. "Strikes, and the threat of strikes by a unified membership are what delivers."
The Big Three’s push toward ramped-up electric vehicle design and production has been a major sticking point for the union as it relates to job security.
"We all know that 30 to 40 percent of the jobs go away when we’re talking about electric vehicles," said the Stellantis employee. "We need to be able to sustain our economy, the middle class, the UAW - we need those plants to be under our umbrella."
"It’s a very big change that’s happening in terms of both how cars get built and how skills get associated with those jobs," said K. Venkatesh Prasad.
Related: UAW president announces last-minute major contract breakthrough with GM, no expanded strikes
Prasad is the Chief Innovation Officer at the Center for Automotive Research. He explained some of the skills workers will need to make those EV batteries.
"One of the skills associated with just the chemistry of batteries and electro-chemical nature of batteries and the second part is really all the high voltage power that’s transferred from the batteries to the rest of the propulsion system, the vehicle, the inverters and the motors and the wheels," he said.
Now the union wants to see where the other big companies go next.
"Hopefully you know, in a week’s time or in a couple days we’ll find out that both Stellantis and Ford have agreed to give those plants to the UAW," said the Stellantis worker.
And Fain makes it clear, the strike is far from over.
"They know we’ve got more cards left to play," Fain said. "We’re not going to let one company fall behind and wait for movement at another table. We’re not going to let them sit back and lowball us, while others make progress. We expect results at every company."
