Switching to electric vehicles poses a threat to union jobs in the U.S.

Normally, on the outskirts of Illinois, there is a factory that shows the challenges facing the U.S. labor movement as the car industry moves toward electrification.

Former Mitsubishi plant to launch electric vehicles next month Rivian will begin manufacturing pick-up trucks and sports vehicles there. It will employ 1,800 next month and plans to scale to 2,500 by the end of the year.

Mitsubishi closed the plant in 2015 after it fired a union worker with 4,000 forces at the turn of the century. Rivian bought $ 16 million from a liquidator factory and will start its first products from there.

But the factory, even though it works with the same workers, is no longer a union store, and the normal situation shows the changing dynamics of the U.S. auto industry.

Electric vehicles are recognized as the undisputed future of the industry. Ford and General Motors are pouring billions into their plans to build EVs as they compete against Tesla, which has become the largest manufacturer of electric vehicles in the U.S.

The U.S. auto industry is based on U.S. manufacturing, working with nearly 390,000 vehicle manufacturers and another 539,000 in the supply chain.

But electric vehicles pose a potential loss of jobs for assembly workers and the automotive supply chain. EVs need fewer components overall, which means they need fewer people to make parts and assemble vehicles.

In addition, there are likely to be fewer jobs in electric vehicles than union jobs, which tend to offer workers better wages and benefits. Rivian and Tesla are not unionized, nor are many businesses in the EV supply chain.

It was found in a 2020 report by the Institute for Left Economic Policy union workers earned 11.2 percent more than non-union members. Membership of the United Auto Workers union has dropped since it reached $ 1.5 million in 1979, and real wages for auto workers have fallen by 17 percent since 1990, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The union still represents 400,000 workers, but a 2018 UAW study said 35,000 of those union jobs could be due to the transition to electric vehicles.

“Seeing that you need fewer people. . . and with more non-union employers involved in the supply chain, you have a potential loss of potential employment, ”said Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University in Detroit.

Rivian declined to comment on unionization at the Illinois plant. The UAW said in January 2020 that it “hoped to return those jobs and allow UAW members to reorganize,” but Normal Mayor Chris Koos said he did not believe there had been any discussion between Rivian and the UAW.

“Personally, I believe in unions,” Koos said. “They bring a lot to the table. . . But in that situation, that’s a decision between Rivian and the staff. “

Although UAW President Rory Gamble has said he is “given” the need to organize staff for new electric car manufacturers, it will not be an easy task.

Workers at the Tesla plant in Fremont, California, have been organizing for a long time through the UAW. More than three years ago, Elon Musken’s company fired Richard Ortiz, who distributed union-friendly leaflets in the plant’s parking lot, and only this year did the U.S. National Labor Relations Commission decide that his dismissal was illegal. Management ordered Tesla to pay it back.

Tesla also broke the law when it banned workers from talking to reporters, turned against another union activist and carried out “compulsory interrogation” of other supporters, the commission said.

Musk also directly criticized the fact that a tweet he sent in May 2018 was an illegal threat to the salaries of workers who were thinking of unionizing. Musk wrote that workers could be unions if they wanted to, “but why pay union dues and leave stock options for nothing?”

He was ordered to delete the tweet. It remained online from May 7th.

Koos said in interviews with Rivian executives that Tesla’s seemed more open to a unionized employee.

The biggest hurdle may be a changing supply chain. A decade ago the UAW used its relationships with Ford, GM and Chrysler to unionize suppliers. Now, the largest battery manufacturers, Panasonic and LG Chem, are in Asia, and fewer US EV suppliers are unionized.

GM and a unit of LG Chem have a joint venture that is building factories in Ohio and Tennessee. The Ohio plant will not be initially unionized. When GM announced the Tennessee plant last month, the UAW said the carmaker had a “moral obligation.” . . to ensure that union work like siblings that make internal combustion engines is good paid work ”.

“UAW will have to be very aggressive in trying to organize these facilities,” Master said. “Right now, he’s being more reactive than proactive. . . They have to look at the whole picture of the auto production parts and say, ‘What parts haven’t we arranged?’ and go after them. “

The UAW said the switch to EV offers the opportunity to create high-quality manufacturing jobs, but the U.S. will need a “strong industrial policy” to get there.

The union is advocating policies that would include the retraining of displaced workers, creating “quality jobs” in the construction of nationwide EV cargo infrastructure and trade protections for “advanced vehicle technology”.

It also seeks to change existing legislation to apply consumer subsidies only to electric vehicles assembled in the U.S. The federal government is subsidizing EV purchases to boost demand for a product that currently accounts for 2 percent of the U.S. auto market. The Joe Biden administration has not yet commented on that idea, and it certainly has questionable options in Congress.

Meanwhile, the UAW has praised U.S. auto-producers ’decisions to invest in U.S. plants for EV technologies and criticized decisions to outsource work to U.S. workers.

For example, Ford said it planned to open a new one last month battery R&D facilities In Michigan, the union said it will position “Ford and UAW members and families to move forward over the next few decades.”

Earlier this week, GM announced a $ 1 million investment in the construction of electric vehicles in Mexico. UAW Vice President Terry Dittes has called for “a slap in the face” from union members and U.S. taxpayers.

“We need to make sure that we are linking government funding to labor standards and that we are securing work in the U.S.,” UAW Legislative Director Josh Nassar told a U.S. House subcommittee on May 5th. “If we don’t. . . there is no certainty that future car work will be the good work we are used to. ”