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☆ U.A.W. Monitor Investigates Accusations Against Union Leader
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-10 | by ( The New York Times | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A court-appointed monitor overseeing the operations of the United Automobile Workers union is investigating disputes involving the union’s president, Shawn Fain, and two U.A.W. officials who say they were improperly stripped of duties. The monitor, Neil M. Barofsky, also accused the union on Monday of a “lapse in cooperation” with the investigation, saying it had taken months to turn over relevant documents and then provided only a small fraction of those requested. The union declined to comment. That process also resulted in the union’s first election of a president by a vote of the full membership — balloting that elevated Mr. Fain, running as an insurgent candidate, to the top job in a runoff last year.

Persons: Shawn Fain, Neil M, Barofsky’s, Fain Organizations: United Automobile Workers, Department Locations: Michigan

☆ U.S. Accuses Hyundai and Two Other Companies of Using Child Labor
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-30 | by ( Santul Nerkar | More About Santul Nerkar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Labor Department said that through the employment of children at its supplier, Hyundai was in violation of the “hot goods” provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which prevents the interstate commerce of goods “that were produced in violation of the minimum wage, overtime or child labor provisions” of that law. “Companies cannot escape liability by blaming suppliers or staffing companies for child labor violations when they are in fact also employers themselves,” said Seema Nanda, the Labor Department’s chief legal officer, in a statement Thursday. The suit comes after investigations by Reuters and The New York Times documented the use of child labor by the suppliers of car companies. In 2022, Reuters found that Smart Alabama had used child labor at its facility, and that Kia, which is part of the same South Korean conglomerate as Hyundai, had also used child labor in the South. The United Automobile Workers union has said it hopes to organize workers at Hyundai’s Montgomery plant.

Persons: ”, Seema Nanda Organizations: Smart, Best Practice Service, Labor Department, Hyundai, Fair Labor, Act, Labor, Reuters, The New York Times, Smart Alabama, Kia, The Times, General Motors, Ford Motor, The United Automobile Workers Locations: South Korea, Georgia, Hyundai’s Montgomery

☆ The Delivery Business Shows Why Unions Are Struggling to Expand
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-27 | by ( Peter Eavis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Last year, two unions representing workers at three large automakers and UPS negotiated new labor contracts that included big raises and other gains. Leaders of the unions — the United Automobile Workers and the Teamsters — hoped the wins would help them organize workers across their industry. The Teamsters have made even less progress at UPS’s big nonunion rivals in the delivery business, Amazon and FedEx. Polling shows that public support for unions is the highest it has been in decades. Many of the workers doing deliveries for Amazon and FedEx work for contractors, typically small and medium-size businesses that can be hard to organize.

Persons: Teamsters — Organizations: UPS, United Automobile Workers, Teamsters, Volkswagen, Mercedes, Benz, Amazon, FedEx, Polling Locations: Tennessee, Alabama

☆ U.A.W. Seeks a New Election at Mercedes-Benz Plants in Alabama
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-24 | by ( Jack Ewing | More About Jack Ewing | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A week after losing a hard-fought election at two Mercedes-Benz factories in Alabama, the United Automobile Workers asked federal officials on Friday to order a new vote, saying the German carmaker violated labor laws to suppress support for the union. Mercedes-Benz conducted a “relentless anti-union campaign” marked by “wanton lawlessness,” the U.A.W. Among other things, the union said, Mercedes fired four employees who supported the union, prevented pro-union employees from campaigning and forced employees to watch anti-union videos. But the labor board can order a new election if, after a hearing, a regional director determines that improper conduct by an employer affected the vote, a spokeswoman for the board said. A majority of workers “indicated they are not interested in being represented by the U.A.W.,” the company said in a statement on Friday.

Persons: Mercedes, “ Organizations: Mercedes, Benz, United Automobile Workers, National Labor Relations Board, Workers Locations: Alabama, Tuscaloosa

☆ A Loss at Mercedes-Benz Slows U.A.W.’s Southern Campaign
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-18 | by ( Neal E. Boudette | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

About 56 percent of the Mercedes workers who voted rejected the U.A.W. In April, workers at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee voted to join the union, the first large nonunion auto plant in the South to do so. I don’t think they’re going to stop just because they lost here.”Since its founding in 1935, the U.A.W. has almost exclusively represented workers employed by the three Michigan-based automakers: General Motors, Ford Motor, and Chrysler, now part of Stellantis. And it has long struggled to make headway at plants owned by foreign manufacturers, especially in Southern states where anti-union sentiment runs deep.

Persons: Weeks, ”, Arthur Wheaton Organizations: Mercedes, Benz, United Automobile Workers, Volkswagen, Daimler Truck, Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, General Motors, Ford Motor, Chrysler Locations: Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, Michigan, Stellantis, Southern

☆ Mercedes Workers in Alabama Reject Union
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-17 | by ( Jack Ewing | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Workers at two Mercedes-Benz factories near Tuscaloosa, Ala., voted on Friday against joining the United Automobile Workers, a stunning blow to the union’s campaign to gain ground in the South, where it has traditionally been weak. Hyundai and Honda also have large factories in Alabama that the U.A.W. could build on a string of recent victories and gain ground in a state whose elected officials have been hostile to organized labor. The union has said it wants to organize every automobile factory in the United States, expanding its membership to include the employees of companies like Toyota and Tesla. Union leaders will want to spend time figuring out how best to counter the messages and tactics of local lawmakers and company executives.

Persons: Kay Ivey Organizations: Mercedes, Benz, United Automobile Workers, Alabama’s, Hyundai, Honda, Toyota, Tesla Locations: Tuscaloosa, Ala, Alabama, United States, Union

☆ U.A.W. Effort to Organize Mercedes Workers in Alabama Has High Stakes
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-16 | by ( Jack Ewing | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

More than 5,000 Mercedes-Benz workers in Alabama are voting this week on whether to join the United Automobile Workers union, a decision both supporters and opponents say will have consequences far beyond two factories near Tuscaloosa where the German carmaker churns out luxury sport utility vehicles and batteries for electric cars. Conservative political leaders have portrayed the union campaign to organize Mercedes workers as an assault by outsiders on the region’s economy and way of life. The vote tally is expected to be released by federal officials on Friday. Six Southern governors, including Kay Ivey, an Alabama Republican, issued a statement last month criticizing unions as “special interests looking to come into our state and threaten our jobs and the values we live by.” Alabama recently passed a law intended to discourage union organizing. For the union, a win would add to a string of victories in the South, where organized labor has traditionally been weak, and provide momentum to the U.A.W.’s efforts to win over workers at other nonunion automakers like Hyundai, Toyota, Honda and Tesla.

Persons: Kay Ivey Organizations: Benz, United Automobile Workers, Conservative, Six, Alabama Republican, ”, Hyundai, Toyota, Honda Locations: Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Six Southern, ” Alabama

☆ Daimler Truck Workers in North Carolina Are Poised to Strike
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-26 | by ( Jack Ewing | More About Jack Ewing | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Workers who make trucks and buses for Daimler Truck in North Carolina appeared poised to strike on Friday as contract talks remained deadlocked. A contract covering 7,000 Daimler employees represented by the United Automobile Workers will expire at the end of Friday. The German company has five factories in North Carolina, where it builds Freightliner and Western Star trucks, Thomas Built buses, and various components. scored a significant victory this month when workers at Volkswagen’s factory in Chattanooga, Tenn., voted to be represented by the union. Workers at a Mercedes-Benz factory in Alabama will vote on whether to unionize in mid-May.

Persons: Thomas Organizations: Daimler Truck, Daimler, United Automobile Workers, Freightliner, Western Star, Workers, Benz Locations: North Carolina, Southern, Volkswagen’s, Chattanooga , Tenn, Alabama

☆ Democrats Try to Navigate a Looming Strike in a Swing State
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-26 | by ( Jonathan Weisman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Barring a last-minute breakthrough, more than 7,000 workers are set to walk off their truck and bus assembly lines on Friday night in the swing state of North Carolina, injecting the United Automobile Workers’ new activism in the South directly into the 2024 election. North Carolina has never been hospitable to organized labor, and the midnight strike at the North American subsidiary of the German industrial giant Daimler Truck has been greeted with trepidation by the state’s Democratic establishment, which has long tried to project a moderate, pro-business bent. But Shawn Fain, the U.A.W.’s brash new president, doesn’t much care. “We don’t expect politicians to save the day, but at the end of the day, politicians have an obligation to the people that elect them,” he said in an interview on Thursday, adding: “It’s our generation-defining moment. This is a time where politicians need to pick a side.”In September, President Biden joined the picket line of the U.A.W.’s successful strike of the Big Three U.S. automakers, and Thursday, a White House spokeswoman, Robyn Patterson, indicated that the president could be equally aggressive if there was a Daimler walkout.

Persons: Shawn Fain, ”, Biden, ’, Robyn Patterson Organizations: United Automobile Workers, North, Daimler, Democratic, ”, Big, U.S, automakers, House Locations: North Carolina, Carolina, North American

☆ A Strike Looms in a Battleground State
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-26 | by ( Matthew Cullen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

More than 7,000 workers who make trucks and buses at Daimler Truck plants in North Carolina are poised to go on strike at midnight, barring a last-minute breakthrough. The United Automobile Workers, the union that represents the workers, said it was demanding a “historic deal” from the truck maker, including pay raises and more job security. “It’s our generation-defining moment,” Shawn Fain, U.A.W.’s president, said. A strike in North Carolina — a battleground state that has a Democratic governor, but that President Biden narrowly lost in 2020 — could also have repercussions on the 2024 campaign. Biden, who has proclaimed himself the “most pro-union president in history,” has indicated that he could step in aggressively to support the Daimler workers.

Persons: “, ” Shawn Fain, U.A.W, ’, Biden, —, ” Organizations: Daimler, United Automobile Workers, U.S, Democratic Locations: North Carolina, Southern

☆ Opinion | Can Biden Revive the Fortunes of American Workers?
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-25 | by ( Paul Krugman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Last week, employees at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., voted by almost three to one to join the United Automobile Workers. By the numbers, this wasn’t a big deal: It involved only a few thousand workers in an economy that employs almost 160 million people. You can quantify this arc using statistical measures like the Gini coefficient or the ratio of top to bottom incomes. The thing is, that relatively equal society didn’t evolve gradually. Wartime wage and price controls were an equalizing force, but the new equality persisted for decades after those controls were removed.

Persons: Claudia Goldin —, Robert Margo Organizations: Volkswagen, United Automobile Workers Locations: Chattanooga , Tenn, Chattanooga, America

☆ Opinion | The Volkswagen Union Win Shows That Labor Is Becoming a Bigger Tent
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-24 | by ( Peter Coy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

There’s a vote on whether to join the United Automobile Workers union, giving organized labor its first factorywide foothold at a major foreign automaker in the South. We know now that the pro-union side won with nearly three-quarters of the vote in an election that ended on Friday. I think what we saw in Chattanooga is workers voting on the basis of economics rather than party alignment. If that continues to happen elsewhere, the South could some day become as unionized as the rest of the country. It won’t happen quickly, though, because government officials and corporate groups are likely to continue to fight back.

Persons: —, Donald Trump, Republicans — Organizations: United Automobile Workers, Republicans Locations: Chattanooga , Tenn, Tennessee, Chattanooga

☆ Could the Union Victory at VW Set Off a Wave?
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-20 | by ( Noam Scheiber | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

By voting to join the United Automobile Workers, Volkswagen workers in Tennessee have given the union something it has never had: a factory-wide foothold at a major foreign automaker in the South. The result, in an election that ended on Friday, will enable the union to bargain for better wages and benefits. Labor experts said success at VW might position the union to replicate its showing at other auto manufacturers throughout the South, the least unionized region of the country. Some argued that the win could help set off a rise in union membership at other companies that exceeds the uptick of the past few years, when unions won elections at Starbucks and Amazon locations. “It’s a big vote, symbolically and substantively,” said Jake Rosenfeld, a sociologist who studies labor at Washington University in St. Louis.

Persons: ”, Jake Rosenfeld, St . Louis Organizations: United Automobile Workers, Volkswagen, Labor, VW, Starbucks, Washington University Locations: Tennessee, St .

Labor painsAfter a “summer of strikes” last year that stretched from Detroit to Hollywood, unions are on a roll, flexing their growing might. Friday will bring a new test of that power as workers at a Volkswagen factory in Tennessee vote on whether to join the United Automobile Workers. Victory there would mark perhaps the first time a foreign carmaker’s U.S. plant became unionized and form a beachhead for organized labor in the anti-union South. But it could also resonate well beyond the car industry as President Biden cultivates labor in battleground states like Michigan and Pennsylvania. A yes vote would be a big win for the U.A.W.

Persons: ”, Biden, Shawn Fain, they’ve Organizations: Volkswagen, United Automobile Workers, Big, Detroit carmakers, Toyota, Tesla, Automotive News Locations: Detroit, Hollywood, Tennessee, U.S, Michigan, Pennsylvania

☆ VW Workers in Tennessee Vote for Union, a Labor Milestone
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-19 | by ( Neal E. Boudette | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In a landmark victory for organized labor, workers at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee have voted overwhelmingly to join the United Automobile Workers union, becoming the first nonunion auto plant in a Southern state to do so. In a statement late Friday, the company said that the union had won 2,628 votes, with 985 opposed, in a three-day election. to organize the Chattanooga factory over the last 10 years were narrowly defeated. The outcome is a breakthrough for the labor movement in a region where anti-union sentiment has been strong for decades. won record wage gains and improved benefits in negotiations with the Detroit automakers.

Organizations: Volkswagen, United Automobile Workers, Detroit automakers, General Motors, Ford Motor, Chrysler, Jeep Locations: Tennessee, Southern, Chattanooga

☆ VW Workers in Tennessee Start Vote on U.A.W., Testing Union Ambitions
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-17 | by ( Neal E. Boudette | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Last fall the United Automobile Workers union won big pay increases from the Detroit automakers, and the impact rippled quickly through the nonunion auto plants scattered across the South. On production lines in Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky and elsewhere, those pay increases have been referred to as the “U.A.W. bump.”Now 4,300 workers at Volkswagen’s plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., will test whether the union can achieve an even greater bump. On Wednesday, they begin voting on whether to join the U.A.W., and the prospects of a union victory appear high. About 70 percent of the workers pledged to vote yes before the union asked for a vote, according to the U.A.W.

Persons: Tesla, “, ”, Kelcey Smith Organizations: United Automobile Workers, Detroit automakers, Toyota, Honda, Volkswagen, Nissan, Hyundai, VW Locations: United States, Alabama , Tennessee , Kentucky, Chattanooga , Tenn

☆ Mercedes-Benz Workers in Alabama Ask for Unionization Vote
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-05 | by ( Jack Ewing | More About Jack Ewing | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Workers at a Mercedes-Benz factory in Alabama have petitioned federal officials to hold a vote on whether to join the United Automobile Workers, the union said on Friday, a step forward for its drive to organize workers at car factories in the South. is also trying to organize workers at a Volkswagen factory in Tennessee and a Hyundai factory in Alabama, establishing a bigger presence in states that have drawn much of the new investment in automobile manufacturing in recent decades. A vote at the Volkswagen plant is scheduled for April 17 to 19. The drive has taken on added importance as Southern states like South Carolina and Georgia attract billions of dollars in investment in electric vehicle and battery manufacturing. is trying to ensure that jobs created by electric vehicles do not pay less than jobs at traditional auto factories.

Organizations: Benz, United Automobile Workers, Ford Motor, General Motors, Detroit, Volkswagen, Hyundai Locations: Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia

☆ VW Workers Seek Union Vote at Tennessee Plant for Third Time
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-18 | by ( Neal E. Boudette | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Volkswagen employees in Tennessee who are hoping to join the United Automobile Workers asked a federal agency on Monday to hold an election, a key step toward the union’s longtime goal of organizing nonunion factories across the South. With the union’s backing, Volkswagen workers filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board asking for a vote on U.A.W. representation, saying that more than 70 percent of the 4,000 eligible workers at the plant had signed cards supporting the union. “Today, we are one step closer to making a good job at Volkswagen into a great career,” Isaac Meadows, an assembly worker at the plant, said in a statement. If held, an election would be the first test of the U.A.W.’s newfound strength after staging a wave of strikes in the fall against the three Detroit automakers — General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis — and winning record wage increases.

Persons: ” Isaac Meadows, ’, — Organizations: United Automobile Workers, Volkswagen, National Labor Relations Board, “, Detroit, —, Motors, Ford Motor Locations: Tennessee

☆ Big Labor Gamble: Push to Unionize Every U.S. Auto Plant
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-02 | by ( Noam Scheiber | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When Shawn Fain, the United Automobile Workers president, unveiled the deal that ended six weeks of strikes at Ford Motor in the fall, he framed it as part of a longer campaign. “One of our biggest goals coming out of this historic contract victory is to organize like we’ve never organized before,” he said at the time. “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.”Four months later, the first test of that strategy has come into focus, and it features a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn. According to the union, more than half of over 4,000 eligible workers have signed cards indicating support for a union.

Persons: Shawn Fain, ”, Stellantis Organizations: United Automobile Workers, Ford Motor, Workers, Ford, General Motors Locations: Chattanooga , Tenn

☆ For Michigan’s Economy, Electric Vehicles Are Promising and Scary
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-19 | by ( Peter S. Goodman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

That yielded a pay raise of 25 percent over the next four years, easing the pain of reductions that she and other union workers swallowed more than a decade ago. But as Ms. Simmons, 38, contemplates prospects for the American auto industry in the state that invented it, she worries about a new force: the shift toward electric vehicles. The Biden administration has embraced electric vehicles as a means of generating high-paying jobs while cutting emissions. It has dispensed tax credits to encourage consumers to buy electric cars, while limiting the benefits to models that use American-made parts. But autoworkers fixate on the assumption that electric cars — simpler machines than their gas-powered forebears — will require fewer hands to build.

Persons: Tiffanie Simmons, S.U.V.s, Simmons, President Biden, Biden, Mr Organizations: Ford Motor, United Automobile Workers Locations: Detroit

☆ New Hampshire Showed Trump’s Strengths and Weaknesses
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-24 | by ( Matthew Cullen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Donald Trump’s comfortable victory last night in New Hampshire’s Republican presidential primary demonstrated his ironclad control of the party’s right-wing base and set him on what could very well be a short march to his third nomination. Trump is the first non-incumbent Republican candidate to win both Iowa and New Hampshire. But last night’s results also underscored some of Trump’s potential vulnerabilities. Independents, college-educated voters and Republicans who are unwilling to dismiss his legal jeopardy voted in large numbers for his rival, Nikki Haley. In other politics news, the United Automobile Workers union, an influential voice on labor issues, endorsed President Biden.

Persons: Donald Trump’s, Trump, Nikki Haley, Biden Organizations: Republican, Iowa, Republicans, Capitol, Independents, Trump, United Automobile Workers Locations: New, New Hampshire

☆ Biden to Speak at U.A.W. Conference as He Seeks the Group’s Endorsement
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-24 | by ( Katie Rogers | More About Katie Rogers | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Biden will appear with the president of the United Automobile Workers union at a conference in Washington on Wednesday as he tries to secure the group’s influential endorsement. Mr. Biden, who appeared on a picket line with striking union workers in the fall, is expected to provide a keynote speech at the conference, and will “address attendees on the top issues facing working-class Americans,” according to a media advisory for the event. The group’s president, Shawn Fain, has been a vocal critic of former President Donald J. Trump and criticized some Republican policies as divisive and harmful when he spoke at the conference on Monday. “Right now, we have millions of people being told that the biggest threat to their livelihood is migrants coming over the border,” Mr. Fain said. It’s from the billionaires and the politicians getting working people to point the finger at one another.”

Persons: Biden, Mr, Shawn Fain, Donald J, Trump, Fain, ” Organizations: United Automobile Workers, Republican Locations: Washington, United States

☆ U.A.W. Announces Drive to Organize Nonunion Plants
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( Neal E. Boudette | More About Neal E. Boudette | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The United Automobile Workers union announced Wednesday that it was undertaking an ambitious drive to organize plants owned by more than a dozen nonunion automakers, including Tesla and several foreign companies — a goal that has long eluded it. The move comes weeks after the U.A.W. In addition to Tesla, the targets of the drive are two other electric vehicle start-ups, Lucid and Rivian, and 10 foreign-owned automakers: Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Subaru, Volkswagen, Mazda and Volvo. If the U.A.W. secures a foothold among those companies, it could signal a big shift in the American auto industry, where nonunion manufacturers have long had a significant cost advantage over the Detroit automakers.

Persons: Tesla Organizations: United Automobile Workers, General Motors, Ford Motor, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, BMW, Mercedes, Benz, Subaru, Volkswagen, Mazda, Volvo, Detroit

☆ The Pension: That Rare Retirement Benefit Gets a Fresh Look
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-24 | by ( Martha C. White | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In an economy characterized by a volatile stock market and elevated inflation, a sure thing looks better than ever. For some Americans in the labor force right now, that looks like a pension. Striking members of the United Automobile Workers union made waves this year when the union’s leaders demanded the reopening of defined-benefit pension plans for workers hired after late 2007. leadership failed to persuade automakers to reopen the plans, the bold move didn’t go unnoticed by retirement benefit experts. did mention that in their negotiations, because that isn’t really something you would have seen 10 years ago,” said Craig Copeland, director of wealth benefits research at the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a nonprofit organization.

Persons: ”, Craig Copeland Organizations: United Automobile Workers, Research Institute

☆ Ford Resumes Work on E.V. Battery Plant in Michigan, at Reduced Scale
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-21 | by ( J. Edward Moreno | More About J. Edward Moreno | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ford did not specify exactly how much money it would be pulling back from the project, but said it would be roughly equivalent to its reduction in output. Ford said in September that it was suspending construction because of concerns that it would not be able to manufacture products at a competitive price. Rising labor costs were also a factor in Ford’s decision to scale back its plans for the factory, Mr. Reid said. Ford’s contract agreement with the U.A.W., which has been ratified by union members, raises the top wage for production workers by 25 percent. members to be transferred to battery and electric-vehicle plants under construction, like the one in Marshall.

Persons: Ford, Reid Organizations: United Automobile Workers Locations: Marshall

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