Multibillion-dollar EV battery plants — and their thousands of expected workers — are crucial to the automotive industry's future and uniquely positioned to have wide-ranging implications for the UAW, automakers and President Joe Biden's push toward domestic manufacturing. But UAW leadership has made it a priority to ensure a "just transition" to EVs for auto workers, including the battery plants. Michael Wayland / CNBCEither side could use the battery plants as indirect leverage in the negotiations, according to current and past negotiators from both sides of the table. At GM's Ultium battery plant in Ohio, workers make between $16 and $22 an hour with full benefits, incentives and tuition assistance. Setting a standardThe UAW last week released a white paper detailing some reported safety issues and concerns at the Ultium plant.

---

Persons: Motors, Steve Fecht, Joe Biden's, they're, Shawn Fain, Jerome Buckley, Michael Wayland, Mary Barra, Nic Antaya, Fain, Biden, Joe Biden, Kinethia Black, Bolt Organizations: Tech Center, General Motors DETROIT, United Auto Workers, UAW, General Motors, Ford Motor, CNBC, EV, GM, Detroit, General Motors Factory, Getty, Ford, General Motors Orion Assembly, Chevrolet Locations: Warren , Michigan, Detroit, Ohio, Detroit , Michigan, Michigan, Orion Township , Michigan