"The union doesn’t want the transition to electric vehicles to be a “race to the bottom”".
"The current strike by the United Auto Workers against the Detroit carmakers is, in part, about the transition to electric vehicles. A key union demand—in addition to a 40 percent wage increase, endorsed last week by President Biden when he joined a UAW picket line—is job security for union members as the auto industry reshapes itself. The union wants both a guaranteed right to strike when internal-combustion plants close and compensation for displaced workers in the event of such a shutdown.
In a white paper on EVs, the UAW worries about the job loss inherent in shifting from making complex engines and transmissions to “mechanically simpler lithium-ion batteries and electric motors.” And, it added, “EV batteries are mostly made by suppliers in other countries, with China in the lead.”
General Motors president Mark Reuss told the Detroit Free Press that the union’s demands are “untenable” and fail to recognize the large expense of the EV transition. “If we don’t continue to invest, we will lose ground—quickly,” he said. “Our competitors across the country and around the world, most of whom are nonunion, will waste no time seizing the opportunity we would be handing them.”"
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