Written by Ma Xiaolei
Editor / Zhang Nan
Design / Ju Jia
来源 / 彭博社，作者：Josh Eidelson，Gabrielle Coppola
On the afternoon of January 24, Shawn Fain, president of the United Automobile Union (UAW), invited Biden to the UAW's annual convention and announced that the union supports Biden's re-election bid. Assessing in detail the words and actions of the two candidates over more than a decade, he said: "Trump is a cancer. This (election for Biden) is our best chance to take back power for the working class. Finn greeted Biden with a hug, who put on the UAW hat and praised Finn as a man of backbone, "as hard as steel." ”
UAW this vote is important. In 2016, Detroit's "Rust Belt" was a key vote base for Trump's victory, and in 2020, the region's defection made Biden a success.
In the summer of 2023, Biden invited UAW union president Sean Fein into the Oval Office of the White House for a solemn conversation. At the time, Fein was busy with a strike against the Big Three Detroit, and he signaled that the union needed more help from the White House. The implication is that in a possible re-election between Biden and Trump, Biden will need to do more if he wants to gain UAW support.
In a May 2023 letter, Fein said: "The federal government will pour billions into the electric vehicle transition without making any promises to our workers. ”
According to people familiar with the meeting, Mr. Finn had a showdown with Mr. Biden, enumerating what Mr. Biden should do to help auto workers. This also surprised Biden, who has always called himself the "most pro-union president".
Finn's people
Pictured: Meeting with strikers at a Ford plant in Wayne, Michigan, in September 2023.
That's Finn. Since taking office in March 2023, he has been subverting the "traditions" of the union.
While his predecessors would symbolically shake hands with the CEO when they began negotiations with car companies, Mr. Fein walked past the industry elite and threw the contract proposal of his old employer, Chrysler, into the trash in a T-shirt that read "Kill the Rich."
Finn's grandparents and maternal grandparents both worked in the automotive industry. Three of them went to General Motors, and one went to Chrysler in 1937.
In 1994, Fein moved to the Chrysler Indiana plant and worked until 2012, when he joined the UAW. By then, he said, the union's influence and ability had fallen to a low point.
Membership in the UAW peaked at about 1.5 million in the 1970s, but over the next 40 years, membership in the UAW fell by more than two-thirds as automotive work moved abroad and to new factories in the United States, and the unions failed to organize it.
In 2007, after Chrysler was acquired by private equity, UAW agreed to make concessions, including a reduction in the pay scale for subsequent employees. Fein, who was then a local UAW commissioner, wrote a letter telling union leadership that if they agreed to the agreement, "you might as well shoot yourself in the head with a gun." He said union executives often accused him of not treating the company as his home.
Figure: Percentage of U.S. workers who are unionized. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
In 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice announced an investigation into corruption in the UAW and bribery of FCA executives. The investigation led to the conviction of 15 union and company officials, including two former UAW presidents, and a settlement was reached in 2020, culminating in the first time in early 2023, the UAW was directly elected by all members for the first time.
Fein said he prayed for a long time before deciding to run for president because he expected to lose his job at the UAW if he lost. In a halftime debate with then-UAW president Ray Curry, Fein declared himself "very angry" about the union's recent record, which he blamed on leaders who "see the business as our partner rather than our enemy."
In the end, Fein won the runoff by about 500 votes, but he soon began to act like a man with a sense of mission. He dared to let some old-timers step aside and let some outsiders take important positions. Together, they began to prepare for battle. "Are you ready?" Fein asked at a rally in August 2023.
In a series of interviews with Finn in and around Detroit and Washington between August 2023 and January 2024, Bloomberg Businessweek said he refused to compromise along familiar lines, with lower pay, fewer benefits and lower job security.
This is a correction that has been long overdue for decades by the top echelons of the auto industry, the White House, and the UAW. In a summer 2023 interview at Solidarity House, the UAW's headquarters on the banks of the Detroit River, he said, "We have a terrible history in this union of setting expectations very low and reconciliation very low. Those days are over. ”
Biden's compromise
Finn always had a way of getting his opponent to back down. Of the dozens of members interviewed by Bloomberg Businessweek, most agreed that he had earned enough credibility to make a difference.
In August 2023, a month after Fein's Oval Office talk, the U.S. Department of Energy announced an additional $12 billion in grants and loans to transform auto factories into factories that produce hybrids and electric vehicles, and said it would prioritize unionized factories and high-paying jobs. A month later, Biden became the first incumbent president to join the strike.
By November 2023, the UAW had finally reached an agreement with the Detroit Big Three, far beyond most observers' imagination. CNBC host Jim Cramer told viewers after the agreement was announced, "UAW has been underrated throughout. It's a tough battle. ”
Before the ink was dry on the new contract, Finn announced an even bolder move. The UAW has 380,000 active members, and Fein is trying to add another 150,000 members by getting the U.S. factories of 13 other companies, including BMW, Nissan, Subaru, Tesla and Volkswagen, to join the union.
Skeptics believe that Fein is just imaginary. A wage increase for workers will make it harder for American companies to compete in the electric car market, and Americans simply don't want such cars.
Electric vehicles accounted for about 8% of U.S. car sales in 2023, according to research firm Cox Automotive, and U.S. automakers have spent much of 2023 slashing EVs, cutting profit expectations and delaying production of new models.
Mr. Trump likened electric vehicles to "3600" in his campaign campaign for votes in the Rust Belt, and many workers believed him that "a better way to protect your work is to continue to bet on gasoline vehicles." In December 2023, Stellantis warned that the company could lay off about 3,600 jobs due to an effort to sell enough hybrid vehicles to meet California's emissions regulations.
On January 16, 2024, Stellantis has appointed Carlos Zarlenga as Chief Operating Officer of North America, succeeding Mark Stewart, effective February 1. "The proudest days of my life were the birth of my child, the marriage of my wife, the joining of the Marine Corps, and the day Mark Stewart got out," Fein said. ”
As president, Biden tried to do things differently. He signed hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks, endowments, and loan regulations for green energy projects, and put in place safeguards to ensure that the resulting jobs aren't too bad.
In addition to the incentives from the Department of Energy's August 2023 grant, the Department of Energy also said that the agreement with the union could improve the project's chances of receiving government funding.
When the Ohio Ultium plant applied for a loan in 2022, Jennifer Granholm called Mary Barra twice to confirm that employees there would have a fair chance to organize, according to the Biden administration. The unions won, and the factories were given loans.
Trump's advantage
The Republicans, represented by Trump, are selling anxiety about the green energy transition and turning that anxiety into their own campaign advantage.
The day after Biden joined the strike, Mr. Trump gave a speech at a non-unionized auto parts factory dozens of miles away, telling hundreds of people in the audience that the transition to electric vehicles would mean the end of unions.
Stellantis employee Doug King wore a UAW T-shirt to the rally. "I only feel safe when Trump is in office," he said. He believes Trump will work harder than Biden to protect jobs in the U.S. auto industry. ”
He may be right.
Fein also acknowledges that Trump's argument is compelling. "This EV transition that our workers are experiencing right now is not a good thing. ”
In recent years, both the Big Three Detroit and the U.S. Auto Union (UAW) have said that electric vehicles may require far fewer man-hours than gasoline-powered vehicles because they involve fewer parts and are simpler to operate.
In 2022, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University used proprietary data from automotive suppliers and major manufacturers to conclude that it would take hundreds of steps to build an electric vehicle, at least in the short to medium term, and that more jobs could need to be created for each vehicle. Some of these are familiar jobs (forklift drivers), others involve bringing into the company work that is currently done by external component manufacturers (such as manufacturing motors and battery packs), and still others involve taking care of the machines that make battery cells.
The Biden team is pinning its hopes on this latest model. What all this means for U.S. auto workers will depend on how much of that work ends up being automated or outsourced, how much say employees have in the quality of their new jobs, and whether they can be trained accordingly.
Security issues
Being green doesn't mean being safe at work. In October 2023, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a notice saying that General Motors' Ohio electric vehicle battery plant had 17 serious safety violations.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors found that Ultium CELLS, a joint venture between GM and South Korean company LG Energy Solution, did not provide respiratory protection, failed to prevent workers from being exposed to hazardous chemicals, and did not install the necessary protective devices on the machines.
According to the agency's report, in April 2023, workers were not provided with emergency showers or proper eyewash stations when they were exposed to corrosive chemicals. In May of the same year, when hazardous substances were released from the workplace, the company did not take emergency measures. "In September, an employee was threatened with punishment for reporting injuries that the employee did not report an accident in the workplace for fear of retaliation. OSHA inspectors said.
In 2022, Ethan Surgenavic landed a job as an HVAC technician at the Ultium plant. One day, when he arrived at work, he found that the work area was full of smoke from a fire, but no one from the management mentioned it. ”
Ultium workers, who voted to unionize in 2022, say they have benefited greatly from collective bargaining and joining UAW's new master contract with GM. In addition to significant wage increases, the factory now has union-elected safety representatives. An Ultium spokesperson said the company is working closely with the UAW to address safety concerns and looks forward to working with OSHA to address its concerns.
Pictured: Bloomberg Businessweek feature on January 29, 2024.
Fein said the plant shows the importance of combining better working conditions with electric vehicle production. "At McDonald's, they all pay $15 an hour to make hamburgers and fries, and who wants to work in a battery factory and be exposed to chemicals that make them vomit and coma," he said. ”
Tricky Tesla
Pictured: UAW badge on Finn pullover.
In the wake of the Detroit strike, Finn once again defied union tradition by attacking the industry as a whole, rather than targeting individual businesses.
The union's new website allows workers at any of the 13 companies' non-union factories to sign online. Once the organizers have 30 percent support in a particular workplace, the union committee workers there publicly declare their identity. If the support reaches 50 percent, they will hold a large rally with Fein speaking. When support reaches 70 percent, companies try to get government-organized elections if they don't want to recognize unions.
Judging by the actions of these companies, Finn's move has worked well. Within weeks of the Detroit agreement, Honda, Nissan, and Toyota each announced pay increases for nonunion employees. Tesla did the same in January, calling it a "market correction." "In December at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee and in January at a Mercedes-Benz plant in Alabama, a salary increase of 30 percent was achieved," UAW said. ”
Of course, Finn also took a big risk.
Large corporations often have an advantage in union elections because federal law allows them to hold mandatory anti-union meetings and impose minimal penalties for unlawful retaliation against union organizers. UAW has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) alleging such retaliation by Honda in Indiana, Rivian in Illinois, and Hyundai in Alabama. This is being investigated by the NLRB.
Tesla is a tempting and tricky target. It is the most valuable car manufacturer in the world and is synonymous with electric vehicles.
In the UAW's last-ditch effort against Tesla's California factory, the NLRB ruled that the company had repeatedly violated federal law, including firing an activist named Richard Ortiz and threatening employees with Musk's X account.
Some workers believe that Musk would rather close the factory in Fremont, California, than recognize unions there. In the first few rounds of engagement in 2017, when the organization of the UAW was announced, the company posted anti-union messages above toilet urinals.
Musk also played up the UAW's corruption scandal, noting that the last time the union represented employees at the Fremont plant, the plant was eventually shut down.
Mr. Fein said it was not surprising that the UAW had not been able to make progress at Tesla before, when the union itself was plagued with scandals and the company had packaged itself too well. Now we can beat anyone, he said.
Tesla's Fremont factory will be the target of close scrutiny. African-American workers there won millions of dollars in compensation after alleging racial harassment and discrimination. There were also safety issues at the plant, and in April 2023, an employee was "nailed" inside a Model Y for failing to cut off power to the conveyor belt, resulting in six broken ribs and hospitalization.
Fein did not want to meet Musk in person. While his two predecessors had met with the CEO, Fein said there was no point in chatting, "When Tesla forms a union and when it comes time to negotiate a contract, maybe we'll meet at the negotiating table." ”