Time is running out to avert an autoworker strike that could send a cascade of economic and political consequences from Michigan dinner tables all the way to the White House. Members of the nearly 150,000-person United Auto Workers could strike as soon as midnight if they do not reach a deal with Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. That could shutter some of Michigan's biggest factories for weeks, threatening a regional recession that could spill over into neighboring states. A work stoppage could undermine automakers efforts’ to ramp up electric vehicle production at a critical time for curbing planet-warming pollution from gasoline-powered cars — and, as David Ferris writes this morning, could even cause long-term damage to the big three’s efforts to increase their share of the growing EV market. It also threatens political harm to President Joe Biden and other Democrats in the key battleground state, writes Scott Waldman. A strike is “very likely,” Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) said this afternoon. Driving the collision
Biden, who calls himself the “most pro-union president in American history,” has sought to make his support of U.S. workers a centerpiece of his climate agenda. But the UAW has expressed frustration that Biden’s policies are subsidizing the creation of factories for electric car parts in nonunion states. In addition, much of the electric vehicle workforce gets lower wages than the workers who make internal-combustion engines. A prolonged strike could cost workers and auto companies billions. A 2019 strike against GM, which involved about 50,000 workers and lasted six weeks, tipped the state into a three-month recession. The climate repercussions of the labor dispute present a “mortal threat” to Biden’s efforts to lower greenhouse gases, a senior labor official not involved in the talks told Scott. If the companies fail to increase wages for the newly created electric vehicle industry jobs, it will demonstrate to the world that climate policy does not provide middle-class employment, the labor official argued.
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