Friends, the weekend is lastly right here. It’s September 1, 2023, and that is The Morning Shift — your day by day roundup of the highest automotive headlines from world wide, multi functional handy place. Here are all of the essential tales it’s essential to know immediately.
1st Gear: United Auto Workers File Unfair Labor Practice Charges Against GM And Stellantis
Union negotiations are robust. I get it. But the UAW’s ongoing contract negotiations with Detroit’s Big Three appear to be harder than most, as the employees ask for the identical pay will increase their bosses have seen lately. Now, the union is claiming that GM and Stellantis aren’t even bothering to discount — they usually’re claiming it in court docket. From Automotive News:
Separately, [UAW President Shawn] Fain mentioned the UAW has filed unfair labor practices expenses in opposition to General Motors and Stellantis, a tactic that hardly ever has been used throughout bargaining with the Detroit 3.Fain mentioned the UAW had submitted complaints to the National Labor Relations Board saying the 2 automakers haven’t adequately responded to the union’s contract calls for. The UAW’s contracts with the Detroit 3 expire Sept. 14.“GM and Stellantis’s willful refusal to bargain in good faith is not only insulting and counterproductive, it’s also illegal,” Fain mentioned.The complaints, that are equivalent and supply little element, allege that “during the past six months, the employer has violated the [Labor Relations] Act by refusing to bargain in good faith over mandatory subjects of bargaining including but not limited to wages and benefits.”
The eagle-eyed amongst you’ll discover that Ford didn’t get a ULP cost. That’s as a result of the Blue Oval apparently is bargaining actively with the UAW — simply not providing a lot. Still from Automotive News:
Ford’s proposed wage enhance is under what the UAW is asking for, Fain mentioned. Ford has supplied to scale back the size of time it takes a brand new rent to obtain prime wages from eight years to 6, whereas the UAW needs to eradicate the grow-in interval totally.
Additionally, Fain mentioned Ford needs limitless use of momentary employees, has refused to reinstitute cost-of-living wage changes, won’t enhance retiree pay and won’t conform to the UAW’s demand for a program that that might give employees their regular pay throughout a layoff.
He mentioned Ford needs to vary the present profit-sharing system, which pays employees $1 for each $1 million in pretax North America earnings.
Under Ford’s proposed system, Fain mentioned, employees would have earned 21 % lower than they did previously two years.
Don’t anticipate these negotiations to finish any time quickly. With the WGA, SAG-AFTRA, Starbucks, Teamsters, and extra making up Hot Labor Summer, it’s not inconceivable that the UAW may head to the picket traces for an equally sizzling labor fall.
2nd Gear: The U.S. Government Is Pouring $12 Billion Into EV Manufacturing
Turns out, retooling all of your factories from constructing ICE autos to constructing EVs is pricey. Constructing totally new services to construct batteries prices much more. There’s an issue right here — automakers don’t like spending cash, and can keep away from it with all their may, but when somebody doesn’t shell out for the EV transition then we’re all going to die. Thankfully, another person is stepping in to shoulder the prices: You. From the Wall Street Journal:
The Energy Department mentioned it’s planning to supply as much as $12 billion in funding for automakers to retrofit present manufacturing services within the U.S. for the manufacturing of electrical and hybrid autos.
Most of the funding, some $10 billion, might be allotted from an advanced-vehicle manufacturing program overseen by the division’s Loan Programs Office, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm mentioned. The different $2 billion will come from funds allotted by final yr’s Inflation Reduction Act.
The funds will assist present jobs in longstanding automaking communities because the auto trade transitions to electrical autos, Granholm mentioned. The Energy Department mentioned it could favor tasks which can be more likely to retain collective bargaining agreements and have excessive wages.
The division additionally plans to make $3.5 billion out there for home battery manufacturing. Companies and the U.S. authorities have been shelling out billions of {dollars} to determine a North American provide chain for rechargeable battery supplies because it races to meet up with China, which dominates the battery provide chain.
Thanks, reader! All these automakers determined that the destiny of the world appears unhealthy on their stability sheets, so we’re glad you stepped in together with your tax {dollars} to repair every little thing as an alternative. Phew.
third Gear: Hyundai And LG Are Putting An Extra $2 Billion Into Georgia Battery Plant
Of course, the key automakers aren’t spending nothing on the EV transition. Plenty of them are spending a minimum of just a few of their very own {dollars} on modernizing their manufacturing services to higher deal with the twenty first century. Take Hyundai, which — in partnership with LG — is reinvesting in U.S.-based battery manufacturing. From the Detroit News:
Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution mentioned Thursday they’ll spend a further $2 billion and rent an additional 400 employees to make batteries on the automaker’s sprawling U.S. electrical car plant that’s below development in Georgia.
The announcement by the South Korea-based firms — one a serious automaker, the opposite a number one producer of lithium-ion batteries used to energy electrical autos — expands on a partnership they launched three months in the past to supply batteries on the similar website west of Savannah, the place Hyundai plans to begin EV manufacturing in 2025.
The information Thursday brings the businesses’ whole funding within the Georgia plant to greater than $7.5 billion and the positioning’s total deliberate workforce to eight,500.
Hyundai hasn’t mentioned what the extra funding will go in the direction of — larger output from the manufacturing facility, quicker scaling, or simply actually good decorations within the breakroom when it’s somebody’s birthday on workers. Probably not the final one, however I’m not ruling it out totally.
4th Gear: Korean Automaker Sales Keep Climbing
Hyundai is making ready itself for the long run, however the firm — alongside its siblings, Kia and Genesis — is already doing effectively. The three Korean automakers all noticed gross sales rise within the U.S. for the month of August, although not all boats had been lifted equally. From Automotive News:
U.S. light-vehicle gross sales rose once more in August at Hyundai and Kia, helped by the very best trade stock ranges in two years and growing incentives that helped offset larger rates of interest for shoppers.
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Hyundai Motor America mentioned U.S. gross sales throughout the month improved 1.1 % to 65,046 autos whereas Kia America reported a achieve of 9.2 % to 72,147 autos.
Hyundai’s luxurious model Genesis mentioned gross sales throughout August surged 27 % to six,453 autos.
The Hyundai Kona subcompact crossover led the best way with a 71 % achieve to five,777 deliveries. Santa Fe and Tucson each recorded double-digit hikes. Among decliners, the Elantra fell 21 % and the Palisade slipped 26 %.
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Kia’s outcomes had been paced by surging gross sales of the Niro compact crossover with 3,896 deliveries and the Carnival minivan with 5,428. Kia Soul gross sales slipped 23 % to 4,911 items.
Poor, poor Kia Soul. Have we, as a nation, misplaced our love for bizarre little boxy crossovers? Or are we merely mourning the lack of these hamsters from the early advert campaigns?
Reverse: And Then We Left It There, Undisturbed, And No One Ever Got Crunched Into A Paste In A Submarine About It
On The Radio: Speedy Ortiz – ‘Ghostwriter’
It’s the primary of the month! Did you say your rabbits this morning? If not, Speedy Ortiz has you lined — their newest album, Rabbit Rabbit, dropped immediately. They’ve been killing it for a full decade now, and it doesn’t sound like they’ll be slowing down any time quickly.
Source: jalopnik.com