Joe Biden [pours] billions of tax payer money into subsidizing EVs, electric vehicles, that, in practice, can only be provided at scale by Chinese components or even just importing Chinese cars; meanwhile, comically strict emissions restrictions are essentially forcing the majors to swap to money-losing EVS that again only China has got the capacity to build at scale. --Peter St. Onge
UAW launches surgical strikes against all 3 big automakers. Demanding wages and benefits totalling $136 per hour.
— Peter St Onge, Ph.D. (@profstonge) September 19, 2023
Strikes are soaring across America, already hitting 4.1 million lost days — the highest in a quarter century.
Between the worst inflation in 50 years and "Green"… pic.twitter.com/VkmC151sej
The 430,000-member United Auto Workers Union launched unprecedented surgical strikes against all three major automakers GM, Ford, and Chrysler. In a first volley, 13,000 strikers walked off the job and blocked deliveries, idling lines on models including the popular Ford Bronco. The strike is intended to put maximum pressure to force wage demands and benefits on Wall Street Journal estimates at $136 per hour. For perspective at a 2,000-hour work year, that works out to $272,000 per year to assemble cars. The Big Three had actually offered a 20% raise with the cost of living in pension boosts, but the union saw an opportunity so it went for the throat. In theory, of course, that $136 will be paid by American car buyers because costs get passed on, but in reality, it will probably drive a lot of those princely jobs offshore instead where workers don't make $136 an hour; or, of course, it could drive the company's out of business or into the arms of foreign buyers leaving cars to the Chinese. For the UAW, the background here is that after years of workers falling behind inflation in this Bidenomics miracle, workers are angry, and monopolistic unions, like the UAW, see their chance. In the case of auto workers, they got an extra kick by Joe Biden pouring billions of taxpayer money into subsidizing EVs, electric vehicles, that, in practice, can only be provided at scale by Chinese components or even just importing Chinese cars; meanwhile, comically strict emissions restrictions are essentially forcing the majors to swap to money-losing EVS that again only China has got the capacity to build at scale. The UAW rightly feels sold down the river by Biden on behalf of his Greens, or as Senator Josh Hawley put it, "Auto Workers deserve to have their jobs protected from Joe Biden's stupid climate mandates that are destroying the US Auto industry and making China rich."
So what's next?
The UAW strike could end fast, if the big three cave, or it could drag on for months. But we can expect a lot more of this and what the media is already calling "a summer of strikes." Last month saw 4.1 million lost days to strikes. That is the worst in a quarter century and rising fast. And keep in mind, there's still another 14 million union workers to go, not even including government unions which number another 7 million and growing like a cancer. All of these renegotiations will fuel inflation that is already rising again before the UAW snags its $136 an hour. As that inflation keeps grinding, we could even see a return to the nationwide strikes of the 1970s when entire swaths of American industry were driven offshore or out of business hollowing out entire cities and spawning the famous Rust Belt that 50 years later is only getting worse. And here it comes again . . . .
