The introduction of electric vehicles can’t be allowed to bring with it worse working conditions, says UAW President Rory Gamble.
Speaking to Reuters, the union leader said that the United Auto Workers has brought forward concerns it has about joint ventures set up for the purposes of building batteries to Ford and GM. The plants, which will be crucial in the development of electric vehicles, have been set up with partners like LG Chem and thus are not yet union-represented.
“We’ve got to make sure that work stays at a livable wage and those workers can organize,” Gamble stated. “We’re having some discussions developing with General Motors.”
GM, meanwhile, has said that the workers at these locations work for the joint venture, Ultium Cells LLC, and therefore will decide for themselves whether or not the facility should be represented by a union.
Read Also: 12 U.S. Governors Urge President Biden To Phase Out ICE-Powered Vehicles By 2035
That’s cause for concern, according to Gamble: “We don’t need another service sector in this country. That’s what I am fearful of. If these jobs are low wage minimal benefit jobs it’s not going to benefit the economy.”
Indeed, although EVs are growing in popularity, their biggest American manufacturer, Tesla, has fought, illegally in some cases, to keep unions out of its factories. There’s reason to fear, then, that the Silicon Valley mentality of many electric vehicle concerns will help Detroit’s big three to keep unionization out of their battery plants.
With the workers’ union status up in the air and the future of the industry changing, it’s no surprise that Gamble is wary of hard deadlines for EV adoption such as those put forward by California.
“We don’t like these hard deadlines you’re hearing. We don’t think a lot of them are fully achievable,” he said. “We should not put all our eggs in one basket.”
