The EV revolution is on hold as the ‘Big Three’ autoworkers go on strike. [The Verge: The autoworker contract ev-ford gm-stellantis]

Brandon Szcesniak, a union member at Ford’s Wayne plant, said that people are angry. It is similar to a revolving door. it’s not a career anymore, it’s a job. They want us to buy Fords, but how can we buy a Ford on this pay?”

Tesla operates its Fremont, California, factory with nonunion labor, as the UAW has struggled to find a toehold at the plant. The National Labor Relations Board alleged that the company had barred workers from discussing pay and working conditions. There have been many complaints against the company over the years.

“Lets be clear: this is a potential nightmare situation for GM and Ford as both 313 stalwarts are in the early stages of a massive EV transformation path for the next decade that will define future success,” said Dan Ives of Wedbush. He said the winner was… Musk and Tesla with champagne now on ice.”

Source: The EV revolution is on hold as the ‘Big Three’ autoworkers go on strike

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“This is more of a symbolic strike than an actual damaging one,” Sam Fiorani, a production forecaster at AutoForecast Solutions, told Reuters. But not everyone was in agreement.

The strike targets all the American manufacturers at once, which is unprecedented in the history of the US auto industry. Auto building depends on long-term contracts, and in a prolonged strike suppliers would only be able to lean on whatever business they already have with foreign automakers or nonunionized manufacturers, including Toyota, Honda, and Tesla.

The UAW notes that all three automakers have posted record profits in the last six months of the year and workers want their fair share.

It was a historic moment — never before had workers at all three companies gone on strike at the same time — that came as the automakers were in the midst of making a huge high-stakes switch to EVs.

Those plans are now on hold, as Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis workers take to the streets to demand a share of the profits generated by combustion trucks and SUVs as well as stronger job security and better retirement plans.

The UAW’s plans were unchanged for a targeted walk out. Workers at three plants — GM’s Wentzville, Missouri, assembly, Stellantis’ Toledo, Ohio, assembly complex, and Ford’s Wayne, Michigan, assembly plant — were the first to go on strike. UAW president Shawn Fain said the union would hold off on a more costly national walkout for now, but it’s still on the table if contract negotiations don’t progress.

Ford said it got a counterproposal from the union hours before the current contract expired but said there was “little movement” from the UAW’s previous proposal.

The current labor costs of Ford are already much higher than those of foreign-owned corporations in the United States, such as Toyota, and they would more than double if the proposal is implemented.

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The two sides are far apart on some key issues, according to Mary Barra. “We still have a ways to go with the offer they put on the table last night,” Barra said on CBS This Morning on Friday.

The Big Three spend about $65 an hour on total labor costs, including benefits, while nonunion rivals only spend around $55 a hour, according to analysts.

“The big issue for GM and Ford as well as investors is around if anywhere near a ~40% wage increase gets approved/agreed this will be a major headwind on the cost front and ultimately in some way be passed down to the consumer and thru EV prices,” he wrote in a research note. The cost of an EV vehicle out of Detroit is a major advantage going after mass adoption with any $3k, 5k, $7k added to the slew of vehicles come out would results in demandchurn in our opinion.

If a strike lasts for a long time, it can force the Big Three automakers to agree to major increases in labor costs, which could then be passed along to the consumer.

“There’s never a good time for a strike, but suppliers have been through proverbial hell over the last three and a half years,” says Mike Wall, an automotive analyst with the research firm S&P Global Mobility. There were many positives, but there were also a few negatives, such as the war in Ukranian and a shortage of microchips, which made it difficult for vehicles to function.

If the UAW and automakers fail to reach an agreement, a domino effect will start inside the auto supply chain over the coming weeks and months. Detroit’s giants will tell their large suppliers to stop sending new parts, while these companies will in turn tell their own suppliers to stop sending components. If the suppliers tell the company not to send them anymore supplies, they might not have the cash to hold themselves over, according to a professor at the University of Michigan.

In addition to making everyone an epidemiologist, the Covid-19 pandemic schooled the public on the world-spanning network of manufacturers, assemblers, and shippers behind just about every consumer good that arrives on your doorstep. Or driveway. Car prices soared as automakers struggled with a supply chain jammed up by worker shortages, chip shortages, and shipping delays.