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Posted on 09/04/2024 10:07:33 AM PDT by ChicagoConservative27
Workers at a Tennessee battery plant have voted to join the United Auto Workers (UAW) — marking a significant victory in the union’s ongoing campaign to organize both the Southeast and the electric vehicle (EV) industry.
“Southern workers are ready to stand up and win our fair share by winning our unions. And when we have a free and fair choice, we will win every time,” Trudy Lindahl, a worker at the Ultium plant in Spring Hill, Tenn., said in a statement.
General Motors (GM), the Detroit-based automaker that runs the plant as a cooperative venture with South Korea-based LG Energy Solution, voluntarily recognized the union, which is the second at an Ultium facility.
The Spring Hill plant is the second in the country made to turn out the Ultium “skateboard,” a combined, modular battery-and-drivetrain system that allows GM to mass produce trucks and SUVs — forming the base platform of vehicles from the GMC electric Hummer and Cadillac Lyriq, as well as joint projects with Honda like the new electric Acura.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Great, so now EV’s are going to be slow, late, lazy, AND a fire hazard...
If only they could mandate EV’s now instead of waiting...
“… General Motors (GM), the Detroit-based auto maker….voluntarily recognized the union…”
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Voluntarily? Good old government motors doing same ol’, same ol’.
hourly wages aside...
What are the costs of making a battery in the US vs India or Mexico?
3x? 10x? Environmental regularions by themselves are likely to be onerous and extremely expensive in the US.
I see this plant being a thing for a long as the switch over to EVs is happening to assure US people and UAW that there will be a US car manufacturing footprint at all. And once that happens all of this goes away.
Unions are almost inherent in large industrial facilities.
These facilities need to be financed primarily by debt such as bonds and bank loans.
In the 1930s, FDR’s ‘Brain Trust’ pushed the idea of unions instead of the old Socialist idea of government buying and owning companies. Unions allowed politicians to enrich many workers at the expense of then relatively few shareholders.
The management of GM knows the rules are stacked against them.
GM managers will play the game by ‘rat rules for as long as there is enough money in the bank to pay their salaries.
As long as UAW leaders can live in mansions in the same neighborhoods as Big Three executives, the UAW leaders will happily live with US job losses.
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It’s a battery.. Not an engine. It’s unlikely a car customer is going to care where/ who made the battery.
I would expect that once the major brands are making EVs in good qtys, it will be very quick that one battery proves to be superior (price, performance, longevity, safety). And then ALL of the Mfrs will adopt it.
A defacto universal battery standard, will likely bring down costs and allow for cheaper swap outs as well.
“A defacto universal battery standard, will likely bring down costs and allow for cheaper swap outs as well.”
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Yes, it’s well known that de facto monopolies (patents, trade secrets, etc) bring down costs.
“Yes, it’s well known that de facto monopolies (patents, trade secrets, etc) bring down costs.”
Yes.. Because we ALL know.. You can only buy AAs from Energizer and 9Vs from Duracell. I wish Everready was still around.. I miss those C amd D cells..
And that is why Monopolies suck..
Didn’t these folks read the news.They are just in time to unionize just before losing their jobs in the failing EV industry. This will accelerate their job loss
UAW members building lithium batteries? run for cover, they hot nig explosions coming soon...
Spring Hill was where Saturn manufactured cars until the union came in a destroyed the company.
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