Sign In or Create an Account.

By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy

Sparks

The UAW Strike Is Probably Over

The union now has a deal with all of the “Big Three” automakers.

UAW president Shawn Fain.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

The largest, longest strike among American autoworkers in decades is probably over. On Monday, the United Auto Workers reached a tentative agreement with General Motors, according to multiple outlets, meaning that the union now has a deal with all of the “Big Three” American automakers.

While the terms of the GM deal haven’t been released, they will likely resemble those in the UAW’s tentative contracts with Ford and Stellantis, which owns Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram. Those two deals saw many union members get a 25% pay bump, and they eliminated a two-tier wage system at some factories that was put in place after the Great Recession.

The deals also seem to address some — but not all — of workers’ concerns about the EV transition. The Ford deal will let UAW members ask to be transferred to its new electric-vehicle and battery factories in Stanton, Tennessee, and Marshall, Michigan, according to Bloomberg. It will also let workers at that Tennessee plant — an EV-producing “mega-campus” that will be the company’s largest facility ever — join the UAW contract via a “card check,” a type of union election that requires only that a majority of eligible workers sign union-membership cards. Union organizers generally prefer “card check” elections, which are considered simpler and easier to win, to standard union elections administered by the National Labor Relations Board.

The UAW strike began 45 days ago. It is the longest autoworker strike in a quarter century, and the first time in decades that the union struck at all three American companies simultaneously.

The strike won’t officially end until a majority of UAW members at each company ratify their new contract. But the union has already asked workers at Ford and Stellantis to return to work, and production at some factories could resume this week.

Yellow

You’re out of free articles.

Subscribe today to experience Heatmap’s expert analysis 
of climate change, clean energy, and sustainability.
To continue reading
Create a free account or sign in to unlock more free articles.
or
Please enter an email address
By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy
Sparks

Trump’s EPA Pick Hates Congestion Pricing and Loves Shellfish

Meet New York’s Lee Zeldin.

Lee Zeldin.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

When then-President-Elect Donald Trump nominated then-Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency in 2016, everyone right, left, and center knew exactly what that meant: The top law enforcement officer from one of the nation’s most conservative states and largest oil and gas producers would take aim at environmental rules implemented by the previous administration — rules he had often sued to overturn — and pave the way to increased fossil fuel production.

Trump’s pick this time around, former Long Island Congressman and New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin, is more distinguished by his personal closeness to and support for the President-Reelect than he is by anything to do with the environment.

Keep reading...Show less
Sparks

The Pro-IRA House Republicans Who Lost Their Jobs

Let’s do some congressional math.

The Capitol.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Since August, climate policy optimists have pointed to a letter sent by 18 Republican members of the House of Representatives to Speaker Mike Johnson imploring him to preserve the energy tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act.

As of January, however, some of them will no longer be Johnson’s problem.

Keep reading...Show less
Green
Sparks

Climate Policy Is Now in Local Hands. Will That Be Enough?

Voters don’t hate clean energy, but they also don’t want to work for it.

Voters.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

The re-election of Donald Trump all but assures that the next four years of climate policy will have to unfold at the local level. With a climate change denier who previously wreaked havoc on longstanding environmental regulations, opened wildlife refuges to drilling, and put the U.S. at odds with its international partners now set to return to the White House in January, the country will almost certainly fall far short of its 2030 emission reduction targets. But state and local policies can still achieve meaningful progress on their own: On Wednesday morning, green organizers like Climate Cabinet were already stressing that “it will now be up to state leaders to hold the line against Trump and to ensure continued progress toward clean energy.”

Will Americans defend and advance that progress, though? The results of several climate-related ballot measures that were put to vote Tuesday night are giving mixed signals.

Keep reading...Show less
Green