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SPOTLIGHT ON SHAWN FAIN: As the United Auto Workers union barrels toward a strike with the Big Three Detroit automakers in the final hours before their contract expires — threatening a historic work stoppage that could cause the economy billions — the spotlight is falling on the man who is tasked with leading UAW employees into battle.
That would be one Shawn Fain, a 54-year-old former electrician from Indiana who hails from generations of UAW employees— including a grandfather who started at Chrysler in 1937, the first year that its workers were eligible to join.
His narrow election victory in March caught many by surprise, as has the sharp-elbowed style of leadership he’s embraced since. Fain has gained a reputation for his aggressive negotiating tactics and willingness to go for the jugular—cutting a sharp contrast with his predecessor, Ray Curry, and injecting uncertainty into UAW’s relationship with President Joe Biden ahead of the strike deadline.
“We are preparing to strike these companies in a way they have never seen before,” Fain said last night.
In the months since contract negotiations began, Fain has dug in his heels in further—dismissing automakers’ offers as both insulting and abysmal, including on Facebook Live, where he has at times thrown proposals into a trash can to note his displeasure.
But the clock is ticking: If a deal is not reached by midnight, Fain said the UAW will conduct targeted strikes at certain plants in Michigan, an effort designed to create confusion for companies and maximize the level of disruption while allowing the union to extend its $825 million strike fund.
Targeted strikes are “clearly intended to keep the strike going longer,” Patrick Anderson, the CEO of the Anderson Economic Group, whose clients include GM and Ford, told Breanne in an interview. “But it has the potential risk of causing a shutdown at many points, not just the ones that they pick as strike targets.”
A 10-day strike at the Big Three plants would cause an estimated $5.6 billion in U.S. economic losses, the Anderson Group estimates— including $9 million in lost wages for union workers and $1 billion in automaker profits.
What UAW wants: Fain’s demands from automakers are steep, including a 40% wage hike for employees, cost of living increases, and other benefits, such as defined pension benefits for all employees and 32-hour workweeks.
Typically, securing just one of these requests would be a win: While Fain acknowledged recent offers do show movement from automakers, he said they do not come close to meeting his steep demands.
Automakers feel differently: Ford CEO Jim Farley said yesterday that its offer to UAW is the single best offer it has made with the union in its 80-year relationship. The contract proposal included, “pay increases, elimination of tiers, inflation protection, five weeks of vacation, 17 paid holidays, [and] bigger contributions for retirement.”
Still, he said, there are limits to what Ford is willing to offer, such as a four-day workweek. And he noted that the UAW has yet to make any serious counter-offer.
“If there is a strike, it’s not because Ford didn’t make a great offer,” Farley said. “The future of our industry is at stake and we want to build it with the UAW, but we’re not sure what’s happening.”
Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment Writers Breanne Deppisch (@breanne_dep) and Nancy Vu (@NancyVu99). Email [email protected] or [email protected] for tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email, and we’ll add you to our list.
…RELATED: TEAMSTERS TO REFUSE TO DELIVER VEHICLES IF UAW STRIKES: Truck drivers represented by the Teamsters union said they will strike alongside UAW and refuse to deliver cars to the automakers if a deal is not reached by midnight.
“We are 100% supportive of UAW workers and Shawn Fain’s positions,” Kevin Moore, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 299, said in a statement. “Our Teamsters will not cross strike lines.”
“What good is it for us to deliver goods and services to companies when they have workers fighting for their pay and their conditions?” Moore said. “We have to show support.”
The show of solidarity comes just weeks after the Teamsters narrowly averted a strike of its own with UPS. After a period of tense negotiations, and with its contract deadline looming, the Teamsters and UPS reached an agreement on a contract that granted nearly all of the union’s requests—and which was described by its president as “the best contract in the history of the UPS” and Teamsters.
HOUSE SET TO PASS BILL BLOCKING CALIFORNIA-STYLE LIMITS ON GAS CARS: The House is scheduled to vote this afternoon on legislation from Republican Rep. John Joyce of Pennsylvania to protect sales of internal combustion engine cars.
The measure would amend the Clean Air Act and block the Environmental Protection Agency from granting waivers for regulations that “ban the sale or use of new motor vehicles with internal combustion engines.”
It’s meant to be a response to California implementing rules to ban the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035, with ramifications for the 17 other states that follow its rules. Republicans noted those states make up 40% of new car sales.
WTI HITS $90 A BARREL: This morning WTI eclipsed $90 a barrel for the first time since November, the latest sign of the rally driven by output cuts from Saudi Arabia amid strong global consumption.
Brent rose above $93.
OPEC criticizes IEA peak-fossil-fuel call: The IEA’s prediction this week that global fossil fuel demand will peak this decade came under fire today from OPEC.
“Such narratives only set the global energy system up to fail spectacularly. It would lead to energy chaos on a potentially unprecedented scale, with dire consequences for economies and billions of people across the world,” OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais said in a statement.
The problem, according to OPEC, is that predictions of peak supply (or demand) can be wrong, and come along with calls to stop investing in new production, which could lead to “energy chaos” as the world still relies heavily on fossil fuels.
ROMNEY EXIT COULD MEAN GOP CARBON TAX SUPPORTERS DOWN TO ONE: Sen. Mitt Romney’s planned exit at the end of his term will be a major blow to GOP support for a carbon tax in Congress.
As far as we’re aware (please correct us if we’re wrong), the only other Republican in Congress to back a carbon tax is Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, who has introduced a bill to impose a carbon tax that would fund infrastructure.
Romney has voiced support for a carbon tax at various points, saying at the end of last year that such a policy would “create a massive incentive for the private sector to innovate and to create innovations. Which will be low emitting, and low cost, and therefore will be adopted not just here, but adopted voluntarily in India and Brazil and China.”
Fitzpatrick, one of the most centrist members of the House GOP conference, represents a southeastern Pennsylvania district that Biden carried in 2022 and is a top target for Democrats next year.
The Rundown
Bloomberg Kroll’s message for critics: ESG makes money
Wall Street Journal Inside Exxon’s strategy to downplay climate change
Financial Times China attacks EU’s ‘naked protectionist act’ on electric cars
