Kenn Dahl says he has always been a careful driver. The owner of a software company near Seattle, he drives a leased Chevrolet Bolt. He’s never been responsible for an accident. So Mr. Dahl, 65, was surprised in 2022 when the cost of his car insurance jumped by 21 percent. Quotes from other insurance companies […]
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Toyota’s Hybrid-First Strategy Is Delivering Big Profits
In today’s high-tech, high-stakes auto industry, fortunes can change quickly, and there’s no better example of that right now than Toyota Motor. Not long ago, it looked as if Toyota had fallen dangerously behind in electric vehicles. Tesla, the electric car pioneer, has grown rapidly and become the world’s most valuable automaker. Seeing Tesla’s success, […]
Read MoreVolkswagen Sees Electric Vehicles as a Way to Grow in the U.S.
Probably only Americans of a certain age remember when the Volkswagen Beetle was the best-selling imported car in the United States and the hippest ride to a Grateful Dead concert was a Volkswagen Microbus. Volkswagen is trying to tap some of that nostalgia in its latest push to regain the status and sales it enjoyed […]
Read MoreFor Michigan’s Economy, Electric Vehicles Are Promising and Scary
Last fall, Tiffanie Simmons, a second-generation autoworker, endured a six-week strike at the Ford Motor factory just west of Detroit where she builds Bronco S.U.V.s. That yielded a pay raise of 25 percent over the next four years, easing the pain of reductions that she and other union workers swallowed more than a decade ago. […]
Read MoreHow Ford’s F-150 Lightning, Once in Hot Demand, Lost Its Luster
In July Michael Puglia drove home with what seemed like the coolest vehicle he’d ever own — a Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck. It was big enough to haul around his children and all their hockey gear. He’d never have to gas it up, and the ride was exhilarating. “It’s unbelievably fast and responsive,” […]
Read MoreMcDonald’s, Costco and Other Companies Crack Down on Child Labor in the U.S.
Many major U.S. companies — including some of the country’s biggest consumer brands — say they are taking steps to eliminate child labor in their domestic supply chains amid revelations that children are working throughout American manufacturing and food production. As hundreds of thousands of migrant children have crossed the southern border without their parents […]
Read MoreHybrid Cars Enjoy a Renaissance as All-Electric Sales Slow
As Teslas and other electric vehicles dazzled car buyers with futuristic technology and dreams of a gasoline-free future, hybrid cars began to seem like yesterday’s news. Sales of the Toyota Prius, the standard-bearer for hybrids, fell 85 percent over a decade. Now, a slowdown in the growth of electric car sales has led General Motors, […]
Read MoreFewer Electric Vehicles Will Qualify for U.S. Tax Credits in 2024
Efforts to fight global warming could suffer a setback next year when new rules reduce the number of electric cars that qualify for a federal tax credit. The credits, up to $7,500 a vehicle, have helped make electric cars more affordable, bringing the cost of some models below $30,000. Next year, for the first time, […]
Read MoreU.A.W. Members at General Motors Ratify Contract
United Automobile Workers union members at General Motors have ratified a tentative contract in a closely contested vote, according to a tally of results from all the G.M. locals posted by the union on Thursday. The contract had the support of 55 percent of the nearly 36,000 members voting. Majorities at several large G.M. factories […]
Read MoreG.M.’s New Contract With U.A.W. Faces Surprisingly Stiff Opposition
A United Automobile Workers union vote on a tentative contract agreement with General Motors that provides record wage increases has run into unexpectedly strong resistance from veteran workers. Voting at most union locals has been completed and the final result, due as early as Thursday evening, will very likely be decided by a narrow margin. […]
Read More‘Our Family Can Have a Future’: Ford Workers on a New Union Contract
Before autoworkers went on strike in September, Dave and Bailey Hodge were struggling to juggle the demands of working at a Ford Motor plant in Michigan and raising their young family. Both were working 12-hour shifts, seven days a week, to earn enough to cover monthly bills, car payments and the mortgage on a home […]
Read MoreA New Law Supercharged Electric Car Manufacturing, but Not Sales
President Biden’s signature climate law has stimulated a surge of investment in electric vehicle production across the country, including tens of billions of dollars on battery plants across the South and new assembly lines near the Great Lakes. Based on early evidence, it is succeeding at a goal that economists have long considered difficult and […]
Read MoreAutomakers Delay Electric Vehicle Spending as Demand Slows
Normally a 50 percent increase in sales is considered very good. But when the number of electric vehicles sold in the United States grew that much during the third quarter from a year earlier, it was a disappointment. Carmakers and analysts had expected more. Instead of celebrating, auto executives worried that demand for electric vehicles […]
Read MoreWhat to Know About the Automakers’ Deals With the U.A.W.
The United Automobile Workers union reached a tentative agreement with General Motors on Monday, following similar deals in recent days with Ford Motor and Stellantis, the parent company of Ram, Chrysler and Jeep. Together, the agreements are expected to end the union’s six-week strike of the Big Three Detroit automakers. Here’s what to know about […]
Read MoreUnion Victories May Lift Biden, as U.A.W. Targets Tesla and Others
The United Automobile Workers’ big wins with Detroit’s Big Three automakers could also prove to be a significant political victory for President Biden, who openly sided with striking workers to pressure the companies, General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, to produce generous concessions. But the U.A.W.’s turn now toward nonunionized automakers like Tesla, Hyundai, BMW and […]
Read MoreG.M. Said to Reach Tentative Deal With U.A.W.
General Motors and the United Automobile Workers union reached a tentative agreement on a new labor contract on Monday, according to two people familiar with the matter, setting the stage for an end to the union’s six-week wave of strikes against the three large U.S. automakers. The agreement comes days after the union announced tentative […]
Read MoreU.A.W. Reaches Tentative Deal With Stellantis, Following Ford
The United Automobile Workers union reached a tentative agreement on a new labor contract with Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler, Jeep and Ram, on Saturday, a person familiar with the matter said on Saturday. The agreement comes three days after the union and Ford Motor announced a tentative agreement on a new contract. The […]
Read MoreDeal With U.A.W. Won’t Put Ford at a Disadvantage, Analysts Say
When autoworkers went on strike in September, executives of the large U.S. automakers warned that union demands could significantly undermine their ability to compete in a fast-changing industry. The chief executive of Ford Motor said that the company might have to scrap its investment in electric vehicles. The future doesn’t look quite that bleak now […]
Read MoreWhy the U.A.W.’s President Has Taken a Hard Line
When Shawn Fain sought the presidency of the United Automobile Workers union last year, he ran on a platform that promised: “No corruption. No concessions. No tiers.” That pledge encapsulated many members’ frustrations with years of union scandal and concessions to the three big Detroit automakers, including the creation of a lower tier of wages […]
Read MoreU.A.W. and Ford Negotiators Reach Accord on Contract Terms
Negotiators for the United Automobile Workers and Ford Motor have agreed on terms of a new four-year labor contract, people briefed on the talks said Wednesday, nearly six weeks after the union began a growing wave of walkouts against the three Detroit automakers. The deal includes a roughly 25 percent pay increase over four years, […]
Read MoreNonunion Workers Are Playing a Big Role in the Autoworkers’ Strike
Tens of thousands of people who work for Toyota in Kentucky, Mercedes-Benz in Alabama or Tesla in Texas are technically not involved in the high-stakes negotiations taking place between labor and management in and around Detroit. But they are very much a presence. Executives at Ford Motor, General Motors and Stellantis, the parent of Chrysler, […]
Read MoreFor Bill Ford, ‘Every Negotiation Is a Roller Coaster’
As a 25-year-old junior executive at the car company that bears his last name, William Clay Ford Jr. had a bracing introduction to labor negotiations when a union official demanded that he stand up and vouch that he was made of the same stuff as his great-grandfather Henry Ford. Mr. Ford, now the company’s executive […]
Read MoreU.A.W. Says Auto Strikes Will Become More Unpredictable
Four weeks after starting limited strikes against three large automakers, the United Automobile Workers is shifting to a more aggressive strategy, suggesting work stoppages could spread to more plants and possibly go on for some time. In an online video, the union’s president, Shawn Fain, said he would no longer wait to announce expansions of […]
Read MoreU.A.W. Expands Strike to Ford Plant in Kentucky
The United Automobile Workers union unexpectedly expanded its strike against Ford Motor on Wednesday evening, calling on 8,700 workers to walk off the job at a critical plant in Kentucky. The plant makes some of Ford’s most profitable offerings, including the Super Duty version of its F-Series trucks and the Ford Expedition, a full-size sport […]
Read MoreU.A.W. Workers at Mack Truck Go on Strike
Nearly 4,000 members of the United Automobile Workers union went on strike against Mack Trucks on Monday after rejecting a tentative contract that union’s leaders had worked out with the company. The union informed the truck maker on Sunday that members had opposed the contract by a 73 percent vote, and that a strike would […]
Read MoreAmid Strikes, One Question: Are Employers Miscalculating?
The list of gains that the Hollywood writers secured to end a nearly five-month strike with studios once seemed ludicrously ambitious: not just wage increases, but also minimum staffing levels for shows, new royalties on successful series and restrictions on outsourcing writing duties to artificial intelligence. Yet far from an anomaly, the writers’ deal was […]
Read MoreU.A.W. Does Not Expand Strikes at Automakers
The United Automobile Workers union said on Friday that it had made progress in its negotiations with Ford Motor, General Motors and Stellantis, the parent of Chrysler, and would not expand the strikes against the companies that began three weeks ago. In an online video, the president of the union, Shawn Fain, said G.M. had […]
Read MoreWhy Unions Are Good for America
As the United Automobile Workers strike continues, we’re likely to hear grumbling about labor unions. “They killed the auto industry once, and now they’re trying to do it again,” some will say. Or “They’re corrupt.” Or “They’re Luddites resisting modernization.” Sure, there’s something to criticisms of unions. Yet the critiques miss a fundamental point: Labor […]
Read MoreU.A.W. Will Expand Strikes at Ford and G.M.
The United Automobile Workers union on Friday significantly increased the pressure on Ford Motor and General Motors by extending its strike to two more car assembly plants, saying the companies had not moved far enough to meet its demands for higher pay and benefits. The move is the second escalation of strikes that started on […]
Read MoreDrivers and Dealers Could Soon Feel Impact of U.A.W. Strikes
More than a week into its targeted strike at the three established U.S. car companies, the United Automobile Workers union has poked holes in a supply chain that has still not fully recovered from the pandemic. The companies and the union remain far apart in negotiations, and the U.A.W. could expand its strikes to more […]
Read MoreStriking U.A.W. Workers’ Views p Industry Vary by Generation
On Friday morning just before 10, Steve Kellums, 54, and his son Keegan, 24, sat side by side in the older man’s living room in Westland, Mich., a short drive from the Ford Motor assembly plant where they both work. One week into the strike by 3,300 workers at the plant, they were anxiously awaiting […]
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