I’m glad we got that new Bronco when we did

Good day all. About a month ago I took delivery of the new Anger Central Primary Vehicle, a 2023 Ford Bronco. (not the pretend one, aka the Sport, but a real one). I put the order in a year ago, confirmed it last winter and drove off with it last month. (FYI, the Angry Systems Administrator forgot who pays for things around here and thought it was his. Silly Systems Administrator)

It looks like I may have lucked out. The UAW is about to wreck the auto industry with another of their strikes. Here are the details from CNBC:

United Auto Workers members overwhelmingly granted union leaders authorization to call strikes during ongoing contract negotiations with General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis, if warranted.

The union on Friday said an average of 97% of combined members at the automakers approved the action, however final votes are still being tallied. That’s in line with support during negotiations four years ago, when 96% of workers who voted supported authorization for a strike.

The “strike authorization vote” is part of the union’s constitution and viewed as a procedural step in the negotiations. The voting results are historically high in support of the authorization. The vote does not mean there will or will not be a strike.

“Our goal is not to strike. I want to make that very clear. Our goal is to bargain good agreements for our members,” UAW President Shawn Fain said Friday during a Facebook Live. “But all we’ve tried to do with this is prepare everybody in the event that we have to take action to get a fair and just contract.”

I haven’t been following the auto unions much, but the last I heard, a lot of the car companies have moved their manufacturing out of Michigan and into the southern states, (Or Mexico). Those plants, the last I heard, weren’t unionized despite the attempts by the UAW to do just that. (The workers keep voting no) If the UAW goes on strike, those plants will keep working.

However, Fain has been far more vocal than past union leaders about its ability to use striking as a weapon in its arsenal against the companies during the negotiations.

“The Big Three is our strike target. And whether or not there’s a strike — it’s up to Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, because they know what our priorities are. We’ve been clear,” Fain has said.

This may not work out the way the Unions think it will. While I don’t see Ford, GM of Stellantis, (Stellantis is made up of Fiat and the old Chrysler corp), going out of business, one of the largest trucking companies, Yellow, shut down when the unions made demands that the company couldn’t afford. (They were in trouble and trying to reorganize. The Union leadership refused to work with them so 30K union workers lost their jobs)

In this case, if the Union’s demands are to much, the Big Three, might just dismantle the plants and move them to Right to Work states and tell the UAW to kiss off. That would be a major deal and take a year plus to do and cost a bunch of money, but it would break the union. Another thing they could do is bring in more robots.

Those priorities are far richer than during prior contract negotiations between the two sides. The union’s demands include a 46% wage increase, restoration of traditional pensions, cost-of-living increases, reducing the workweek to 32 hours from 40 and increasing retiree benefits.

Are they on crack? About the only thing I could agree with is the Cost of living increases, and they can thank their choice of presidents*, Joe Biden for the need for that. Everything else? It’s not going to happen. Those days are long gone and aren’t coming back.

The UAW has more than $825 million in its strike fund, which it uses to pay eligible members who are on strike. The strike pay is $500 per week for each member — up from $275 per week last year.

That won’t cover much thanks to Bidenflation.

Assuming 150,000 or so UAW members covered by the contracts, strike pay would cost the union about $75 million per week. A fund of $825 million, then, would cover about 11 weeks. One caveat: that doesn’t include health-care costs that the union would cover, such as temporary COBRA plans, that would likely drain the fund far more quickly.

Those Cobra insurance plans are really expensive. They can cost as much as a weekly unemployment check, leaving nothing for food or housing. I guess the question is, how long could the Union hold out once the money runs out? You can bet that the car manufacturers are running the numbers.

National or targeted strikes at any of the automakers could be detrimental to business. A 40-day strike against GM during the last round of negotiations in 2019 led to a production loss of 300,000 vehicles, the company said at the time. It also cost the automaker $3.6 billion in earnings, GM said.

This is where you might see car companies finally deciding enough is enough and determining the time has come to finally break the UAW. Ford is losing billions on the Electric Vehicles they make, and the electric version of the F150 is, to be blunt, a complete piece of junk. The Ford Bronco is made in Union plants, which is why I’m glad I have mine now. (Suck it up Angry Systems Administrator) Shutting down the EV lines will probably save them money.

Unions are still operating under the idea that they actually have power and that the general public supports them. They would be wrong. Unions have been dying slowly for decades, and every time they kill a business, more people turn against them.

While 90+ percent of those in the Union voted for the Strike authorization, I wonder how many of them will be holding fast when the mortgage and car payments are due, the refrigerator is empty and the strike fund is cleaned out? That would see people willing to cross the picket lines, and if enough workers do, look for the car manufactures to start hiring permanent replacements. If the Unions try going to the government to force the car companies to give in, I suspect those plants will be permanently shuttered and the lines moved south.

Right now there is a major strike in Hollywood by the Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild against the studios. It’s been going on for almost four months. The studios may have reached the point where they are willing to ride out the strike and break the two unions. The writers and actors do not have any support from the general population.

Now the strikers are running out of money and are beginning to panic. I won’t be surprised of the same thing happens with the car companies and the UAW. Of course the UAW is old school and might try violence to get there way.

That will only speed up the process of the car companies finally abandoning Detroit and Michigan once and for all. I wonder if they’ll try and blame President Trump for this as well? If so, look for another indictment!

Thatisall

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