by JOHN BINDER at breitbart.com
The United Auto Workers (UAW) is going after President Joe Biden’s so-called “green energy” agenda for its wage-cutting outcomes while showering billions in American taxpayer money on the three largest automakers in the nation: Ford, General Motors (GM), and Stellantis.
As part of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, passed last year, automakers are set to enjoy a massive windfall via tax credits for electric vehicles (EVs) made in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
UAW President Shawn Fain, as well as the union’s members in Lordstown, Ohio, are sounding the alarm on severe cuts to auto workers’ wages as a result of the Biden administration’s push to steer automakers towards EVs, enticing them with federal subsidies.
“There have been clear winners and losers and the same people who’ve always won, the corporate elite and the billionaire class, seem to think they can keep calling the shots,” Fain said in a video produced by the UAW:
The ‘Big Three’ automakers, Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis, are taking billions of dollars in government subsidies to go electric. But those benefits aren’t trickling down to UAW members. [Emphasis added]
In particular, Fain points to GM’s closure of its manufacturing plant in Lordstown only a few years ago, which saw thousands laid off — a devastating blow to the small Ohio community.
“I think it was like an economic crash almost. I mean, everybody here was GM,” said Dominic Giovannone of UAW Local 1112. “… my kids went to Lordstown schools so a lot of their friends moved away. It took a hometown community and separated it.”
Since then, GM has partnered with LG to open Ultium Cells, an EV battery plant that the automaker promised would bring high-paying, green energy jobs.
“Residents were pitched on the new facility, bringing good-paying, green jobs back to Lordstown,” Fain said. “What [Lordstown] found was a far cry from what was promised.”
Dave Dellick of UAW Local 1112 said the Lordstown community thought the new EV battery plant “would be the next wave” of manufacturing jobs but said since the plant opened, “it hasn’t been good yet.”
According to Fain, former Lordstown Assembly employees made upwards of $30 an hour. At Ultium Cells, employees are earning $16.50 an hour with hourly earnings increasing to $20 only after seven years.
“Ultium [Cells] cut auto wages in half,” Fain said.
In the meantime, GM, along with Ford and Stellantis, are receiving billions in taxpayer money in the form of EV tax credits
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