The American automakers, General Motors, Ford Motor Company and Chrysler (now owned by Stellantis) are all being struck at once (at selected plants) in a first-ever industry-wide strike.
President Joe Biden likes to be called the Union President. He claims to identify with lunchpail, blue-collar workers, who have traditionally been union members, at least in the Northeast.
So it shouldn’t be a stretch to say he is sympathetic to the plight of union members in the current United Auto Workers strike. But does that mean he’s to blame?
No, it doesn’t, because while the union bosses are sympathetic to the Democrat agenda, the rank and file increasingly are not. In fact, union membership has been decreasing overall for decades, except for public sector unions, like the teachers unions, which are the biggest.
But there’s another reason the president should likely share the blame for the strike: his pushing of the “Climate Change” agenda, including mandating the sale of electric vehicles (EVs) in place of gasoline-powered vehicles. As a result, General Motors says they lose $60,000 on every EV they sell!
The Biden Administration has set a “goal” that 50% of all new vehicle sales be EVs by 2030! That’s just a little more than 6 years away!
But, according to insideevs.com, sales of new EVs “surged” to 7.1% in January, 2023. So to get to the Biden Administration’s target of 50%, new EV sales must INCREASE an average of 7% every year between now and 2030!
The new 7% number was nearly double the number one year before. It’s true that if demand doubled every year for the next six years, it would get to more than 50% by 2026. But is that realistic?
The jump to 7% was unusual and was loudly publicized. But it was publicized because it was unusual. Can we really expect that kind of increase every year?
There is evidence that those who have purchased EVs, wanting to do their part for “the planet,” have often been disillusioned. “Range anxiety,” coupled with sticker-shock at the initial cost, plus the cost of replacing the all-important battery packs later, have made a lot of people rethink their decisions. That will drive demand down rather than up. Oh, and then there are the toxic fires that almost can’t be extinguished, often taking houses and family belongings with them.
You can see why the automakers feel squeezed right now. They are under pressure to ramp up production of EVs to the same level as gasoline cars by just six years from now. In auto manufacturing, six years is the blink of an eye. It can take several years to design, tool and manufacturer a new conventional automobile model, never mind vehicles based on new, untested technology.
Some will object to my use of the word “untested” to refer to EVs, because obviously the manufacturers do test them, but gasoline cars have been on the road for about 140 years. During that time the industry has learned, grown and changed A LOT. The same thing will happen with EVs, but it hasn’t happened yet.
So automakers are faced with investing billions of dollars in “untested” technologies for which, so far, there is little demonstrated consumer demand, all to meet an arbitrary, government-imposed deadline. If they manufacture the same number of EVs as conventional cars and demand remains at or below 10%, they could have millions of unsold vehicles nobody wants. That’s a very real possibility. They could face bankruptcy, dissolution of their companies and the end of the American auto industry as we know it.
As a result, automakers may be even more reluctant than usual to bargain with unions, because they have to take the long view. If they are like most of us, they may be hoping to wait out the unions until after the 2024 election, when the Biden Administration will (hopefully) be replaced by another administration with its feet on the ground, rather than its head up in the clouds (Oops! Almost said a bad word).
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