sample quote

The tentative Stellantis agreement, which would still need to be approved by union leaders and ratified by members, is patterned off a 4½-year agreement reached between the union and Ford Motor on Wednesday, sources previously told CNBC.

Bloomberg News first reported Saturday the company made additional concessions to the UAW and the union aims to announce a tentative agreement this afternoon that includes a new product for an idled Stellantis assembly plant in Illinois.

“Through the power of our Stand Up Strike, we have saved Belvidere,” said UAW Vice President Rich Boyer. “Eight months ago, Stellantis idled Belvidere Assembly Plant, putting 1,200 of our members on the street. From the strength of our strike, we are bringing back those jobs and more.” He added that Stellantis is reopening the plant and the company will also add more than a thousand jobs at a new battery plant in Belvidere.

snip...

The deal comes after the union reached an agreement on Wednesday with Ford. That agreement still needs to be approved by union leaders and ratified by members.

The tentative agreement is expected to end six weeks of targeted labor strikes by the union after the sides failed to reach new deals for 146,000 UAW members before a Sept. 14 deadline. The union called back more than 16,000 striking Ford workers after reaching a tentative deal with the automaker.

Ford’s deal included 25% pay increases over the term of the agreement, including an initial increase of 11%. The raises and benefits cumulatively raise the top wage to more than $40 an hour, including an increase of 68% for starting wages to over $28 an hour.

It also reinstated cost-of-living adjustments,
reduced an eight-year path to top wages to three years
and allowed the right to strike over plant closures, among other significantly enhanced benefits.

snip...

Ford said Thursday that the union’s strike has cost it $1.3 billion and the deal, if ratified by members,
would increase labor costs by roughly $850 to $900 per vehicle produced.

end quotes

from

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/28/uaw...egotiators-agree-to-terms-of-a-deal.html

Makes no difference to me. Can't afford a new Ford OR a new CDJR.
They are all priced so ridiculously anymore.

Just a little ironic that Henry Ford once said that if his employees couldn't afford to buy what he was selling, he'd be out of business.

Now you have to be an employee to afford one.

Kevin

Raising the price by $900 per vehicle is not going to help sales.

A few days ago local TV ran a story that Ford dealerships were “insisting” new but unsellable EV Ford Lightning pickups be hauled away from their dealership lots.

The two big Ford/Korean SK factories to manufacture 4 volt lithium cells along I-65 are still being constructed and local TV says they are hiring and training employees.

As was posted here on Moparts earlier Toyota claims they have invented a different chemistry for Lithium cells that works better and uses cheaper materials, so I wonder if those Ford & SK plants are already obsolete, or have just a few years. KY and TN have essentially funded those new factories with state money.

A third plant near Memphis is supposed to combine the cells into battery packs - gotta hope the New Madrid earthquake fault stays asleep.

When Carlos Tavares got personally involved things with the UAW did seem to change quickly.

Tavares as a auto racer, from Wikipedia:

Passionate about cars, he already volunteered at the age of 14 to be a track marshal on the Estoril circuit.[29] He has been an amateur racing driver since the age of twenty-two.[4]

In 1983, he started as a driver in rallies and endurance races with his friends Bruno Cébile, as co-driver, and Arnaud Montagné, as technical assistant. He notably participated in the Monte-Carlo Rally and he has his own team Clementeam Racing, by analogy with his daughter's first name.[2]

In 2014, together with Jean-Louis Dauger, Denis Gibaud and Jérôme Maudet, Carlos Tavares won the A2 class of the Barcelona 24 Hours with a Peugeot RCZ Cup operated by Milan Competition.[30]

He also collects classic cars and owns a Peugeot 504 V6 Coupé from 1979, an Alpine A110 from 1976 and a Porsche 912 from 1966.[2]

He is a member of the jury at the Chantilly Arts & Elegance Richard Mille 2017 and 2019, an automobile elegance competition.[31][32]

I know very few people who are going to buy a new vehicle, and the wife and I are going to keep our 2015's going until we die. Most people are priced out of new vehicles nowadays unless they don't mind being in debt until they die...

It's super common for older people here to significantly upsize their homes after their kids move out and borrow against it to fill it up with new vehicles and stuff they would normally not be able to afford. So long as your home value keeps going up it's basically free money is what the bank will tell you. Banks and Credit Unions run radio ads encouraging people to not let that 'free' money just sit there doing nothing, and to buy a new car or camper with it.

.
Not to hijack the thread, but did I misunderstand this? So, a three-bedroom ranch with a bath and powder room when raising the family, but as soon as the kids are gone, upsize to a 5 bedroom 2 1/2 bath home on five acres? That kind of upsize?

Into whole different "mature adult" neighborhoods for retired or about to be retired people. Large McMansions with newish everything inside and out. The homes are likely double or more square footage than what you find in the neighborhoods that are close to the elementary schools where people who have kids live, These are the same couples who are always remodeling their kitchens and bathrooms every few years with the latest in-fashion materials looking to boost their home values up.

I met one car guy who had a huge house for he and his wife only with 6 bathrooms. Some of them were half baths, but still. They likely have rooms in their house they don't even use.

Banks want us in debt.We built our house 35 yrs ago. At that time the bank kept telling us to buy/build more house.....we said no! Our house has served us well, we are still here and it's been paid for for almost 20 yrs. I'm trying to retire in the next year...why in the hell would I borrow against a house I paid off years ago??

I'm in the same boat. Kids gone, retired, no mortgage....why would I want to walk into the lion's den at my age? Larger house = more maintenance/higher heating cooling costs/higher property taxes....for what?

Traditionally when people get close to retirement they downsize, correct. Some people, however, are not scared of debt and use every bit of it they can get their hands on to keep up with the Joneses. They'd rather _____ die than have their neighbors see them driving past in an 8 year old car.

They likely do have not much in the way of actual savings and their house value and stock market is the lifeline to a better lifestyle. As long as you keep your house in a nice neighborhood and decorated in whatever the latest trends are to make it desirable in the eyes of the appraisers the bank will keep loaning you more and more. People are still doing remodels right now banking on getting their money back out of it right away despite labor and materials being way up due to inflation. Watch those TV remodel shows where they spend x on some part of the house and then the total new value at the end of the show is always raised way up. They make it appear as if everyone can and should do this and there is no downside.

I think this home/asset borrowing is where some people are getting their money to be able to buy a new expensive F-150 etc every few years when most people who don't like being in debt avoid such luxuries.

Local radio news just reporting that Ford plans to delay “for a couple years” the opening of their new battery plants just off of I-65 in KY and TN.

GM deal with UAW was hung up for awhile about the
joint venture battery plant with Korea’s LG and another with Samsung.

https://www.freep.com/story/money/c...ontract-negotiations-update/71334972007/

sample quote

The person familiar with the agreement said the main issue that was holding up a deal centered on how to include Ultium Cells LLC battery plants in a master labor contract between the UAW and GM. Ultium Cells is a joint venture between GM and LG Energy Solution, so the legal language to allow for a master contract was complicated.

Ultimately, the agreement with GM is a breakthrough because it will allow for the joint-venture workforce to vote on unionizing future plants and then decide whether they want their own contract or to be part of the master contract. GM already is operating an Ultium Cells plant in northeast Ohio and it is building two more Ultium Cell plants: One in Spring Hill, Tennessee, and the other in Lansing, both expected to start operations within the next two years. GM will start building a fourth battery plant in northern Indiana with South Korean-based Samsung SDI next year and it will open in 2026.
...snip..

The tentative agreement between GM and the UAW will match the financials of the Ford deal, the person said. That includes a 25% wage increase across the life of the 4½-year contract, to expire on April 30, 2028. There is a reinstatement of the 2009 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) formula, the same profit-sharing formula reached with Ford, a three-year in-progression to the top wage and an end of tier wage scales by the end of the contract.

end quote

Remember that the initial production of the LG cells from Ultium were faulty and every single one had to be replaced at LG’s expense.

Local news is keeps showing long time UAW NOW COMPLAINING that the lower tierd workers will be getting over a 100% raise while they'll only be getting JUST a 25% raise. Sheesh.

I remember 15 years ago when I would go to a Tier1 automotive supplier in Missouri that made ALL the GM truck grilles (chrome plated plastic), there used to be hundreds of workers in each of the multiple facilities. The very last trip I made about 6 years ago (before I quit that THANKLES, HIGH PRESSURE INDUSTRY designing and programming robots and electrical control systems for automotive) I went into a plant with robots as far as you could see. Plant was very dark because robots dont need lights. And I could barely find a human. Over the years management would tell me "see those people, I want a robot there!"

Headline in Wednesday Wall Street Journal business & finance section:

Stellantis Lost $3.2 Billion Due to Worker’s Walkout

Probably gotta wait for new slave labor to be born- and then reach the age of 4 so they can then work in the mines. EVs are so environmentally and human friendly.

Sometimes facts are perceived as being "political". Just sayin'