Tangle - Strike ends, United Auto Workers get a deal.

Episode Date: November 1, 2023

The United Auto Workers deal. On Monday, General Motors and United Auto Workers struck a deal that ended the union's six-week series of strikes aimed at Detroit’s Big Three automakers. The deal with GM came after Ford reached a deal last Wednesday and Chrysler-owned Stellantis struck a deal with workers over the weekend.You can read our previous coverage of these strikes here.You can read today's podcast ⁠⁠here⁠⁠, our “Under the Radar” story here, and today’s “Have a nice day” story here. You can also check out our latest YouTube video, an interview with Rep. Dean Phillips and his bid for the Democratic Presidential nomination here, and a sizzle reel of our first ever Tangle Live event from August 2023, here.Today’s clickables: Quick hits (0:54), Today’s story (2:50), Right’s take (6:27), Left’s take (9:38), Isaac’s take (12:58), Listener question (17:22), Under the Radar (20:11), Numbers (20:56), Have a nice day (21:56)You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here. Take the poll. What do you think of the new UAW deal? Let us know!Our podcast is written by Isaac Saul and edited by Jon Lall. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75. Our newsletter is edited by Bailey Saul, Sean Brady, Ari Weitzman, and produced in conjunction with Tangle’s social media manager Magdalena Bokowa, who also created our logo.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tanglenews/message Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight.

Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle Podcast, the place we get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking, and a little bit of my take. I'm your host, Isaac Saul, and on today's episode, we're going to be talking about the United Auto Workers deal. They just struck with the big three in Detroit. What exactly is in the deal, what it means for unions more broadly, and

what the political implications are. As always, though, before we jump in, we're going to kick things off with some quick hits. First up, Israeli officials say they killed a senior Hamas commander who is believed to have been involved in the planning of the October 7th attack. Egypt's border continues to remain blocked, but it says it would treat injured Palestinians. The death toll in Gaza has risen to 8,500 people, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry. Number two, the U.S. Senate confirmed Jacob Lew as the next ambassador to Israel. Separately, General Eric Smith, the highest-ranking Marine in the United States, was hospitalized after a heart attack on Sunday.

Number three, the White House has confirmed that President Biden is expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco later this month. Number four, in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war, Democratic members of the House of Representatives are fracturing over several bills related to Israel and Palestine. And number five, the Supreme Court will hear two cases weighing whether public officials can block critics on social media. We have breaking news to tell you about now. The United Auto Workers Union has reached a tentative deal with Ford. That's according to the Wall Street Journal.

Now, that could signal the nearly six-week strike against Detroit automakers will end soon. The UAW and Stellantis have reached a tentative deal. The news comes as the union expands its strike against General Motors. The Stellantis deal follows Ford's lead, offering a 25% wage hike. That's more than autoworkers have seen in years. General Motors is now the last of the big three automakers to reach a tentative deal with the United Autoworkers Union. The union reached a similar deal with Ford last week and Stellantis over the weekend. These agreements, if approved, would end a six-week-long strike involving nearly 50,000 workers in more than 20 states.

On Monday, General Motors and United Auto Workers struck a deal that ended the union's series of six-week strikes aimed at the Detroit Three automakers. The deal with GM came after Ford reached a deal with autoworkers last Wednesday, and Chrysler-owned Stellantis also struck a deal with their respective unions over the weekend. The agreement marks a major victory for the workers, who experienced stagnant wages following concessions made during the 2008 financial crisis and brings an end to walkouts that had paralyzed the industry. It also marks another major victory for unions more broadly who are seeing a reversal of 40 years of declining power. The tentative agreements still require ratification by union members, but what have been announced so far include an initial 11 pay increase and a 25% pay increase over the next four and a half years, the length of the contract. It also includes cost of living

adjustments or COLA adjustments to make sure the raises keep pace with inflation. Along with pay increases, the companies will get rid of the two-tier worker structure under which temporary workers doing the same job were paid less. The deal will also allow unions to strike in retaliation for plan closures. The deal with GM came less than 48 hours after a surprise walkout at Spring Hill Assembly Plant in Tennessee, a key GM plant. Negotiators had been at a standstill on questions about contracts for workers at the automakers' joint venture battery plants. The deal will also allow workers at those plants to vote on unionizing future plants and then decide whether they want to be a part of the master contract that was agreed to or seek out their own contracts. Employees at GM facilities in the battery plant will receive an

11% increase in wages in the first year of the contract, putting their pay at $35 an hour, and by the end of the contract, GM workers will be approaching $42 an hour. GM is also going to give five $500 payments to retirees through 2028. United Auto Workers president Sean Fain employed a novel strategy during the six weeks of strikes. Rather than full-scale walkouts at one plant from each of the big three, the union hit plants from all three automakers one at a time in an effort to ratchet up the pressure and keep the big three guessing where the next strike would take place. For instance, in October, Fain ordered workers to walk out of Ford's largest and most valuable plan after a meeting with Ford and learning that there was no new offer. We wholeheartedly believe our strike squeezed every last dime out of General

Motors, UAW President Sean Fain said in a video address. They underestimated us. They underestimated you. President Biden, who had shown an unprecedented level of support for the union workers, praised the news. This historic contract is a testament to the power of unions and collective bargaining to build strong middle-class jobs while helping our most iconic American companies thrive, Biden said. The new contracts will significantly increase the cost for the automakers, who said the deal will make it more difficult for them to compete with companies like Tesla. Two sources told Reuters the wage increases at GM alone will cost $7 billion over four and a half years, and Ford said it would likely increase the cost of its cars by $850 to $900. Carl Brouwer, an executive analyst at iccars.com, said in the long term, Ford, GM, and Stellantis will have to raise car prices to maintain their profits.

This is going to make cars more expensive, Brouwer told the New York Times. You can read our previous coverage of these strikes with a link in today's episode description. Today, we're going to break down some reactions to this deal from the right is saying. The right disapproves of the deal, arguing that it would damage the U.S. auto industry in the long run. Some say the automaker's concessions will put them at even more of a disadvantage relative to foreign competitors. Others say the striker's demands are at odds with American values. In the Wall Street Journal, Holman W. Jenkins Jr. criticized the UAW monopoly. This time around, the union didn't dispense with another of its usual fig leaves, claiming it will level the playing field by extending unionization to Tesla and the transplants, which it always says and never succeeds in doing because those companies and

their workers aren't suicidal, Jenkins wrote. Ford's labor costs, to give one example, will rise an estimated $88 per hour, compared with $55 or less for non-union car makers. This would have no competitive effect if UAW workers were 60% more productive, but they aren't. Ignore gooey liberals. The 1960s aren't coming back as a result of this week's successful strike conclusion with union members insulated from non-union competition. Nor will the government ban gasoline-powered cars or tax them out of existence to stem EV losses. What will be the policy options then? In Fox Business, Sean Duffy said the agreement could hurt the U.S. economy and the workforce for generations. The UAW has made demands that

could damage the competitiveness of U.S. auto manufacturers. They've asked for significant wage increases and a shorter work week, making it tough for U.S. manufacturers to compete globally and potentially weakening a core and beloved American industry, Duffy wrote. However, it's the UAW's third demand that is most troubling, the elimination of the two-tiered wage system, which would result in everyone in a given role receiving the same compensation regardless of their experience or time in their position. This demand is fundamentally un-American and would have severe unintended consequences. Recently, UPS eliminated their two-tiered wage system. If the UAW secures this concession, the auto industry would be the

next domino to fall, putting American industry on the perilous path of self-imposed decline. Negotiators need look no further than the communist Mao Zedong's China in 1950s and 1960s to see the disastrous economic impacts of this policy. When everyone is paid the same regardless of their performance or skills, the motivation to excel dissipates. The Detroit News editorial board called the deal a risk for the auto industry. The historic pact merits celebration by those on the factory floor who have seen their real wages slip while company profits and executive pay soared. It does, however, place the jobs of those workers in greater jeopardy. In an intensely competitive

industry, the cost of this contract will make the new low-wage manufacturing plants in Mexico and Asia much more tempting, the board said. Faden took a hostile stance in this strike, to the point of declaring as over the union's collaborative relationships with automakers and causing them operational chaos as his strategy. That would be a red flag to global manufacturers seeking to locate in the U.S. should this contract trigger a renaissance of union organizing. All right, that is it for the rightist thing, which brings us to the left's take. The left celebrates the deal as a major victory for organized labor in the U.S. Some suggest the concessions won by the United Auto Workers could catalyze more ambitious union

efforts across the country. Others say Biden should also get credit for this outcome thanks to his strong show of support for the unions. In MSNBC, Hamilton Nolan said the UAW's victory is just the beginning of a much, much bigger battle. The new contracts secure major wins, including 25% wage gains, the elimination of divisive wage tiers, the right to strike over future plant closures, and a path to unionize the company's electric vehicle plants. These victories amount to a comprehensive reset of the balance of power in the auto industry, where workers have been struggling to participate in the industry's resurgence since the 2008 recession. The contracts are models of solidarity, legal embraces of the idea that the labor movement's collective power exists to help everyone. In all cases, the biggest beneficiaries

of the union's leverage were the workers with the greatest needs. In all cases, the biggest beneficiaries of the union's leverage were the workers with the greatest needs, lower earners, new hires, temps, and all of the auto industry's employees who are not unionized yet, Nolan said. The UAW's victory in this strike was inspiring on its own, but more thrilling is the conviction it carries with it that this strike is just the beginning of a much, much bigger battle. In the Hill, Harley Shakin called the deal a home run for the U.S. workforce. This agreement is great news for UAW members, but the gains could resonate across the economy in two ways. First, auto talks historically have served as a benchmark for other unions and non-union employers who have improved

wages and benefits to avoid unions, Shakin said. Second, Walter Ruther, the union's legendary early president, famously said that UAW gains create high-velocity purchasing power, which fuels economic growth. When workers feel they are well-treated and valued, productivity rises, absenteeism and turnover decline, and workers improve the production process. Ford seems to agree. As part of this contract, it announced a commitment of $8.1 billion in new U.S. investments over the life of the agreement, a strong vote of confidence. Ford said it expects to find efficiencies to offset the high labor costs. GM and Stellantis will likely do the same. This is hardly utopian thinking, but reflects the history of the industry. Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book,

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a leading alliance of world-class airlines. Reach top-tier status with a One World member airline's frequent flyer program, and you can enjoy an array of benefits, including priority check in and boarding and access to nearly 700 premium airport lounges around the world. Discover more at OneWorld.com. Tons of conditions apply. In the new republic, Michael Tomaski argued it's time for liberals to start giving Biden some damn credit. Could the UAW have won these deals without Joe Biden? I'm sure it could have. It came to the picket line with a great case to make, Tomaski said. But the automakers also had

the President of the United States walking the picket line and declaring himself more unambiguously on the side of the workers than any president has done in my lifetime. Biden's public display of allegiance to their union was surely reinforced by private signals the administration sent out to both sides. This was the most dramatic presidential intervention in a private sector strike since, well, if there was a precedent for it, I can't recall, Tomaski said. Biden deserves way more credit for this than he's been getting. The UAW has not endorsed Biden yet, and Trump, of course, will campaign heavily in the Rust Belt states, claiming to be the working class's warrior chief. But it's Biden who has been delivering.

All right, that is it for what the left is saying, which brings us to my take. So this is a breathtaking deal. Even without the fine print, which will be important, I honestly struggle to remember a union win where pay raises as large as 25% were dished out in one fell swoop. UAW President Sean Fain hasn't just proven the efficacy of his strategy, which worked better than I imagined, he has proven it so effective that I suspect we are going to see a wave of new union membership in the wake of this deal. Imagine being a worker at a foreign-owned company like Toyota and watching union workers land what for many of them could end up being six-figure salaries in a town like Flint, Michigan. All it took was six weeks of pain and

some courage. How would membership in a union like that, led by someone who just pulled off what Fain did, not be alluring? As I've written about several times this year, I think one of the biggest stories of post-COVID America is the unbelievable power shift toward workers that we are witnessing. Loads of think pieces have been written about quiet quitting and remote work, but the meatiest story of all is that workers, unionized or otherwise, are simply ratcheting up their demands, getting what they want, or walking out if they don't. Wages continue to rise, benefits are improving, and the already positive union sentiment continues to go up. And that was before this deal happened. Politically, the implications are fascinating. I live in Philadelphia, and a few weeks ago I visited my parents in Bucks County just outside

the city. On my way home, I saw a group of striking autoworkers sitting around a bonfire right off the I-95 interstate outside a factory. People were honking and cheering as they drove by. In Bucks County, a bellwether county in a bellwether state, this story has created a tectonic amount of national coverage, and on the ground, its tremors are reverberating. I think the strike's outcome is going to be impactful in the next few elections, but I still think it's too early to say exactly how. The typical framework we have here is that Democrats like unions and Republicans don't. That was somewhat reinforced when President Biden took the unprecedented step of joining the picket line with UAW, while former President Trump spoke to non-union autoworkers and issued a warning that union negotiations didn't make a difference because the industry was going to collapse thanks to electric vehicles and Biden's environmental agenda. But even Trump's appearance in Detroit was a new tack for the party, an explicit kind

of outreach to striking workers while they were going to battle with big business. Now, I suspect the workers who just scored this pay increase would argue the negotiations did actually matter a great deal, and we'll see if Trump's approach does any damage to him politically. Though he could definitely be right about a future where the big three struggle to fend off emerging rivals like Tesla, and workers at the big three just want to battle in a potentially losing war. Still, the ground is shifting. Trump-friendly senators like J.D. Vance, the Republican from Ohio, and Josh Hawley, the Republican from Missouri, backed the auto unions on strike, something that was unthinkable just 15 years ago. Mitt Romney once published an op-ed titled Let Detroit Go Bankrupt in 2008. Democrats

have lost much of the blue-collar working class vote in the Midwest, and this is an opportunity to claw it back. Politicians like Hallie and Vance either recognize that danger or genuinely represent a new era of union loyalty from Republicans seeking out those voters. We'll know more about that landscape when we see how consistent that support actually is. I'm not someone who wholesale supports unions, but in the case of UAW, I thought their argument was legitimate and their cause was just. The big three are pulling record profits. Autoworkers sacrificed a lot after the 2008 recession, and the rationale to compensate them was fairly straightforward. As Fain has argued, CEOs of the big three automakers earn millions in annual compensation, and UAW estimates that executive pay has increased by 40.1% since 2019. Fain was seeking 36% raises on a shortened work

week and looks happy to walk away with 25% and cost of living adjustments. But everything I wrote in September is still also true. A short-term win for workers could set these companies up for a long-term downturn. I hope Fain and the unionized workers know what they are doing, and I hope the leaders of these automakers are prepared to fit these new pay increases into a future where they can remain profitable, sound businesses. All right, that is it for my take, which brings us to your questions answered. This one's from Brendan in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Brendan said, what's it like to get an exclusive like the one you had with Dean Phillips? I'm sure Mr. Phillips went to you for a reason,

and I'm sure leading up to it, you had a bunch of thoughts in your brain about what kinds of questions you wanted to ask, what you thought he would answer, and what kind of access you'd have to give him or people like him in the future based on how this interview goes. How did you navigate all of that? And how many more questions did you think of the moment you hung up? plug, which is that if you still haven't watched our interview with Dean Phillips, the Democrat now challenging President Biden in the primary, you can go do that by clicking the link to our YouTube channel in today's episode description, or just looking up Tangle News on YouTube. In this case, the exclusive actually happened in a very unusual fashion. One of our staff members, Will, grew up near Dean Phillips and knew his daughter. Because of that, we had already been

in touch with Phillips' team about an interview earlier this year. Generally speaking, we are just trying to do more interviews with members of Congress and sitting politicians. But Will had the foresight to wait because he had heard rumblings Phillips might throw his hat in the ring. So we waited. And then when the sign started pointing toward Phillips running, like him renting out a space for a speech in New Hampshire, we knew the announcement was coming and we knew it was time to call in the favor. So Will texted Phillips, got connected with his campaign, and then booked a time for the interview. In this case, it was a cool get, not just because we got him for an interview right after he announced, but because we got there before CNN and we got more time within than them

too. That's all great stuff. As for the questions, I honestly don't have any regrets, mostly because we only had 15 minutes, and most voters don't know who Phillips is. The main goal was just allowing him to introduce himself to the public. To that end, the important stuff to cover was a brief bio on him, why he was running, and how he thought he could actually win. We hit all those notes, which I was pretty happy about. Still, I had a million other questions I would have asked him if we had more time. Questions like, what policies did President Trump enact that you support? He does claim to be a very bipartisan politician. Why didn't you push or vote for a moderate Republican for Speaker? How do you plan to win over Black voters who

disproportionately seem to support Biden over other Democrats? What specific policies do you think could get the border under control? How do you square your concerns about deaths of despair like addiction and depression with your career running a distillery? What policy issues have you supported that ended up not panning out the way you thought? What have you been wrong about? And so on. I'm grateful for the time we got with him and proud of how the interview turned out, but unfortunately, we only had 15 minutes and that can only go so far. I do hope to speak to him again. All right, that is it for your questions answered, which brings us to our Undate Our section. Under Newhouse Speaker Mike Johnson, the Republican from Louisiana, Republicans are rolling out a plan to fund aid to Israel that relies on $14.5 billion in cuts to the Internal Revenue Services, the IRS. Johnson is proposing a bill that would send $14.3 billion to Israel, decoupling it from aid to Ukraine and Taiwan, while also making the cuts to the IRS to pay for it.

We're going to have pays for it in the bill, Johnson told Fox News on Monday. We're not just going to print money and send it overseas. Republicans will hold a vote on the bill on Thursday. CBS News has the story, and there's a link to it in today's episode description. All right, next up is our numbers section. The number of workers who walked off the job at the height of the UAW strike was 45,000. That represents nine assembly plants and 38 parts distribution facilities. The average first year raise secured by union contracts across all US industries in 2023 was 6.6%, the biggest bump in more than three decades. The average hourly wage for union workers as of June 2023 is $34 per hour. The average hourly wage for non-union workers is $29 per hour.

The percentage of Americans who say they approve of labor unions, according to an August poll from Gallup, is 67%. The percentage of Americans who said they approved of labor unions in 2009 during the Great Recession was 48%. And finally, the number of workdays lost to labor disputes in the U.S. in 2023 was 11 million. That's more than any full year since 2000. All right, and last but not least, our Have a Nice Day story. Soon after giving birth to a daughter two months premature, middle school teacher and single mother Terry Logan received a bill from the hospital. The total was eye-popping, saddling her with medical debt that she's been working against for 13 years.

Then, a few months ago, Logan received a different letter, this time from a non-profit, telling her that her debt was paid. That non-profit was RIP Medical Debt, which pays off medical debt for thousands of people at a time. The non-profit buys debts like any other debt collector, but instead of collecting payments, it sends out notices to consumers saying their debt has been cleared. To date, they have $6.7 billion in unpaid debt and relieved 3.6 million people of debt. Call us. We want to talk to every hospital that's interested in retiring debt, says RIP Medical Debt CEO Alison Sesso. Good Good Good has the story, and there's

a link to it in today's episode description. All right, everybody, that is it for today's podcast. Before we get out of here, a quick heads up. On Friday, I'm going to be writing a members only piece on the options Israel has in front of it, none of which are particularly good. I'm going to be writing a members-only piece on the options Israel has in front of it, none of which are particularly good. I'm also going to be responding to one of the most common questions I've been getting since our coverage of Hamas's attack in Israel began, which is, where can I learn more? What are good resources? What are good books? I'll be sharing a list of reliable resources for readers to consult, including expert journalists, their books, videos, podcasts, etc. A quick reminder, Friday editions are for members only. They come out in the newsletter. We are, yes,

still definitely working on adopting them for the podcast. But for now, if you want Friday newsletters, you can go to readtangle.com forward slash member. All right, that's it for today's pod. We'll be right back here tomorrow. same time as always. Have a good one. Peace. Our podcast is written by me, Isaac Saul, and edited by John Long. Our script is edited by Ari Weitzman, Bailey Saul, and Sean Brady. The logo for our podcast was designed by Magdalena Bakova, who's also our social media manager. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75. For more on Tangle, please go to readtangle.com and check out our website.

We'll be right back. a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+.