More than 7,000 U.A.W. workers at Daimler Truck plants in North Carolina are set to strike at midnight in a labor action that could carry political consequences.
A looming union election at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga could determine the trajectory of union organizing at more than a dozen auto factories.
In a presidential battleground state, electric vehicles have emerged as a contested piece of the economic future — a job-killer or a job-creator.
The change to planned rules was an election-year concession to labor unions and auto executives, according to people familiar with the plan.
The automaker has placed a bet on battery-powered cars, but it has struggled to produce and sell the vehicles in large numbers.
A battery plant in Michigan will be smaller than planned, Ford said, citing slower E.V. demand than expected, as well as labor costs.
Experts said the union’s new contracts could set precedents that give labor advantages when bargaining contracts and organizing workers.
President Biden’s support for autoworkers helped them make big wage gains, and labor organizers are looking to bring about similar gains elsewhere as carmakers transition to electric vehicles.
General Motors became the last of the three large U.S. automakers to reach a tentative agreement on a new contract with the United Automobile Workers union.
Stellantis, the parent of Chrysler, Jeep and Ram, and the United Automobile Workers union said they had reached a deal on a new contract similar to the one that the union reached with Ford.