The Shift to Electric Vehicles Propels a Strike Against GM - WIRED

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1. The Shift to Electric Vehicles Propels a Strike Against GM  WIRED
2. Trump on GM strike: Nobody is better to auto workers than me  Fox Business
3. General Motors Workers On Strike: Everything You Need To Know  Jalopnik
4. Editorial: Blame strike on UAW corruption  The Detroit News
5. The Autoworkers Strike Is Bigger Than G.M.  The New York Times
6. View full coverage on Google News

https://www.wired.com/story/shift-electric-vehicles-strike-gm/

2019-09-17 11:00:00Z
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Boeing values China's aircraft business at almost $3 trillion over the next two decades - CNBC

Boeing Dreamliner 787 Air China planes sit on the production line at the company's final assembly facility in North Charleston, South Carolina.

Travis Dove | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Boeing has claimed that growing Chinese demand for planes will generate almost $3 trillion worth of industry business over the next two decades.

In its latest market outlook, the U.S. plane maker predicts China will soon become the world's largest aviation market and will need 8,090 new planes by 2038. Boeing believes within a decade that one-in-five airline passengers will be Chinese.

The figure would equate to $1.3 trillion in current list prices. Boeing said associated services to maintain fleets would be even larger at $1.6 trillion, meaning almost $3 trillion worth of business could be up for grabs.

Boeing has said passenger traffic within China is tipped to grow at more than 6% a year until 2038 and China's middle class is expected to double in size within a decade.

While domestic flights are predicted to provide the lion's share of growth, outward bound international travel will also increase.

"An expanding middle class, significant investment in infrastructure, and advanced technologies that make airplanes more capable and efficient, continue to drive tremendous demand for air travel," said Randy Tinseth, vice president of commercial marketing for Boeing said in a statement Tuesday.

China's need for new and replacement planes between now and 2038 are broken down by Boeing's analysts into 5,960 single-aisle jets, 1,780 widebody planes, 230 freighters, and 120 regional jets.

On a global basis, Boeing is projecting $6.8 trillion worth of airplane sales by 2038 with a further $9.1 trillion in services.

More than 2000 Boeing planes have already been delivered to China with around a quarter of the plane makers production line now delivered to Chinese customers. Boeing has said one third of its 737 planes are currently delivered to China.

The 737 Completion & Delivery Center in Zhoushan is a joint venture between Boeing and Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd (COMAC). It was built to provide interior furnishings and exterior paint to planes that have arrived from Seattle.

In December last year, Air China received a 737 Max 8 which was the first Boeing plane to be completed in China for a local customer.

But on March 11, China ordered its airlines to suspend operations of their 737 MAX 8 planes following two fatal crashes of the model within 5 months. In a sign of China's growing importance as an aviation regulator, most other agencies and airlines followed suit over the next two days.

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https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/17/boeing-says-china-needs-to-spend-almost-3-trillion-on-new-planes.html

2019-09-17 11:16:42Z
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GM Day 2: Strike pay would barely cover workers rent - Fox Business

UAW strikes against GM

GM says they are offering workers a generous contract with wage hikes and new jobs, FOX Business' Grady Trimble reports.

Autoworkers now in the second day of a strike at General Motors will have to wait almost two weeks before receiving assistance pay of $250 a week.

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The union benefit, which breaks down to $50 per weekday, is available to workers on Day 15 of a strike, according to the United Auto Workers website. That comes to $6.25 an hour, below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 -- or $13,000 a year, which is barely above the federal poverty line of $12,490 for a single-person household.

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GM autoworker Patricia Brown, who lives in Detroit, told FOX Business on Monday that her biggest fear is "that we might be here for a while... and we can't make it on $250 a week. You know, GM might not want to budge. So I'm just here trying to prove a point, that's it."

We can't make it on $250 a week. You know, GM might not want to budge.

Patricia Brown, striking GM autoworker

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The weekly pay barely covers rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Detroit, according to the Detroit Free Press. "We don't want to do it at all, but I guess we're going to be out here as long as we can," Brown said.

Workers have to meet a few qualifications to get strike pay. They must participate in the labor action, and if they perform outside work earning more than $250 a week, they forfeit the assistance. Those workers still qualify for specified health care benefits available through the UAW Strike and Defense Fund.

The UAW will raise its strike pay to $275 a week in 2020.

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This is the first strike against GM in 12 years. More than 49,000 UAW members walked off General Motors factory floors or set up picket lines early Monday. UAW is demanding a bigger share in the company's profits, including through annual pay raises.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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https://www.foxbusiness.com/industrials/gm-uaw-strike-workers-make-pay

2019-09-17 10:29:11Z
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The Fed needs to answer one big question - Fox Business

The Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut interest rates at the conclusion of its two-day meeting on Wednesday.

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A rate cut would be the Fed’s second in the same number of meetings as it looks to keep the longest economic expansion on record going into a 12th year.

“The Fed will likely cut 25bp at this week’s meeting and guide toward further rate reductions,” New York-based Bank of America Merrill Lynch economists wrote Monday. “The meeting should have a dovish tone. However, in our view, the big question is whether Chair Powell continues to characterize the easing cycle as a 'mid-cycle adjustment."

Recent economic data has softened a bit as the U.S.-China trade war has stretched into its second year. The U.S. economy grew at an annualized 2 percent rate in the second quarter, down from the previous quarter’s 3.1 percent print. U.S. manufacturing and employment data have also shown signs of slowing.

President Trump is well aware of how important a strong economy is to his reelection chances. He has repeatedly attacked the central bank, calling for it to cut rates to boost the economy.

“The United States, because of the Federal Reserve, is paying a MUCH higher Interest Rate than other competing countries,” Trump tweeted Monday.

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“They can’t believe how lucky they are that Jay Powell & the Fed don’t have a clue. And now, on top of it all, the Oil hit. Big Interest Rate Drop, Stimulus!”

Trump isn’t the only one calling for a big rate cut.

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, who is a voting member, said earlier this month an outsized 50 basis point cut is needed to get ahead of market expectations and cushion the economy from the U.S.-China trade war.

Still, traders at the CME Group are pricing in a 65.8 percent chance the Fed cuts rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday, down from more than 90 percent just last week. They see a zero percent chance of a 50bp cut.

The Fed in July cut interest rates for the first time in over a decade, citing low inflation and uncertainties in the global economy. Minutes from the July meeting showed Fed officials saw the rate cut as a “mid-cycle adjustment” and wanted to avoid the appearance that they were following a “preset course.”

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Even without a 50bp cut at Wednesday's meeting, the Fed is expected to lower rates further before the end of the year.

“Beyond the September meeting, we continue to expect the FOMC to deliver a third and final 25bp cut to 1.5-1.75 percent in October,” a Goldman Sachs economics research team wrote Friday.

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“A 75bp total realignment of the policy rate appears to be roughly the ‘mid-cycle adjustment’ following the 1990s template that the Fed leadership has in mind, a moderate response to moderate concerns about growth risks and soft inflation.

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https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/federal-open-market-committee-september-2019-preview

2019-09-17 10:00:11Z
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GM strike: UAW workers walk out in first work stoppage in over a decade - Live Updates - CNN

United Auto Workers President Gary Jones speaking at the opening of GM-UAW contract talks on July 16 in Detroit.

The deadlock comes at an awkward time for the United Auto Workers union, one of the most powerful labor groups in the country.

UAW President Gary Jones was directly implicated late Thursday in a growing scandal involving the union and its finances, the Detroit News reported.

It could further damage the necessary trust that rank and file union members have in the union's leadership during negotiations.

The scandal involves misappropriation of union funds, and in some cases, union officials accepting bribes from officials at one of the automakers, Fiat Chrysler.

Agents from the FBI, IRS and Labor Department had searched Jones' home late last month, an FBI spokesman confirmed to CNN.

On Thursday a top union official, Vance Pearson, became the first active union official to be indicted in the scandal.

Nine other people who have pleaded guilty in the scandal were former union officials, the widow of one union official, or employees at Fiat Chrysler who dealt with the union.

The indictment did not name Jones, but the Detroit News reported that he's one of the unidentified co-conspirators named in the government's filing, identified only as "UAW Official A." The News cited three unnamed sources for its report.

The allegation against the UAW president, even if only in a news report, could be bad news for GM in its hope of reaching a deal with the union at a difficult time for the industry, said Kristin Dziczek, vice president of industry labor and economics for the Center for Automotive Research, a Michigan think tank.

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https://www.cnn.com/business/live-news/gm-workers-strike-uaw-negotiations/index.html

2019-09-16 12:09:00Z
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GM strike: UAW workers walk out in first work stoppage in over a decade - Live Updates - CNN

United Auto Workers President Gary Jones speaking at the opening of GM-UAW contract talks on July 16 in Detroit.

The deadlock comes at an awkward time for the United Auto Workers union, one of the most powerful labor groups in the country.

UAW President Gary Jones was directly implicated late Thursday in a growing scandal involving the union and its finances, the Detroit News reported.

It could further damage the necessary trust that rank and file union members have in the union's leadership during negotiations.

The scandal involves misappropriation of union funds, and in some cases, union officials accepting bribes from officials at one of the automakers, Fiat Chrysler.

Agents from the FBI, IRS and Labor Department had searched Jones' home late last month, an FBI spokesman confirmed to CNN.

On Thursday a top union official, Vance Pearson, became the first active union official to be indicted in the scandal.

Nine other people who have pleaded guilty in the scandal were former union officials, the widow of one union official, or employees at Fiat Chrysler who dealt with the union.

The indictment did not name Jones, but the Detroit News reported that he's one of the unidentified co-conspirators named in the government's filing, identified only as "UAW Official A." The News cited three unnamed sources for its report.

The allegation against the UAW president, even if only in a news report, could be bad news for GM in its hope of reaching a deal with the union at a difficult time for the industry, said Kristin Dziczek, vice president of industry labor and economics for the Center for Automotive Research, a Michigan think tank.

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https://www.cnn.com/business/live-news/gm-workers-strike-uaw-negotiations/index.html

2019-09-16 10:46:00Z
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46,000 UAW workers go on strike against GM, America's biggest automaker - CNN

The union's 46,000 hourly workers walked out at 31 GM factories and 21 other facilities, spread across nine states, mostly in the center of the country. It's the largest strike by any union against any business since the last strike at GM in 2007.

The strike started at 11:59 pm Sunday night. The two sides did not formally meet Sunday after the union declared its intention to strike at a morning press conference, although union spokesman Brian Rothenberg said that the dialogue between the two sides was ongoing. A new meeting of the two sides is set for 10 a.m. Monday.

The union said that GM was putting profits ahead of employees who helped to turn the company around when it went through bankruptcy and federal bailout a decade ago.

The company said it made a substantial offer that includes improved pay and profit sharing for union members, along with investment to bring new jobs. It also promised a "solution" for two of the four plants currently slated for closure: one in Detroit and another in Lordstown, Ohio.

The company did not say what the solution would be. But a person familiar with GM's offer said it included a promise to build a new electric truck at Detroit Hamtramck, and to build new batteries for electric vehicles in Lordstown. That work wouldn't start immediately, so the plants would likely remain dark for some time. Work would start sometime in the next four years if the offer is accepted.

A source close to the UAW with direct knowledge of negotiations said most of the proposals the company disclosed publicly on Sunday came very late in negotiations Saturday.

GM announced plans in November of 2018 to shut the Detroit and Lordstown assembly plants, along with transmission plants in Baltimore and Warren, Michigan.

The UAW has vowed that keeping the plants open would be a key bargaining demand. Late Saturday it said while there had been progress in the talks there was still "significant differences between the parties on wages, health care benefits, temporary employees, job security and profit sharing."

GM says its average hourly employee earns about $90,000 per year, not including benefits. But the number of hourly workers at GM has declined sharply in recent decades, due to a combination of automation, lost market share and outsourcing. But GM still builds the overwhelming majority of cars it sells in the US market in North America. And it has far more factories in the United States than it does in Mexico or Canada.

The union had earlier extended the contracts at two other US automakers with UAW contracts, Ford (F) and Fiat Chrysler (FCAU), as it targeted GM in an effort to reach a deal that would set a pattern for the industry. The union announced late Saturday while membership would work past the original 12:01 a.m. ET contract expiration early Sunday, there would be no long-term extension of the contract at GM if the two sides did not reach a deal on Sunday.

All three automakers are dealing with slower sales and the need to make huge multi-billion-dollar investments in developing electric and self-driving vehicles that have more long-term potential than current market demand.

It was the need to save money for those efforts that GM halted operations at three US plants — including the assembly line in Lordstown, and announced plans to shut the Hamtramck plant, its last Detroit factory, early next year.

But negotiations come as the union is hit by a scandal involving misappropriation of union funds, and in some cases, union officials accepting bribes from officials at Fiat Chrysler. Nine people associated with the union or Fiat Chrysler have already pleaded guilty to federal charges.

Last week, the Detroit News reported the union's president, Gary Jones, was the unnamed union official identified in the most recent indictment as "UAW Official A." The union has not responded to a request for comment about that report.

Experts say the scandal will make it more difficult to get rank and file union members at the automakers to ratify any tentative deal reached by union leadership. Four years ago the deals all passed by only narrow margins, even though there was no scandal at that time.

The last strike 12 years ago lasted only three days, but some strikes against GM in the past have stretched on for months. For many of the employees hired since 2007, this is their first work stoppage.

CNN's Scott McLean contributed to this report.

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/16/business/uaw-gm-strike-general-motors/index.html

2019-09-16 09:08:00Z
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