Japanese automakers Honda Motor and Toyota have raised wages for non-union U.S. factory workers in recent weeks amid signs that the union is turning its attention to organizing the workforce at foreign-owned and Tesla auto plants.
Hyundai Motor has also announced a 25% increase over the next four years for non-union production workers in Alabama and Georgia.
“All are raising wages to inhibit unions, prevent strikes, and in general limit labor power,” said A.J. Jacobs, a sociologist at East Carolina University, who has studied the rise of foreign automakers in the United States. Foreign automakers have tried to prevent unions in the United States in part by opening plants in the South, which has weaker labor laws and political leaders typically opposed to unions, he said.
Other non-union automakers with American factories, like Subaru, Volvo, BMW, Mercedes, and Tesla have not yet announced whether they will be offering raises of their own.
These companies have been elusive targets for the union in the past. In order for the UAW to make progress, the union will have to overcome fierce management resistance, employee surveillance, unfavorable labor laws and political leaders in the South who are hostile to unions.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/14/cars/uaw-labor-toyota-honda-hyundai/index.html
The point the UAW needs to drive home is that these raises at the other companies wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for the union’s strike against the Big Three rustling their jimmies.
You are right.
UAW President Shawn Fain already encouraged non-union autoworkers to join the UAW, and Fain has called the non-union wage increases the “UAW bump.”
It’s crazy that these non union auto makers are giving their employees a raise of less than half of the union raise and we’re all sitting here not mentioning that the raises themselves are a great reason to unionize.
Sure, “Hey you wouldn’t have gotten that raise without the union raise” might be true but “Hey you would be making more money if you were unionized” seems a heck if a lot more persuasive to me.
