Union Blames Biden’s EV Plan For Slashed Worker Wages

President Joe Biden has frequently billed himself as the most pro-union president in the history of the United States. 

One powerful labor union, however, claimed that auto workers are suffering as a result of the Biden administration’s extreme climate agenda.

The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by the president last year, includes massive subsidies — totaling as much as $220 billion over the next eight years — for companies that produce electric vehicles and the batteries that power them.

Of course, taxpayers are on the hook for this government largesse and it appears that average workers in the booming industry are getting the shaft. 

According to a recent United Auto Workers report, employees at General Motors’ former factory in Lordstown, Ohio, earned as much as $30 per hour. That plant has since been transformed to produce EV batteries with a starting hourly wage of about $16.50.

Workers will reportedly have to wait seven years for a modest increase to $20 per hour.

“We cannot allow a race to the bottom for America’s working families,” the union asserted. “The UAW fully supports the transition to a more climate-friendly auto industry, and we are convinced that it can be done without making workers pay the price.”

Meanwhile, GM and LG, both of which have a stake in the Ultum Cells plant in Lordstown, are poised to earn more than $1 billion each year thanks to the Biden administration’s tax credits.

“There is a real danger that hundreds of billions in taxpayer dollars will subsidize an EV industry that underpays and endangers workers,” the UAW added, describing Biden’s subsidies as a way to “supercharge corporate profits” at the expense of employees.

Although Biden’s re-election bid has already received endorsements from several prominent unions, the UAW is not among them. Union leaders say the Biden administration has failed to uphold its vow that auto workers would not suffer as a result of its environmental agenda.

After the Energy Department announced a $9.2 billion loan to Ford for battery plants, UAW President Shawn Fain issued a statement asserting that the union wants “to see national leadership have our back before we make any commitments.”