Stuart Hill, a United Auto Workers member who works at the General Motors Toledo Transmission Operations facility, poses in Toledo, Ohio, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021. At 38 years old and a GM employee for five years, Hill is still decades from retirement. He wonders about the future of that plant and his role in it. “It’s something that’s in the back of my mind," Hill said.
Many of those components are now built overseas. But President Joe Biden has made the development of a U.S. electric vehicle supply chain a key part of his ambitious plan to create 1 million more auto industry jobs with electric vehicles. “There are just less parts, so of course it stands to reason that there is going to be less labor,” said Jeff Dokho, research director for the UAW.
At the century-old transmission plant in Toledo, GM workers make sophisticated six-, eight-, nine- or 10-speed gearboxes. Eventually, those parts will be replaced by far simpler single-speed drivetrains for electric vehicles. Especially for workers low on the seniority list, GM’s plans for an “all-electric future” mean that eventually, their services will likely no longer be needed.
At the moment, though, American motorists have other ideas. They continue to spend record amounts on larger gasoline vehicles. With average pump prices close to a $2 a gallon, trucks and SUVs have replaced more efficient cars as the nation’s primary mode of transportation. In January, roughly three-fourths of new-vehicle sales were trucks and SUVs. A decade ago, it was only half.
Depending on how fast consumers embrace electric vehicles, Wolikow fears he could be bumped out of his job by employees with more seniority. Workers already are starting to vie for jobs at three plants that GM has designated as electric vehicle assembly sites, two in the Detroit area and one in Tennessee.
It’s unclear what will happen to workers at GM or other automakers who might be squeezed out in the transition. In the past, GM has protected some workers in periods of downsizing. When it closed an assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio, in 2019, for example, laid-off workers were given a chance to transfer to other plants. And when GM shuttered factories heading into a 2009 bankruptcy, laid-off employees received buyout and early retirement packages.
If the automakers are willing, DeWitt said, most of their workers could be retrained to move from gas vehicles to electric parts and vehicle assembly.
This move by GM is a story of opportunity, not this incredibly stupid take. Was this piece commissioned by the Republican Party or just some idiot 'conservative' editor?
We must protect the horse cart industry. We need to protect typewriter workers as well!
Am so tired of big media trying to propogandize us with fear....in favor of what?...staying with the failed status quo that created the problems we face in the first place? Shame on you, AP, for this fear-mongering article.
This is 2021. 2035 is 14 years from now. Technology changes, and civilization advances. People adapt. There are much more pressing issues right now.
Shut up, AP
Why, the only thing different is the engine and chassis set up, easily learnt if you're not stubborn I imagine coach makers had the same problem when Ford showed up
EVs have half as many parts as internal combustion vehicles. Are half as many workers needed?
They coukd have been ahead of the curve, but chose to ride fossil fuels into the ground.
According to the Democrats, they can just transition over easily.