Economically this seems like a ripe time for striking.
US wants to onshore/friend shore production, so there is a demand for US workers at any cost. Barring automation replacements.
US wants to onshore/friend shore production, so there is a demand for US workers at any cost. Barring automation replacements.
The auto industry in the US is just about as automated as possible, given current tech, economics, etc.
They actually shoot themselves in the foot often.
They often over automate from the beginning, force too much, figure out it won't work, then just end up doing it how Ford does.
By out-sourcing jobs to China.
> According to new figures released by the CPCA, Giga Shanghai was responsible for the production of 710,865 vehicles in 2022. And given Tesla sold 1,313,851 cars last year, that means 54.1 percent came from the Chinese plant
You basically have three major hold backs:
* Parts requiring manual assembly. My first summer job was at an auto supplier. It involved running 3 wires though a piece of conduit and wrapping it with electrical tape. It was a connector for some sedan brake light. Family friend. They still run the business the same way. Parts change too frequently and are too hard to automate.
* automation still requires maintenance. This isn’t just replacing parts on machines. This is also the entire supply of parts that go into fixing machines. Lines going down is incredibly expensive. Parts aren’t always readily available. There’s a whole industry of small “tool and die” shops that have the capability to build a part from specs next day.
* plants are huge and expensive., you don’t retool unless you have good justification. Typically, this happens with a model refresh.
For these reasons you highlight, auto plants in the US are generally as automated as is makes sense to do.
[0]https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/uaw-wa...
This is just nonsense, the point of capitalism is to extract value efficiently, if Big 3 cannot, then other companies will. There is no in between or buts.
UAW was unable to unionize non-big 3 factories in the US.
There's a huge wave of increased support for labor in the US right now. It's definitely not a good idea to bet on any particular area remaining un-unionized.
There is zero chance non-us car factories unionize. There is nothing stopping them from closing the factory and moving internationally. The same isn’t true for the big 3.
And for, say, German automakers, they already have unionized workforces outside the US.
This whole narrative of "we cannot possibly try to improve anything for our people, because any time we do the wealthy overlords will move their business/money/etc overseas" is demonstrably bullshit, and always has been. It doesn't hold up for raising taxes on the wealthy, it doesn't hold up for unionization, and it won't hold up for whatever the next thing people like you try to use it to argue against will be.
The worker who attaches doors to the car on the shop floor had almost zero impact on the surge in profits because they are very restricted in scope of tasks.
How are the Detroit automakers, which are the only unionized ones meant to compete with the companies that completely ignore fair wages and don't even have unions begging for them?
I'm not against paying people fair wages but automakers aren't exactly train companies that run at a loss and for the public good (being propped up by the government)
I guess we could prop up automakers with tax funds and pay fair wages and somehow ignore all the other market forces but... Why? We already prop them up with subsidized roads and infrastructure...
let the market dictate their death. it's just those free market forces. and if it's a matter of national security that we make autos then it answers itself; some kind of military subsidy.
Exploitative labor seems like a silly thing to _justify_ as a free market force.
They aren’t the ones making the cars, though. Your whole point is nonsense. It’s maybe an argument for paying CEOs 10 or 20 times the average worker’s salary, certainly not for the stupid 20+ millions we see.
Pointing out the endless flaws in Tesla cars that have rolled off the line (joints that don't quite align, slight blemishes etc) are a running joke for many of its detractors
Not to mention the absolute clown fiesta of Elmo's "Cybertruck"
Or how about the obvious future of just EV's in general? Tesla at ~350k sales, Ford MachE and GM Bolt aren't even scraping 10k.