UAW blasts Biden administration over Ford, SK battery loan

The head of the UAW on Friday bashed the Biden administration’s decision this week to give conditional approval for a multibillion-dollar loan package to a joint venture between Ford Motor and a South Korean battery maker without including wage, work conditions and retirement demands upfront. “We have been absolutely clear that the switch to electric engine jobs, battery production and other EV (electric vehicle) manufacturing cannot become a race to the bottom,” UAW President Shawn Fain said. “Not only is the federal government not using its power to turn the tide — they’re actively funding the race to the bottom with billions in public money.” “Why is Joe Biden’s administration facilitating this corporate greed with taxpayer money?” Fain continued in the statement, which also called the loan a “handout.” On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that it was awarding a conditional commitment to BlueOval SK, a joint venture between Ford and battery maker SK On, of up to $9.2 billion to build a plant in Stanton, Tennessee, and two near Glendale, Kentucky, to produce batteries for Ford and Lincoln EVs. Energy’s Loan Programs Office said the project is expected to create thousands of construction jobs in Tennessee and Kentucky and have about 7,500 employees once the plants are operating and meets the Biden administration’s goal of investing more federal loans in and around disadvantaged communities. The award, contingent on the joint venture meeting several benchmarks, came through the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) program which provides loans to projects intended to put more fuel-efficient vehicles on the road. Last year, the ATVM program committed to loan a joint venture between General Motors and LG Energy Solutions to build battery cell plants up to $2.5 billion. Fain and the UAW have made it clear they want to organize EV battery plants, since the move to manufacturing EVs will likely result in fewer line workers being needed to assemble the cars and trucks. As part of that, they have been pressuring the Biden administration and Democrats in Congress to link the availability of loans and other awards to companies’ willingness to be organized by labor and otherwise hit wage and benefit demands. The UAW, unlike many other national unions, has also so far declined to endorse President Joe Biden for reelection next year, despite his widely being seen as perhaps the most pro-labor president in history and often describing himself as a “car guy.” In his statement, Fain also noted that union workers took the brunt of the hit when GM closed its Lordstown, Ohio, plant only to have them replaced with lower-paying jobs at the battery cell-making joint venture between GM and LG now, as well as in 2009, when the federal government stepped in to rescue GM and Chrysler, with jobs and wages being cut. Ford, which employs more UAW workers than any other automaker, responded to Fain’s statement by saying the Energy Department loan “will help create thousands of good-paying jobs and strengthen the future of American manufacturing.” “Ford expects that BlueOval SK will pay competitive wages and benefits to attract and retain the workforce needed to build high-tech batteries,” the company said in a statement. “Employees at BlueOval SK’s battery plants will be able to choose whether they organize, a right that Ford fully respects and supports.”