DETROIT — The United Auto Workers is intensifying its fight against General Motors Co. and partner LG Energy Solution for the "high risk and low pay" it is offering the workforce at its Ultium Cells LLC joint-venture battery cell plant in Warren, Ohio.
In a white paper about the plant to be broadly released on Monday, the union is upping its criticism of battery-plant pay and working conditions, saying the "hazardous conditions and low wages show standards must be raised at battery cell plants getting billions in taxpayer dollars."
GM's joint-venture battery plants with LG and Samsung, as well as the battery plants planned by Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis NV, are emerging as a top concern for the UAW as it prepares to enter negotiations for a new contract with the Detroit Three. Battery projects also have become a flashpoint between the union and the Biden White House, with union leaders arguing the administration hasn't done enough to ensure generous federal subsidies for the plants and the components they build are tied to high wages and benefits for workers.
