The United Auto Workers' successful battle for better pay and benefits from the Big Three domestic automobile companies is having a ripple effect elsewhere in the industry:
South Korean automaker Hyundai has joined Honda and Toyota in raising factory worker wages after the United Auto Workers union reached new contract agreements with Detroit automakers.
Hyundai said Monday it will raise factory worker pay 25% by 2028, matching the general wage increase won by the UAW during that period. Toyota raised factory pay 9% to 10% starting in January, while Honda said it will increase wages 11% during the same period.
Labor experts say the increases are at least in part aimed at thwarting UAW President Shawn Fain’s strategy of trying to organize U.S. auto plants run by foreign automakers and Tesla in order to increase the union’s bargaining power. Fain said terrified auto executives at nonunion plants are raising wages, and he called Toyota’s pay increase the UAW bump.
“UAW, that stands for ‘You Are Welcome,’” he said...
Maybe the next time a contract comes around, those non- union autoworkers will have been unionized, rather than let their brothers and sisters in the UAW shoulder the burden.
(Photo: Sean Fain / via CNN)
