President Joe Biden’s push for a green energy agenda in the auto industry will reportedly shift billions of dollars away from American workers to multinational corporations.
Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, a climate change agenda-pushing bill that has little effect on inflation, includes a provision about the auto industry that could have devastating consequences for taxpayers.
Automakers producing electric vehicles and the batteries that power them are likely to see a $220 billion windfall by 2031, which will come in the form of taxpayer-funded subsidies. These subsidies were outlined in “a provision in the law that allows automakers to take advantage of tax credits so long as their EVs and batteries are primarily sourced in the United States and manufactured in the U.S., Canada, or Mexico,” according to Breitbart News.
This disastrous provision is set to transfer billions in wealth to multinational corporations and has been described as an industry-wide bailout at the expense of American taxpayers.
A new report from the United Auto Workers (UAW) examines General Motors (GM) and LG’s electric vehicle battery plant Ultium Cells, a facility located in Lordstown, Ohio that replaced GM’s old vehicle assembly plant.
While workers at GM’s old plant made up to $30 per hour, the report reveals that the new plant is only paying their workers roughly $16.50 per hour — with a raise to $20 per hour after seven years of employment. Looking at the numbers, auto workers in Lordstown are facing a 45% drop in wages.
“We cannot allow a race to the bottom for America’s working families,” the UAW report states. “The UAW fully supports the transition to a more climate-friendly auto industry, and we are convinced that it can be done without making workers pay the price.”
However, while workers’ livelihoods are being negatively affected, GM and LG are likely to make more than $1 billion annually in subsidies from Biden’s electric vehicle tax credits through the Ultium Cells plant alone.
In their report, the UAW expressed concern that the subsidies will “be used to supercharge corporate profits” while drastically cutting workers’ wages — noting that “there is a real danger that hundreds of billions in taxpayer dollars will subsidize an EV industry that underpays and endangers workers.”
NEW: Workers who make electric vehicle batteries for Ultium Cells are speaking about low wages and dangerous working conditions that threaten the EV transition.
Read their story & the research behind it in a new white paper, "HIGH RISK AND LOW PAY":https://t.co/PJ0iS07dzp
— UAW (@UAW) July 10, 2023
The UAW is currently withholding an endorsement for Biden in response to the administration’s refusal to follow through on commitments that auto industry workers will not face a drop in wages if their manufacturing jobs are transitioned to green energy jobs.
