1 yr. ago • 93%

UAW strike could disrupt EV rollout. Environmentalists support it anyway.

www.politico.com UAW strike could disrupt EV rollout. Environmentalists support it anyway.

The green support for the union marks a relatively new development between two Democratic-aligned factions.

68 comments

Why should we compromise on labor rights in favor of environmentalism? The latter wouldn't be such a problem if the former had been taken care of decades ago.

47
- EVs don't save the environment, they save the car industry.
  
  10
  
  EV != car. And even those have a use case. Having good EVs is necessary to wean off fossil fuels.
  
  8
  
  No one thing 'saves' the environment, it's beyond fucked at this point but EVs sure as shit is part of the solution and you can piss off with your perfection being the enemy of good stance here.
  
  5
  
  Car industry isn't going anywhere, regardless. Plus, do you really think vehicles with less maintenance and longer lifespans is going to save the industry?
  
  3
- I honestly don't get some people where they constantly want to pit everyone and everything against each other. Honestly it's not some stupid zero sum game here.
  
  7
  
  If everyone got along, the republican party wouldn't exist. Their power is division of the people.
  
  6
- While I generally support such things, how about because the dominant EV manufacturer is not unionized and these companies are already struggling for relevance? There has to be a balance between treating employees fairly and maintaining a successful business. Hopefully the results will be somewhere in that balance zone
  
  -15
  
  Show me the (unbiased) research that says American auto makers' problems are having a unionized workforce.
  
  9
  
  There is no balance. If you can't treat employees fairly you don't have a successful business. You have a slave shop
  
  9
Environmentalists support it because they support workers rights. Also, if you really care for the environment you know that EVs are not the solution and will never be the solution for the environment, just the car companies.

32
- EVs are not THE solution, there is no one solution. EVs are a PART of the solution.
  
  4
  
  They have their part in the solution, but the more we rely on ev the less we do more important stuff like public transportation, walkable cities, proper zoning, less unnecessary office time, etc. If we remove every petrol car ever and just make them all ev we will still have an enormous problem, but while we doing that we necessarily neglect everything else. Making the society not car-centric is more important, that's where all the focus should be. Remaining cars should obviously be electric.
  
  7
  
  They're not though. EVs and their infrastructure are still very environmentally harmful.
  
  4
  
  There actually is a single solution, but nobody wants to accept it.
  
  Humility.
  
  If we get rid of this self-serving attitude somehow, that we are all special and worth more than each other, then the rest like public transportation will all just make sense logically and fall into place.
  
  -3
- Bullshit that EVs aren't part of the climate solution. Cars will never go fully away, suburbs will never go fully away, rural areas where food is grown will never go away and EVs and green transportation tech needs to continue to advance and be part of the climate solution.
  
  0
  
  Rural areas could be not car-centric
  
  3
A strike means less cars period. Environmentalists would be in favor of that.

29
- And in a crazy perfect world maybe even infrastructure for people walking, biking, and taking public transportation.
  
  9
  
  I honestly can't imagine how you make all this viable in a country like US. Vast suburb towns with low population density are just not made for public transport.
  
  0
A more honest headline:

Our corporate overlords don't like unions and environmentalists, so we're gonna pit those groups against each other.

24
Strikes are caused by management.

16
- While true, management is doing the bidding of shareholders, so the ultimate responsibility lies with them.
  
  5
  
  Shareholder are disrupting EV rollout.
  
  5
  
  Congress repuires publicly-traded companies to do the bidding of shareholders, so it’s at least partly their fault.
  
  2
No shit? A strike would disrupt everything. That's kind of the point. This article is pure propaganda, appealing to environmentalists, techies, or whoever fancies EVs in an attempt to weaken the union's efforts to seek reasonable wages.

Shame on politico for sneaking this through by masquerading it as a blight against improving the environment.

15
Environmentalism doesn't care that much about EVs, because road infrastructure is bad, but when driving really is necessary, EVs are better. Environmentalism supports the strike, because has since long realised that workers struggle similar fights, would be a great ally and might produce popular support for environmentalism.

14
- It also doesn't matter if factories pump out EVs if people can't afford them. That new electric vehicle on the lot won't help the environment if the person buying a car can only afford a used gas guzzler.
  
  1
- Environmentalists care very much about EVs.
  
  1
  
  Yes. Specifically trains and ebikes.
  
  12
  
  Not personal vehicles no. Half the pollution of a car doesn't come out the tail pipe. EVs are a huge problem. Additionally the amount of EVs we'd need to make to compensate for all the cars out there is gigantic.
  
  There is no good environmental argument for every household to continue to own a personal vehicle and to maintain and build the insane amount of infrastructure they need.
  
  tldr; trains, buses, bikes unless there's a specific need like for manual labor or going to very low population places
  
  4
Increasing wealth equality and phasing out fossil fuels are both good things. If workers are given a good deal quickly there won't be any delay, so as I see it the choice to destroy the planet is still in the hands of the corporations.

10
- Wealth inequality is also among the biggest road blocks to climate action
  
  6
The UAW strike will hopefully inspire an expansion of union representation in the workforce.

8
Are they implying that these corps would stop or slow making ev because some workers want more pay? Oh yeah you plebs want to be able to survive why do I destroy the planet see how you like that /s. Like we cant do both and it's zero sum.

7
Auto workers want to be paid a living wage rather then having all the money going to billionaire executives? Weird, it’s almost like the workers want a roof over their head and food to eat.

6
Right. That's why record profits have accelerated EVs. /s. Don't fall for that nonsense.

2
- You joke, but it has been shown that it's not the profits that accelerate EVs, it's the management that decides to accelerate EVs. Think about that when you see these union shops struggle against the non-union and highly profitable Tesla.
  
  UAW and these legacy automakers don't deserve a happy ending when they're both self-interested at the end of the day.
  
  1
  
  ... No. Shit. That's why I said what I said.
  
  1

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