Tesla May Be the Winner of Big Three-UAW Labor Strikes

Ford, GM and Stellantis already pay their workers about 38% more than Tesla does

Unlike Ford, GM and Stellantis, Tesla has fended off efforts to unionize at its U.S. car factories.

A United Auto Workers strike, if one is called, already comes at a time when the Big Three U.S. automakers are struggling with the transition to electric vehicles — and Tesla Inc. is emerging as a potential beneficiary of the labor strife.

Nearly 13,000 U.S. auto workers went on strike early Friday after the Big Three and the United Auto Workers failed to reach an agreement before their national contract expired just before midnight.

UAW President Shawn Fain called the targeted strike at a Ford Motor plant in Michigan, a General Motors, plant in Missouri and a Stellantis NV plant in Ohio. A strike at all three U.S. car makers is a break with tradition, as the union for many years has elected to center strike efforts at one company to protect its strike fund and picket-line firepower. Fain said the union could add more plants to strike as part of its strategy to keep the automakers guessing, and urged all 150,000 UAW members to be ready if and when they’re called to strike.

Tesla has for years fended off unionizing efforts at its U.S. factories, which has helped it widen the first-mover advantage that it has enjoyed on EVs, and it is likely to emerge as “the winner from the labor talks,” Gene Munster, a managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, said in a note Thursday.

“Big auto is in a tight place when it comes to transitioning its business to electric, and the current UAW discussions will eventually result in a steep increase in costs that will further push them into the red,” Munster said.

Ford has put forward a 20% increase over the life of the four-year contract, up from its previous offer of 9%, while GM’s latest offer is 18% and Stellantis’s offer is 17.5%. The union is seeking wage increases of around 36% over the life of the contract, after initially seeking 46% when compounded annually.

But even before any wage increases resulting from the potential strike, the Big Three are paying their workers 38% more than comparable Tesla workers, and that gap is likely to increase, Munster said.

Ford, GM and Stellantis also have struggled to make their EVs profitable. Part of the reason GM decided to end the production of its Chevy Bolt was the thin profit margins on the compact EV. GM then decided to bring back the Bolt at a later date using a shared EV architecture in hopes that will improve margins.

Moody’s Investors Service also pointed out that EV dilemma. While all three automakers have ample liquidity to weather a strike, a prolonged labor action could slow down their EV ambitions, the debt-rating agency said in a recent note.

While workers are unlikely to get as big a raise as they are demanding, the new UAW contract could result in pay increases of as much as 20%, Moody’s said.

A strike could also affect automakers’ plans to ramp up EV production, Moody’s said. GM, for instance, plans to make about 100,000 EVs in the second half of the year, double the number it made in the first half.

“Critically, the strike could affect production of electric models that General Motors launched in the last 18 months, very few of which were actually built so far,” Moody’s said.

Ford, for its part, is targeting an annualized production run rate by the end of the fourth quarter of 100,000 F-150 Lightnings, the electric version of its popular F-150 pickup truck, compared with 24,000 in the first quarter, it said.