The U.S. economy is in the early stages of a once-in-a-lifetime transition from a fossil fuel-based economy. To prevent catastrophic climate change, we must quickly transition to electric vehicles and devices powered by renewable energy.
But it shouldn’t come at the expense of well-paying jobs – and that doesn’t have to be the case.
Now that the electrification revolution is in full swing—electric car sales are skyrocketing and electric heat pumps are outselling gas furnaces—malicious actors are trying to exploit workers’ fears about their role in a zero-emissions future. These efforts were most recently evident in the auto workers’ strike against the three major automakers.
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When former President Donald Trump visited Michigan last month, he said electric vehicle regulations would ruin the U.S. auto industry, so it didn’t matter what kind of labor contracts autoworkers signed. “In two years you will all be out of business,” he said, adding that “your jobs will be lost forever.”
It took just days for the United Auto Workers union to expose this lie when it announced on October 6 that General Motors had committed to bringing its battery production operations under the union’s nationwide agreement.
President Joe Biden (center) stands on the GMC Hummer EV production line as he tours the General Motors Factory ZERO electric vehicle assembly plant with General Motors CEO Mary Barra (second from left), Labor Secretary Marty Walsh (second from right) and United Auto Labor President Ray Curry (right) in Detroit on November 17, 2021.
Almond Ngan/AFP
“We were told that the future of electric vehicles must be a race to the bottom, and now we’ve called their bluff,” said UAW President Shawn Fain.
Workers have legitimate reasons to worry that as automakers shift to electric vehicles, they will close combustion engine and transmission plants and replace them with low-wage jobs in battery factories. But the agreement with GM shows that this is a choice and that tackling climate change by transitioning to a zero-emissions economy does not have to mean leaving workers behind.
The federal subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act, the landmark climate law that President Joe Biden signed last year, are understandably fueling uncertainty about autoworkers’ place in an electric future. The law’s incentives have sparked a flood of new clean energy projects, including plans for more than $80 billion in private investments in electric vehicle factories and battery plants, most of them in the emerging “battery belt,” an area stretching from Michigan to Georgia extends.
It is a historic opportunity to restore U.S. manufacturing jobs while combating the existential threat of climate change. But restructuring the automotive industry must be done in a way that works for workers and produces vehicles that are affordable for consumers.
So far, most new clean energy projects are in red states with lower wages and less union representation. This makes it all the more important that automobile manufacturers offer livable wages and occupational safety and do the right thing by the employees who are shaping the future. This is not achieved by imitating Tesla. While the company makes some of the country’s best-selling electric vehicles, its non-union factories pay lower wages and have a history of complaints about difficult and unsafe working conditions.
Some workers may fear that vehicle electrification will leave them behind. But there is no evidence that this will cause a wide range of blue-collar jobs to disappear or become “lower-paying, less skilled or less desirable,” said Sanya Carley, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who has studied auto workers in the Midwest and coal mining communities in the Appalachians. “It is a false dichotomy to say we must pursue decarbonization or equity. We can do both at the same time.”
Compare that to Trump’s opportunistic defeatism, which only plays into the hands of oil and gas companies that stand to benefit from a delay in phasing out their polluting products.
Fortunately, Biden understands that the energy transition does not have to come at the expense of well-paying middle-class jobs. Many of the Inflation Reduction Act’s tax incentives for clean energy projects are tied to higher labor standards. Biden joins auto workers on picket lines, calling for more union-run training and apprenticeship programs to ensure laid-off workers are first in line for jobs in electric vehicle and battery manufacturing.
“We will leave no one behind,” Biden said in Detroit last month.
Biden and other leaders still have much work to do to deliver on that promise, but it is right to demand that good-paying jobs be a non-negotiable part of our zero-emissions future.
From the archives: Southside Plaza
On March 6, 1958, the grand opening ceremonies for Southside Plaza took place. The mall’s tenants included Sears and Penney’s, and JC Penney itself was present at the opening of its new store. In the opening advertisement, Penney’s advertised a crib for $20 and a stroller for $10. JC PENNEY cuts the ribbon and opens his new store here. ORG XMIT: RIC1301171716315363
Carl Lynn
Interior of the new Sears store in Southside Plaza. Sears’ used-goods store, Roebuck, could expand later. The Southside Plaza store is the chain’s first suburban location
RTD employees
This photo from September 1958 shows the interior of the first S&W Cafeteria in Richmond. It opened in late August in Southside Plaza and seats about 300. Appetizers such as fried chicken, roast beef and breaded veal schnitzel cost 55 to 60 cents. The cafeteria employed about 60 people. A second S&W was planned for the Willow Lawn shopping center.
Times Dispatch
In November 1957, three stores opened in Southside Plaza, then part of Chesterfield County. They were (from left) Giant Food, Peoples Drug Store and GC Murphy Co. The mall’s grand opening took place in March 1958.
James Netherwood
In March 1958, Southside Plaza celebrated its grand opening. The shopping center, then part of Chesterfield County, also included this new High’s Ice Cream store, known as the Plantation Room. It was unique among the high’s in the area in that it served light meals and had booths and counters around the area for preparing ice cream dishes.
RTD employees
Work is nearly complete on the region’s first self-service post office at Southside Plaza. Located in the middle of the Southside Plaza parking lot, the small post office provides 24-hour convenience to people in the South Side area. The facility will open Dec. 9, according to postal officials, in time to be a holiday treat… The office’s vending machines will sell loose stamps and book stamps valued at up to 25 cents each, regular and airmail franked Envelopes, postcards, etc. offered insurance stickers. There will also be scales for weighing packages as well as coin and money changing machines. In case something goes wrong, there should be a direct telephone connection to the main post office in the city center.
RTD employees
January 20, 1969: Southside Plaza
Employee photo
December 24, 1968 (cut line): Traffic at Southside Plaza is directed by an off-duty police officer. Chesterfield County’s pool of additional police officers is not sufficient.
Employee photo
October 20, 1958: Southside Plaza
Employee photo
July 3, 1958: Southside Plaza
Employee photo
August 27, 1965 (cut line): The opening of Miller & Rhoads’ new Richmond store (above) in Southside Plaza has been postponed until early November, in time for Christmas shopping and well ahead of the previously announced opening date of 1966. The store’s exterior is nearly complete and Work on the interior of the 50,000 square meter, two-story building is progressing. Miller & Rhoads also reported this week that its new store at the Walnut Hill Shopping Center in Petersburg will open Sept. 8, while the third-floor addition and remodeled departments at the Willow Lawn store will be completed in early October.
Employee photo
March 11, 1959 (cut line): Four members of the Plaza Merchants group are planning a birthday party. Pictured are Leon Hoffman (left), Kenneth Grube, Kelly Davick and John Woodle.
Employee photo
January 30, 1969: Southside Plaza
Employee photo
March 9, 1959 (cut line): The new S&W Cafeteria opens tomorrow in Southside Plaza.
Employee photo
July 3, 1958: Southside Plaza
Employee photo
June 3, 1958: Sign and clock at Southside Plaza.
Employee photo
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