UAW Reaches Secret Deal With Rivian to Make Unionizing Easier
The EV maker pledged to adopt a neutral stance on UAW efforts to organize its factory workers, contingent upon the company becoming profitable.
Workers assembly components of a Rivian electric vehicle pickup truck at the company's manufacturing facility in Normal, Illinois.
Photographer: Jamie Kelter Davis/BloombergIn recent months, the United Auto Workers reached an agreement with Rivian Automotive Inc. that would make it easier to unionize the company’s workforce — contingent on the electric-vehicle maker ever reaching profitability.
Under Rivian and the UAW’s confidential pact, the automaker would adopt a neutral stance toward efforts to organize workers at its Illinois factory where its vehicles are made, according to people familiar with the matter. The neutrality commitment will only take effect once the company reaches certain criteria including profitability metrics, said the people, who didn’t elaborate on what those metrics were and spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the private terms.