Liam Denning, Columnist

UAW’s Old Guard Is Both a Blessing and a Curse

An aging labor force will ease the transition to electric vehicles for legacy automakers but deal a blow to their union.

September 22, 2023 at 11:34 AM UTC

By Liam Denning

Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy. A former banker, he edited the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column and wrote the Financial Times’s Lex column.

United Auto Workers members and supporters rally at the Stellantis North America headquarters on September 20.
Photographer: Bill Pugliano/Getty Images North America

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The United Auto Workers’ “war” on the Big Three automakers is still in the intense phase, getting more so Friday morning as strikes went nationwide. Even when the smoke eventually clears, the union will likely face a campaign of attrition — courtesy of electric vehicles.

The UAW, quite justifiably, wants higher pay after several years of inflation that was bad for members’ incomes and great for automakers’ profits (see this). Lurking in the background is a more existential challenge: EVs.