A transition to an all-electric-car future won’t mean less labor but more—much of it overseas.
Many claim that the United Auto Workers strike is, at core, a reaction to an “inevitable” transition to an all-electric-car future. They say that this future involves fewer jobs because electric vehicles (EVs) are supposedly simpler machines that therefore require far less labor to build. None of this is true.
But before we puncture this myth, let’s first note that the strike, like so much in life and politics, is about money. The UAW wants a 40 percent pay hike—and you can see why, given the staggering amounts of money sloshing around the auto industry. Automakers are enjoying record profits, much of which, rather than going toward wage increases, is being used to offset the billions of dollars in losses from building EVs. And that’s the least of it—the really big money gusher is coming from the government in the form of direct and indirect subsidies for EVs and the associated infrastructures.
