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Nora Eckert
A Honda spokesman confirmed the details of the memo Friday. Since 2021, Honda has added more than 10 new benefits and programs, including child-care reimbursement and student-loan repayment, he said. The spokesman declined to say how much production employees earn currently.
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In the memo, Honda said worker compensation is based on achieving competitive pay, and company leaders will continue to monitor the market conditions to attract and retain employees.
The move by Honda, an automaker whose U.S. factories aren’t unionized, shows how quickly the historic wins achieved by the UAW in negotiating new labor contracts with the Detroit automakers are rippling throughout the car business.
President Biden celebrated the new labor contracts between the United Auto Workers union and the three major car companies while visiting an auto plant in Belvidere, Ill. Photo: Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images
Honda operates several manufacturing facilities in the U.S., including plants in Ohio, Alabama and Indiana, employing at least 22,000 manufacturing workers.
Earlier this month, Toyota Motor also raised wages for most U.S. factory employees by 9% and shortened the time it takes to reach top pay, saying it regularly assesses the competition to ensure its pay and benefits remain in line with the broader industry.
In this round of bargaining, the UAW won not only a 25% base wage increase for its members at GM, Ford and Stellantis, but also cost-of-living increases, improved retiree benefits and the right to strike over plant closures.
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These union workers also secured a shorter, three-year progression to a top pay of $42 an hour, down from the previous eight years.
UAW-represented workers at all three car companies are currently voting on the tentative agreements, a process that could take a few weeks. The deals must be approved by a simple majority to be ratified.
UAW President Shawn Fain has made clear that he plans to leverage these victories to try to organize the nonunion plants owned by the foreign car companies.
“When we return to the bargaining table in 2028, it won’t just be with the Big Three, but with the Big Five or Big Six,” Fain said in a recent video address.
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The union has made several unsuccessful attempts in the past to organize these factory workers, including twice trying to win over employees at
Volkswagen
’s plant in Chattanooga, Tenn. The UAW lost its most recent effort in 2019 by a few dozen votes.
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Executives at the foreign car companies have closely monitored union negotiations in Detroit during the strike, concerned it might eventually impact their business in a tight labor market.
These automakers have long spent less on labor costs, a gap that auto executives in Detroit have highlighted as putting their operations at a competitive disadvantage.
Fain, the 55-year-old union leader, said Toyota’s wage bump was a sign that they knew the union was “coming for them.”
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A Toyota spokesman said that the decision to unionize ultimately will be made by its workers and that the company has “a history of stable employment and income for our employees.”
In addition to Asian automakers such as Honda and Toyota, electric-vehicle leader
Tesla
is also a potential target for a UAW organizing campaign.
Some employees at the company’s plant in Fremont, Calif., sought to organize several years ago with the help of the UAW. Tesla took steps to hinder that effort, including “coercively interrogating” employees and threatening them with the loss of stock options, moves that violated U.S. labor law, the National Labor Relations Board ruled.
Write to Nora Eckert at
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UAW’s Unprecedented Strike
Impact of the union’s work stoppage at GM, Ford and Stellantis
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