While the unions haven’t announced any organizing drives at Georgia’s car plants, the state’s EV industry is a potential target. Georgia has received $18.8 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act, much of it aimed at boosting EV battery production.
A Kemp spokesperson, Garrison Douglas, said the state’s commitment to pro-business policies was the real catalyst for the EV industries. Kemp underscored that argument in May when he visited Kia’s plant in West Point, Georgia, and drove the factory’s first EV off the assembly line.
“This expansion of Kia’s operations in our state and the addition of this incredible new product line to the vehicles already being built in West Point is just the latest example of what comes from state and local partners working with this valued job creator,” Kemp said at the time.
Kia employs 3,200 people at the West Point plant, and another 11,000 work at suppliers in the region. Hyundai, which is Kia’s corporate parent, plans to hire 8,500 workers at an EV plant near Savannah, Georgia. Both companies are partners in battery plants that are under construction.
At first glance, the Kia factory appears to be an unlikely battleground. It’s brightly lit and spotlessly clean. Automated machines stamp flat sheets of steel into body components and robotic arms that weld the pieces together. The bulk of the workforce works in the final assembly process, installing wiring, suspension, seats and other components.
Neither the Georgia law nor the Inflation Reduction Act’s pro-union provision will affect the plant, although EVs produced at the plant will qualify for tax incentives under the climate law, said James Bell, head of communications for Kia America. The plant produces four gas-powered cars on the same assembly line as its EVs, giving it flexibility to meet whatever consumers demand.
“IRA funding, we approach it purely from, how can it incentivize consumers to join us on this adventure towards electrification?” Bell said.
Steve Tramell, the mayor of West Point, said the Kia plant helped the town recover from an economic slump. It was once home to WestPoint Stevens, a major textile manufacturer, but the company moved its operations and later went bankrupt, laying off thousands of workers.
After the Kia plant went into production in 2009, restaurants and stores reopened in West Point’s downtown, and local residents picked up jobs at the plant, Tramell said. There’s a lack of housing in the area, and a lot of the plant’s workforce drives in from Alabama or from the Atlanta suburbs.
As for unions, Tramell said, “I just don’t know there’d be a benefit.”
Mickey Thornton, who works at the New Flyer bus plant across the state line in Alabama, said there are plenty of benefits from unionizing. The contract at New Flyer gives workers protection from last-minute overtime work, along with more vacation time and raises averaging 15 to 38 percent through 2026.
“You have more money in your pocket at the end of the week,” he said. “You’re going to spend more money in your hometowns, and it’s going to boost the economy of your cities.”
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Publish date : 2024-10-29 23:19:00
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