Good morning! It’s Friday, October 13, 2023, and that is The Morning Shift, your every day roundup of the highest automotive headlines from around the globe, in a single place. Listed here are the necessary tales you want to know.

1st Gear: Ford Says Can’t Improve Wage Gives To UAW

A senior Ford government mentioned earlier this week that the automaker is “on the restrict” of what it will probably spend on wage will increase and advantages for placing United Auto Staff members. He additionally warned that the union’s strike on the firm’s most worthwhile manufacturing facility, which began on October 11, might hurt employees and slash earnings.

“We now have been very clear that we’re on the restrict,” Kumar Galhotra, head of Ford’s combustion automobile unit, reportedly mentioned throughout a convention name October 13. “We stretched to get thus far. Going additional will harm our skill to put money into the enterprise.” From Reuters:

Ford is open to reallocating cash inside its present supply in additional bargaining with the union to safe an settlement, Galhotra mentioned. Ford can be working with the UAW on a strategy to carry employees at joint-venture electrical automobile battery crops into the UAW-Ford settlement, he mentioned.

UAW President Shawn Fain on Wednesday ordered a strike at Ford’s Kentucky Truck manufacturing facility after Ford negotiators didn’t current a richer contract proposal.

UAW negotiators turned their consideration on Thursday to talks with Chrysler dad or mum Stellantis, union President Shawn Fain mentioned, confirming a Reuters report.

“Right here’s to hoping talks at Stellantis at this time are extra productive than Ford yesterday,” Fain wrote on social media. Stellantis didn’t instantly remark.

The standoff between Auto Staff and Ford might quickly find yourself impacting hundreds of employees who are usually not UAW members.

About 4,600 Ford employees may very well be idled as a result of their jobs rely upon manufacturing of Tremendous Obligation pickups and enormous Lincoln and Ford SUVs at Kentucky Truck, mentioned Ford manufacturing vice chairman Bryce Currie.

Already, 13,000 employees at Ford suppliers have been furloughed due to earlier UAW walkouts at two Ford meeting crops, Ford provide chain chief Liz Door mentioned. The shutdown of Kentucky Truck, Ford’s largest manufacturing facility, might push a fragile provide chain “towards collapse,” she mentioned.

UAW leaders have mentioned that Ford, Basic Motors, and Stellantis can really afford to extend pay for UAW employees past the 20-ish % they’ve been provided, finish lower-wage tiers for seniority and non permanent employees, and restore outlined profit pensions misplaced in 2007 if they simply rein in share buybacks and lower government pay.

For reference, the Large Three CEOs all make between $21 and $29 million per 12 months, which works out to be about 300 instances what their workers do.

2nd Gear: A $7 Billion Hydrogen Growth Is Coming

President Joe Biden is anticipated to announce the areas of seven regional hubs to fabricate hydrogen on October 13. It’s a gas that has largely solely been viable to be used in California as a result of that’s the place all of the filling stations at present are.

Biden will make the announcement with Power Secretary Jennifer Granholm on the Tioga Marine Terminal within the Port of Philadelphia. It can finally be used to supply hydrogen from renewable and nuclear energy at a brand new Mid-Atlantic hydrogen hub comprising of components of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. From CNN:

Seven regional hubs will likely be awarded funding from a pot of $7 billion that was handed final 12 months as a part of the bipartisan infrastructure regulation. Along with the Mid-Atlantic, the brand new hubs will embrace:

An Appalachian hub, positioned throughout West Virginia, Southeastern Ohio, and Southwestern Pennsylvania – this hub would be the one largest by way of manufacturing and derive hydrogen from the area’s methane gasoline;

A California hub that can span the state and encompassing the ports of Lengthy Seashore, Los Angeles and Oakland;

A Houston, Texas-based hub that might finally increase to incorporate components of Louisiana, which is able to derive hydrogen from methane gasoline and renewable power;

An Higher Midwest hub spanning Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, which is able to derive hydrogen from wind power and will likely be used for agriculture and energy;

A second Midwest hub will span components of Illinois, Indiana and southwest Michigan and will likely be derived largely from nuclear energy;

And a Pacific Northwest hub will span components of Jap Washington and Oregon in addition to components of Montana and can concentrate on hydrogen for freight and agriculture.

Officers reportedly say they’re nonetheless figuring out actual areas for the hubs in every area.

The plan from the Biden administration is that these hubs will hopefully spark new U.S. industries that senior administration officers reportedly estimated might create about $50 billion in private and non-private funding and create tens of hundreds of jobs.

third Gear: GM Ultium Manufacturing facility Slapped With OSHA Positive

GM’s Ultium Cells EV battery plant in Warren, Ohio is dealing with about $270,000 in fines after federal investigators discovered 19 well being and security violations.

The U.S. Division of Labor’s Occupational Security and Well being Administration mentioned on October 12 that investigators examined the reason for an explosion and hearth on the plant that occurred again in March. It led the company to hit the manufacturing facility with 17 severe violations and two different violations that impacted job security and well being. From Automotive Information:

OSHA inspectors discovered Ultium — a three way partnership between Basic Motors and South Korea’s LG Power Answer to supply battery cells for the automaker’s EVs — “uncovered employees to machine and chemical hazards by failing to make use of and practice employees on security and emergency response procedures,” the company mentioned.

Ultium additionally didn’t adjust to federal security requirements for using private protecting gear, together with respirators, investigators discovered.

OSHA mentioned it has issued the corporate a hazard alert letter, asking them to voluntarily scale back the buildup of steel mud and defend workers from mud publicity.

“Our dedication to security is paramount, and we make it a degree to work intently and collaboratively with state and federal officers, in addition to our native union management, to make sure we’re working in accordance with all related rules,” Ultium spokesperson Katie Burdette mentioned in an announcement.

“We take security severely and have requested a listening to with OSHA, which is the subsequent step on this course of,” she continued. “We look ahead to a constructive dialogue with OSHA and hope to resolve these points shortly and reinforce our dedication to fostering a safety-first mindset amongst all Ultium group members.”

OSHA mentioned it at present has one open inspection on the Ultium plant following a fireplace on June 27. It additionally has three inquiries, together with a report after a strain gauge failed in August and resulted in a battery slurry leak that briefly halted exercise in a part of the plant.

It has reportedly cited the Warren plant 11 instances because it started battery cell manufacturing in August final 12 months.

4th Gear: Tesla Fights $230 Million In Authorized Charges

Tesla is reportedly urging a choose in Delaware to reject $230 million in authorized charges which have been requested by a group of shareholder attorneys who received a settlement in a direct pay dispute. The automaker needs the chief justice of the court docket to approve a price of not more than $64 million. From Reuters:

The maker of electrical autos referred to as the price request an “unwarranted windfall” that works out to an hourly charge of $10,690, one of many highest price requests ever in Delaware’s Courtroom of Chancery, a key venue for shareholder lawsuits.

[…]

The attorneys represented a Detroit police union pension plan that sued Tesla’s administrators for extreme compensation throughout 2017 to 2020. Almost the entire administrators’ compensation comprised inventory choices and so they solely bought paid if the inventory rose. Lately it swelled 10-fold.

Elon Musk’s $56 billion in compensation as Tesla’s chief government was not a part of this lawsuit. It’s being challenged individually.

The 2020 lawsuit settled in July with the administrators agreeing to return to Tesla $735 million as a part of a $919 million settlement. The administrators mentioned their pay was honest and so they solely settled to take away the danger of litigation.

Attorneys reportedly need their 25 % price for the settlement with 12 administrators. They embrace James Murdoch (the opposite Murdoch son) and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.

The case was introduced as a so-called by-product lawsuit which advantages the corporate, reasonably than shareholders instantly.

Tesla argued the shareholder’s attorneys exaggerated the worth of the settlement, and by extension their requested price, by pegging its worth to the price to administrators reasonably than the profit to the corporate. Tesla estimated its profit from the deal was $295 million.

The distinction within the two values boils right down to the inventory choices. On the time of the July settlement the choices have been price $458 million to the administrators.

However the firm can not train the returned inventory choices. As an alternative, Tesla mentioned in court docket papers that the advantage of getting the choices again is reversing the accounting price it recorded after they have been issued, which was round $20 million.

Musk is reportedly not contributing to the settlement, and he didn’t obtain any cash for his position on the board.

Reverse: It’s Time To Attempt Once more