Documents automobile industry 743 results

"This battery study analyses the ramping-up of lithium-ion battery cell production in Europe. It outlines lithium-ion battery technology, the value chain, location factors, the innovation system and the employment effects. The report aims to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of Europe as a location and its global role in battery cell production. A location matrix identifies attractive European locations for battery cell production plants and compares Europe's competitiveness with the main players USA, China, South Korea and Japan. European demand scenarios are calculated and Europe is expected to meet its demand until 2030, and even build up export capacities, provided that all the projects that have been announced can be successfully implemented. Then it will also be able to increase its share in global production at the expense of China. An analysis of the technical innovation system identifies the interplay between the actors and the framework conditions which will stimulate battery cell production in Europe. Analysis of the employment effects paints a diverse picture of job losses and job creation alongside a high demand for retraining."

"This report offers a comprehensive overview of the RE-SOURCING Project, which sought to advance the concept of Responsible Sourcing (RS) in an evolving global landscape. The project's actions were multifaceted, encompassing the facilitation of a universally accepted definition of RS; the generation of incentives supporting responsible business conduct across mineral supply chains; the exchange of information and best practices; and the promotion of RS in the international political arena. The RE-SOURCING Project started with documenting the sustainability challenges within mineral supply chains, shedding light on the complexities and interdependence between environmental, social, and economic impacts and the role of governance. The project also noted increasing awareness and advocacy from civil society actors, governments, and industry alliances to address these challenges and push for net-positive impacts from the operations of mineral supply chains. The diverse RS approaches encompass various pathways, ranging from collaborative alliances and partnerships to address the collective challenges, to efforts aimed at mitigating knowledge disparities and enhancing transparency through data sharing. These endeavours collectively strive to enhance RS practices in mineral supply chains. The project identified a common narrative within these approaches: Addressing the power imbalance between actors in a supply chain; focusing/support disenfranchised groups to have influence and participate in the decision-making process for issues that impact them. ..."

"Reducing human-made greenhouse gas emissions is crucially important for life on earth, but it requires restructuring industries in ways that could disrupt millions of workers' lives globally. Whether this transition is “just” from the perspective of workers depends on the magnitude of job losses, the quality of new jobs, and the transitions workers experience from their current jobs to new ones. Using the example of the German automotive industry, where the shift to electric vehicle production has recently accelerated, the authors identify recommendations for unions and policymakers in North America and beyond. This article provides an overview of the tools for workers and trade unions in Germany to steer the transition and shows how analogous tools could be strengthened or created elsewhere."

"Reducing transport sector emissions is an important pillar of the green transition. However, the transition to electric vehicles (EV) portends major changes in vehicle manufacturing activity, on which many livelihoods in Europe depend. Using the heterogeneity across European countries in the speed of transition to EV production and variation in sectoral and regional exposure to the automotive sector, this paper offers early evidence of the labor market implications of the EV transition. Our results suggest that the transformation of the auto sector is already having an adverse impact on employment in the affected sectors and regions, which can be expected to grow at least in the near term. Many of the affected workers will be able to retire and our analysis suggests that those who will have to transition to new “greener” jobs have a fair chance to do so when compared to other workers in the manufacturing sector. Furthermore, we find evidence that active labor market policies, specifically training, can help to reduce the adjustment costs for the affected workers."

"Die Forschung zur doppelten Transformation in der Automobilbranche ist stark dominiert von quantitativen Prognosen zum zukünftigen Beschäftigungsabbau. Dabei werden Digitalisierung und Elektromobilität oft nicht im Zusammenhang betrachtet. Studien zur aktuellen und doppelten Transformationsdynamik sind noch selten. Dieser Beitrag gibt als quantitative Momentaufnahme einen Einblick zum Stand der Transformation aus Beschäftigtensicht. Gefragt wird, welche konkreten Technologien der Digitalisierung und der Elektromobilität (und in welcher Mischung) bereits an den Arbeitsplätzen in der Automobilindustrie angekommen sind. Auf Basis einer Online-Erhebung mit über 4 Beschäftigten der Branche wird anhand deskriptiver Auswertungen die Breite der digitalen und ökologischen Transformation nachgezeichnet und die Verbreitung unterschiedlicher Technologien entlang zentraler Stichprobenmerkmale (Geschlecht, Alter, Qualifikation, Beruf) – zunächst einzeln und dann im Zusammenhang – aufgezeigt. Die Daten generieren einen technologisch differenzierten Einblick in den Stand der doppelten Transformation auf der Arbeitsplatzebene."

"In this article, we examine the extent to which typical workers act in solidarity with atypical workers. We collected unique survey data from United Auto Workers striking against General Motors in 2019 during the strike and after the ratification vote. Although solidarity was generally high, we do find that typical workers with longer tenure exhibit less solidarity with atypical workers and that they are more prone to be on strike due to material reasons. In the second survey, after workers had voted on the proposed contract, we find that typical workers were more prone to vote yes to the agreement for self-interested, material reasons and that solidarity with atypical workers had a significant, negative effect on the probability of voting yes to the agreement. Our findings support notions that insiders strike and vote according to self-interests. We discuss these findings in light of the insider/outsider, dualization and union strategy literature."

"Mobility is a basic human need. Over the last 100 years, the automobile has revolutionised the transport of people and goods. The automotive industry is a core industrial sector employing millions of people in Germany, Europe and the world. The trade unions in the metal sector are strong and powerful organisations without which the enforcement of social rights would have been impossible. But the costs and irreversible damage caused by the fossil fuel era are now undeniable. The technology based on the burning of fossil fuels is reaching its planetary limits; climate change, or rather climate catastrophe, is being clearly felt. Those who thought there was still time were wrong. The window of opportunity for mitigating the effects of global warming is closing. This century will be a century of adaptation to significantly changing climatic conditions. Modern industrial policy will always be climate policy and thus transformation policy.

This means that the pace and direction of this policy is not only a question of social justice, but also of national and international distribution: The term Just Transition, as coined by the international trade union movement, can be heard everywhere. While the idea of a transformation that leaves no one behind is attractive, it is clearly too vague, because the implementation of the goal of decarbonising the mobility industries will bring about profound changes: Supply chains and corporate structures will change; work will be different and also distributed differently; the demand for new raw materials will create new value chains – all this will produce distributional conflicts along the value chains. Without strong trade unions, a just transformation will not be possible, but without a profound change in industry and resource consumption, the climate catastrophe cannot be averted.
These strategic decisions cannot be taken without contradictions. We are all driving by sight at the moment. There are therefore many questions: Is it really right to only extract lithium in the global South or could battery production be moved there? What does it mean that, in addition to international climate policy, China's regulatory policy is the central driver of the transformation and that the most important new producers of electricity-powered passenger cars come from China? Is the internal combustion engine truly in the past and what will become of the communities that are already suffering from energy poverty? With this study, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation would like to summarise the current state of the transformation in such a way that trade unionists and works councils, but also the interested public in the Global South and North, are given the opportunity to understand the connections and the central points of conflict. This publication formulates the initial answers that will be important for organising in the coming years: It is worth discussing new forms of cross-sectoral organising for example between the metal and mining sectors. And it is important to look at the source countries of the raw materials. Because one thing is clear: at the end of the Just Transition, jobs, wages and working conditions must be better at all stages of the production and supply chain."

"This position paper outlines the characteristics of the trends at stake in affecting the twin transition in the European automotive industry, and the political economy of the actors behind such transition. We first describe the automation and digitalization processes in the automotive sector and their effects on employment. Possible scenarios are analysed, illustrating actual cases of electrification conversion of some European plants of the key OEMs companies as practical examples to understand the employment effects. We then consider the role of the regulatory push in fostering the transition of the automotive sector towards electrification, highlighting the non-neutrality of the process and the risk of a quite limited space for decarbonization. Finally, we discuss the space and capacity of trade unions' actions to orient the twin transition toward social and climate justice."