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UAW Chief Shawn Fain disrupts Detroit's labor tradition

He's known to quote the Bible and Nation of Islam civil rights leader Malcolm X. He's a social media fanatic who keeps the pay stubs of his union member grandfather in his wallet. And now, Shawn Fain is representing nearly 150,000 auto workers in one of the biggest labor strikes in decades. In taking action against all three Detroit carmakers, Fain, the head of the United Auto Workers, has remade the strategy of the union he leads, choosing a bolder, much riskier path than his predecessors after he won office by a narrow margin in a first-ever direct election earlier this year. The strike started as the clock hit midnight on Friday, and followed Fain's decision to open negotiations with Ford Motor, General Motors and Stellantis simultaneously and eschew public niceties involving choreographed handshakes that famously kicked off previous negotiating efforts. The strategy is not without risk. A weeks-long strike would hit workers who live paycheck to paycheck, while the Detroit Three automakers have billions in cash to withstand the walkout. Fain, 54, has made creative use of social media, appearances on network and cable news programs and alliances with high-profile progressive politicians such as U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, to reframe the UAW's contract bargaining as a battle to re-set the balance of power between workers and global corporations. He has rebutted automakers' concerns about labor costs by pointing out that they have poured billions into share buybacks to benefit investors. "If they’ve got money for Wall Street they sure as hell have money for the workers making the product," he said. “We fight for the good of the entire working class and the poor." In lengthy social media talks to UAW members, Fain alternates quoting Bible verses with the use of charts and graphs to dissect wage and benefit offers from the automakers - details his predecessors kept behind closed doors during bargaining crunch time. Fain, in his unorthodox approach, ran what amounted to a public auction among the companies to push each one to top the other to avoid a costly walkout. Prior UAW presidents picked just one automaker to set a pattern for the other two. Over and over, Fain has told UAW members at the Detroit Three that they can reverse 20 years of wage and retiree benefit concessions, stop further plant closures and end a seniority-based, tiered compensation system that pays new hires as much as 44% less than veteran workers.

GMC confirms Hummer EV will be joined by an electric Sierra, or Sierra-like, pickup

GMC will step into the electric vehicle arena for the first time when it begins building the Hummer EV in 2021. While it's not planning on becoming an electric-only brand, it has more battery-powered models in the pipeline. "There will be an all-electric Sierra pickup, but no timeline yet. But, the plan is to make it electric; this whole electric thing is a moving target," Lynn Thompson, the president of a Buick-GMC-Cadillac dealership in Missouri, told the Detroit Free Press. He said executives revealed those plans during a national dealer meeting. What remains to be seen is whether the truck will be an electric variant of the Sierra as Thompson said, or if it will arrive as a standalone electric truck with Sierra-like dimensions and capabilities. Sister company Chevrolet is also planning to launch an electric pickup in the coming years, and it strongly hinted it will take the second route. Its entry into the segment won't look like a Silverado, and nothing seriously suggests it will be badged as one. It will also be interesting to watch how GMC ensures that the truck doesn't overlap with the Hummer EV, which will exclusively be offered as a four-door pickup with a relatively short cargo box when it arrives in stores as a 2022 model. Our crystal ball tells us the Hummer will be marketed as a more expensive model aimed at weekend adventurers who want to make a statement, while the Sierra-like model will be cheaper and primarily aimed at buyers who merely want a truck, whether they're commuters, contractors, or fleet operators. Chevrolet's entry into the segment will slot beneath these two models. General Motors used this strategy nearly 20 years ago to keep the Hummer H2, the GMC Yukon, and the Chevrolet Tahoe in separate corners of the same room. GMC's electric truck could share powertrain and chassis components with the Hummer EV. It might also be built in the same Hamtramck, Michigan, factory that parent company General Motors is funneling $2.2 billion into. Regardless of the path it takes, GMC is not going all-electric. "[GMC boss] Duncan [Aldred] said we're certainly not going to abandon our internal combustion engine vehicles because that's our core business, and that was good to hear. It's to let people know they're not going down the same road as Cadillac," a dealer who asked to remain anonymous said. Cadillac might go EV-only by 2025, starting with a crossover named Lyriq, and many of its dealers have refused to spend $200,000 on upgrades.

2024 GMC Sierra EV Denali Edition 1 reservations closed

Reservation slots for the 2024 GMC Sierra EV Denali Edition 1 are gone. As is the case with just about every vehicle that can be reserved, regardless of cost, there weren't enough slots to satisfy the initial rush. Carscoops noticed the situation first, getting confirmation from GMC that the only avenue remaining for now is to get on a waitlist. GMC's page for the Sierra EV affirms the same, declaring "Reservations are currently full" for the Denali Edition 1. Doing so meant putting down a $100 refundable deposit, a nominal sum that anyone could back out of, but we know by now that market conditions mean between reservation holders and the waitlist there are plenty who will conclude the transaction. Duncan Aldred, head of GMC and Buick, said so himself, telling Automotive News, "It's pretty amazing. A few years ago, when we were planning Hummer, the amount of vehicles sold over $100,000 in the entire industry was not that many. Now, that has radically changed in the last three years. There's been a rapid increase in vehicle prices and there's been an even quicker rise at the top end. We expect to sell out really quite quickly." The Sierra EV Denali Edition 1 comes loaded with quilted seats, real wood trim, Super Cruise, and two motors making a combined 754 horsepower and 785 pound-feet of torque, and starts at $108,695. We don't have a number to put to the phrase "sell out," though. As GM did with the Cadillac Lyriq and Chevrolet Silverado EV, reps wouldn't divulge production caps. Aldred did admit that the reservation number is below 10,000. Two more Sierra EV trims are coming, but they're not due until 2025. That starts with the base Elevation trim bringing an MSRP around $50,000. Note, that MSRP is the prediction now. Three years is a long way away. When reservations open to the public for the standard Sierra EV Denali expected in 2024 and the following trims, GMC plans to keep a tight lid on the pot. Remember, with the Hummer EV, GMC took so many reservations that current production rates mean the automaker won't clear the list for years. Production rates will climb, certainly. However, GM builds the pickups and its Cruise Origin delivery vehicle at its Factory Zero, and there are already 110,000 Silverado EV reservations alone to get through.