WASHINGTON - UAW President Shawn Fain and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders on Thursday criticized a General Motors joint venture battery plant for paying workers much less than assembly plant employees even though it benefits from hefty U.S. government tax credits.
Workers at the Warren, Ohio, joint venture Ultium Cells LLC plant start at $16.50 an hour rising to $20 an hour after seven years while union workers at a nearby Ohio GM assembly plant that closed in 2019 made $32 an hour or more.
"That is to say the least going in absolutely the wrong direction," Sanders said in a video posted Thursday after meeting with Fain in Washington. "The government is putting a lot of money into transitioning our economy to a non-fossil fuel economy... We want to see workers get a fair shake, not just the CEOs of the companies."
Fain met with more than a dozen lawmakers during his Washington trip as well as White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients. He criticized the de…