All eyes on Ultium Cells contract as national UAW strike looms

For decades, the United Auto Workers in Lordstown has been part of contract negotiations with General Motors. But the talks playing out right now in Lordstown are like none other.

"It is being watched because it is or it will be precedent-setting," says Dr. Marick Masters, labor professor at Wayne State University in Michigan.

Precedent-setting because the Ultium Cells facility is the first plant in the US to be making batteries for electric vehicles. Precedent-setting because the workers are negotiating with a joint venture - GM and LG Chem. It's unchartered territory and it could threaten the existence of the United Auto Workers.

"These are different times," says CNBC auto industry analyst Phil LeBeau. "You are looking at an environment where the UAW believes that a lot of what they have gained over the years is in jeopardy. As the auto industry goes through this transition to electric vehicles. Everyone knows you need fewer workers to build an electric vehicle. And as a result if you're the UAW, the question becomes how can you protect as many jobs as possible and get the wage gains and benefit gains, everything that you're looking for?"

The UAW has a Herculean task to protect what it has built over the years. It will be thrown into the spotlight to see how connected the UAW's national contract will be to Ultium's first contract. That connection - or lack thereof - could speak volumes.

"If they win and pretty good compensation and there's any kind of connective tissue between those agreements that tells you that union managed to not only improve the livelihood of those people working at Ultium, but they have a pretty good path to keeping battery workers, battery work under the influence of the union for many decades to come," says Bloomberg News Detroit Bureau Chief David Welch.

Regional union reps are sitting at the negotiating table with local union leaders in Lordstown, and have been since the beginning of the year. But nailing down that first contract can take time and it can be difficult for a myriad of reasons.

"First contracts, auto industry or otherwise can take years not months," says Art Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University. "And that's a strategy some anti-union companies - and I am not saying GM is anti-union - but some companies that are anti-union will try to drag out that first contract as long as possible to frustrate the members so they do it as a strategy saying, we're still bargaining but we can't do it and the members say 'gee, the union didn't do anything for me, we don't need them anymore'."

the union contract at ultium - whenever it comes - could be a game changer. It poses a new negotiating dynamic and is sure to set the standards for the ev industry.

"We'll go in and we'll work the workers and obviously the folks at Ultium are the first right? So I think they recognize that," says UAW Region 28 director and former UAW Local 1112 president in Lordstown Dave Green. "This is about those members but this is also about the future of the auto industry."

Chris Cerenelli's coverage on this precedent setting contract at Ultium Cells continues Thursday with a look at some of the top issues drawing all the attention.