Acting Labor Sec’y on Concern EV Push Will Cost Jobs: Transitions ‘Create Issues’ that Require ‘Planning and Change’

On Friday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street,” acting Labor Secretary Julie Su responded to concerns that the transition to electric vehicles will cost jobs by stating that “these kinds of transitions” “create issues that require some amount of planning and change” that have to be worked out through collective bargaining.

Co-host Morgan Brennan asked, “But what is the role that you yourself as acting Labor Secretary in the administration, what is the role that you’re playing, how active are you on this, especially when you think about something like the UAW where the sticking point is going to be this shift to EVs where maybe perhaps not as many people are needed longer-term to put those cars together?”

Su responded, “Right. So, the president’s economic plan is based on a belief that we can both do right by our climate, address the climate crisis, and create good jobs in all communities. And these kinds of transitions also do — they create issues that require some amount of planning and change. That’s partly what the collective bargaining process allows, is for people to come together to address that kind of change. We get involved if our involvement can be productive, if it can be helpful. We’ve seen situations in which that is the case. We’ve also seen times, in which, to trust the process, we need to allow the parties to do what they know how to do best, which is resolve their issues together at the table.”

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