The car industry faces unprecedented upheaval as the importance of the internal-combustion engine, which has defined it for more than a century, declines and that of battery power, which will define its future, rises. The latest reverberation of this historic shock is now rippling through the four-yearly contract negotiations between Detroit’s “big three” carmakers and its biggest trade union. On September 15th, for the first time ever, members of the United Auto Workers (uaw) began simultaneous industrial action against Chrysler, General Motors (GM) and Ford. (Chrysler is part of Stellantis, whose biggest shareholder part-owns The Economist’s parent company.) The union’s tactical change foreshadows a protracted
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