United Auto Workers Union Now Striking at 38 Locations in 20 States
Biden to visit striking UAW workers, a day ahead of Trump.
When I was in Michigan, all the local news reports focused on the then-impending strike by the United Auto Workers. Since then, the union has expanded its strike from a few plants to 38 locations in 20 states.
The United Auto Workers union expanded its strike against major carmakers Friday, walking out of all 38 parts-distribution centers operated by General Motors and Jeep and Ram owner Stellantis in 20 states but sparing Ford from further shutdowns.
…Ford avoided additional strikes because the company has met some of the union’s demands during negotiations over the past week, UAW President Shawn Fain said during an online presentation to union members.
“We’ve made some real progress at Ford,” Fain said. “We still have serious issues to work through, but we do want to recognize that Ford is showing that they are serious about reaching a deal. At GM and Stellantis, it’s a different story.”
Fain said GM and Stellantis, the successor to Fiat Chrysler, have rejected the union’s proposals for cost-of-living increases, profit sharing and job security, and “are going to need some serious pushing.”
Given this is a presidential campaign year, the two men currently “in the lead” for their respective parties are vying to gain favor with the striking employees. Both plan to visit the battleground state of Michigan this week.
President Joe Biden will visit striking auto workers on the picket line in Michigan on Tuesday – one day before Donald Trump stops in Detroit to do the same. ‘Tuesday, I’ll go to Michigan to join the picket line and stand in solidarity with the men and women of UAW as they fight for a fair share of the value they helped create. It’s time for a win-win agreement that keeps American auto manufacturing thriving with well-paid UAW jobs,’ Biden announced on social media.
…Trump will be in Detroit on Wednesday night for a primetime address to auto workers. The former president has opted to do that than attend the second Republican primary debate.
It’s unclear if he’ll visit the picket line. Fain has been sharply critical of Trump. But the former president is heavily courting the union for its endorsement. Michigan is an important state in the presidential election. Trump won it in 2016 but lost it to Biden in 2020. Trump has said Biden’s push for electric cars is a threat to auto workers.
Frankly, there is nobody to really cheer for here. The unions had to give many concessions when two of the Big Three automobile companies nearly went bankrupt in 2008. Furthermore, they are not helped by their elite corporate boxes supporting senseless and destructive “climate crisis” policies.
Republicans have pinned the strike on Biden administration EV policy, saying efforts to encourage the production of electric vehicles has pushed jobs out of UAW strongholds in the midwest and weakened the union.
“I also think that this green agenda that’s using taxpayer dollars to drive our automotive economy into EVs is understandably causing great anxiety among UAW members,” Former Vice President Mike Pence said last week. “These guys are seeing the Green New Deal that was passed under the guise of the Inflation Reduction Act, they’re seeing it drive their industry into EVs, benefiting China that makes most of our batteries.”
The UAW has shared similar concerns, citing EV policy as the main reason the union has not yet endorsed Biden’s reelection campaign.
However, the unions have had unwavering support for the Democrats. The UAW endorsed Biden in 2020…so they are welcome to embrace the full suckage of his policies.
Additionally, the union leadership is taking time out of its strike activities to target Senator Tim Scott (R-SC).
The United Auto Workers (UAW) union has filed a labor complaint against Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Tim Scott after his suggestion that auto workers on strike should be terminated.
Shawn Fain, the president of UAW, filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, claiming Scott’s remarks earlier this week violated federal labor law and in making those remarks he was in violation of the right to strike.
There are no winners here, and the American consumer and taxpayer are likely to be the big losers.
There are reasons I spent my time doing this in Michigan. pic.twitter.com/NRXwqkeWRP
— Leslie Eastman ☥ (@Mutnodjmet) September 24, 2023
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Comments
According to CNN, UAW membership decreased from 1.5 million workers in 1979 to 0.4 million workers in 2022. The UAW leadership won’t rest until there are no union workers left in the auto business. I saw GM’s CEO on TV the other day pledging to save union jobs as the production mix shifts to less-labor intensive, government mandated, electric vehicles. Between the UAW and the large union employers, the shift to more efficient nonunion shops will continue. As we used to say in the Navy–BZ (good job!).
I believe we will see more workers moving into Unions because they feel helpless as individuals.
The Democrats have completely abandoned the working class and are now the Party of the Rich. And, the Federal Government is destroying common people for walking around the Capitol with a flag. I think many working people will see it as a chance to regain some small amount of power.
I hope the unions don’t become an even bigger front for the Communist party. I am not using that term Communist as a cute way of saying Democrat. I mean it in the European sense where many of the unions are Communist fronts.
They are , their leaders make millions and belong to the democrats hence Fain’s insanity toward President Trump
https://www.frontpagemag.com/biden-cripples-auto-industry-uaw-begins-major-strike-attackstrump/
So, let’s try to get this straight:
Mr. EV Mandate Green Energy puppet president is going to walk the picket line with the very workers who will soon lose their jobs to his Administration’s policies. Awesome
Why is the UAW exempt from anti-trust laws. The UAW is striking all of the car makers. If the car makers decided anything togeather they would be set upon by the government for monopolist practices. A union should not be able to be larger than the company it works for.
[[[A union should not be able to be larger than the company it works for.]]]
Oh, that’s probably the norm, especially if we consider the AFL-CIO as a whole. If you run a business, you do things their way or you lose everything.
Labor law violates rule of law in the first place so nothing will make legal sense that follows from it.
The initial mistake was making X and Y gain more rights against Z by combining forces than they had individually. In particular they can make Z negotiate with them.
Vicki Hearne wrote that mistakes with things that follow from them are tricky things.
Get ready for Republicans and Democrats on the Hill to “do something!” with urging from Joe “c’mon now, what’s a few billion more” Biden
It’s watch your wallet time.
Admittedly I don’t know much about labor law, but…
A senator saying union members should be fired somehow violates the law…but the president walking the picket line and demanding the businesses meet the union’s demands is totally fine?
I predict the ones formerly known as The Big Three will become little more than vehicle importers within the next five to ten years.
Most of the non-truck Chevrolet offerings are Korean. Buick offers Korean and Chinese cars; they have one still made here, and who knows for how long. Cadillac will soon offer Chinese Cadillacs.
Ford has ceded the smallest-car market to others, and if they do return to the US market with small offerings, they will be European or Asian. They are already making plans for a Chinese Lincoln. The Ford Eco-Sport from India was a disaster, but they will keep trying.
Stellantis is already a foreign company. The three remaining US-built cars are going away; at least one is returning as an electric to be built here. The latest car is coming in from Italy (Dodge Hornet), and I predict there will be some Dodge or Chrysler-badged French offerings. Don’t laugh. The French learned how to build a great car suitable to American driving conditions and I’d not think twice about buying one.
Irony: BMW’s biggest plant is in the US. And no, it is not UAW.
Hyundai and Kia have been making great cars for a couple of decades, and you can’t beat the powertrain warranty – especially after Hyundai/Kia turned what should been a business disaster a few years ago into a resounding success for their reputation. Remember the self destructing engines due to a manufacturing defect? Standing behind your product – what a novel idea.
Kia has a plant in Georgia and Hyundai one in Alabama. Their biggest problem is keeping up with demand. There’s a reason for that. And they aren’t union (AFAIK).
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Odd you mention Kia and Hyundai. I’d be driving a Palisade or the twin were it not for both having the very thing that kept me from another Durango: center consoles the size of a chest freezer, crowding my legs and making me feel trapped.
The ONLY thing presently on the market that has no console is the two lower-end models of the Chrysler Pacifica. That is, unless I want a full-size pickup, and I don’t. I happen to like my Pacifica, but would do with either the Palisade twins or with something smaller were it not for those ferschulgginer huge consoles.
That is probably why the Democrat run cities are suing them for being too easy for criminals to steal. Can’t allow them to keep making cheap reliable cars. Especially since they apparently constitute a moral hazard from the Democrats main constituency urban criminals.
The Japanese have been building cars in this country for decades.
The UAW I’d doomed. They are fighting for the wrong think. EV cars require 30% fewer hours to assemble. If the push to EVs continues you can expect layoffs in excess to 1,300,000 workers from the auto industry.
The UAW isn’t facing up to reality. The legacy pension and benefits costs of the ‘big three’ automakers which already exist put these companies at an existing disadvantage. Add to this the growing adoption of robotics and other automation within the industry. Robots don’t strike FWIW.
The current UAW members are basically facing a fubar scenario. If they demand too much the big three will shift more operations overseas to lower cost labor and increase robotics and automation domestically in the remaining plants. The UAW continues to push to elect d/prog politicians who ‘reward’ them by implementing EV production mandates.
IMO, long term its a fight the UAW can’t win. EV need a fraction of the labor force as ICE vehicles. The strongest competition is largely non union and far more competitive on labor costs. Newer entrants into the automotive space like Tesla are not burdened by legacy pension/benefits costs and are more nimble than the big three.
I actually suspect that the big 2+1 are actually secretly happy about this strike. Sales have been way down thanks to high prices and high interest rates.
“Vehicles from the Detroit Three sat in inventory an average 52 days before being sold in August, up from 31 days at the start of last year, according to Edmunds data.”
“The average price for a new vehicle jumped from $39,919 in 2020 to $48,798 so far this year, according to Kelley Blue Book.”
“Anyone shopping for a new, used or leased car right now will also be hit by higher interest rates. The average rate for a new-car loan this week stood at 7.46%, and for a used car, it was 8.06%, according to Bankrate.”
“High rates are contributing to a spike in rejections for consumers looking to buy a ride. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said this month that the rejection rate for auto loans is now 14.2%, the highest since the bank started tracking figures in 2013 and up from 9.1% six months ago.”
All this means that the companies have inventory to clear and not making more cars is a good thing, especially when they don’t have to pay the striking workers. They can also profit from insisting on higher prices and interest rates from customers whom they qualify for loans, and can either reject high-risks altogether or charge them usurious rates until later reclaiming the car to sell again as used.
What’s not to like for the car companies? They no longer sell “cars” anyhow, having ceded that part of the market to foreign makes. It’s pickups “only” so they aren’t going to lose any market share as the foreign brands trucks don’t sell. The U.S. make customers insist on American trucks.
No one cares anymore. When you ask for a 35 hour, 4 day work week and a 40% increase in pay….no one supports you.
32 hour work week in the demands. That’s crazy. The wage increase though? Considering how much the UAW gave back last time to avert bankruptcy and the rampant inflation since then a 40% increase is not out of line.
We are, IMO, on the cusp of entering a wage/price spiral from the unrestrained inflation and flat to negative real wages over the past several decades. As workers ask for reasonable wages growth to account for the impact of inflation and the impacts of less oil to market relative to world demand prices rise. Those rises cause other workers to seek higher wages. The higher wages AR pushed back onto consumer prices and the cycle continues.
Aren’t the cafeteria workers at Oberlin represented by UAW? How about they strike and then we can see some world class whinging.
“Biden to visit striking UAW workers, a day ahead of Trump.”
WAAAAY better to go second, especially after such a bumbling stiff.