President Joe Biden urged the Detroit Three on Friday to “go further” in their offers to the United Auto Workers, in his strongest statement to date in support of the union that is striking for higher wages and benefits.
Biden, speaking briefly on the negotiations at the White House, said no one wants a strike but he “respect(s) workers’ right to use their options” in collective bargaining. He noted that the automakers have been making massive profits in recent years, which “have not been shared fairly” with workers.
“The companies have made some significant offers. But I believe it should go further to ensure record corporate profits mean record contracts for the UAW,” he said. “Just as we’re building an economy of the future, we need labor agreements for the future.”
Biden plans to deploy Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and senior adviser Gene Sperling to Detroit to “offer their full support” to both the union and the automakers and encourage them to reach a “win-win” deal.
The statement comes on the first day of the UAW’s strike against Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Stellantis NV. Workers at Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Stellantis’ Toledo Assembly Complex in Ohio and General Motors Wentzville Assembly in Missouri walked off the job at midnight, and the union plans to add additional plants as needed. Only final assembly and paint workers at the Wayne plant are on strike.
It’s the first time the president has openly supported the union striking. He has been issuing statements in support of the union but urging the two sides to come to a deal as the deadline approached. Sperling, an Ann Arbor native, has been serving as a liaison between the administration and the two sides.
The union has not yet endorsed Biden for re-election, despite most other major unions doing so earlier this year. They have argued that the Inflation Reduction Act — Biden’s signature legislation that pumps billions of dollars into the electric vehicle economy — doesn’t adequately protect unions and funnel money to union projects.
However, UAW President Shawn Fain met with Biden in Washington in July and has been in frequent contact with Sperling. People with direct knowledge of the relationship in both the White House and the UAW have characterized it as tough, but not antagonistic.
Former President Donald Trump has also been making appeals to the UAW, urging them to vote for him and to rebuke Fain, by criticizing the automakers’ transition to electric vehicles. He frequently refers to the Biden administration’s proposed emissions regulations as a “mandate” because the Environmental Protection Agency estimates they would result in more than two-thirds of new car sales being electric vehicle by 2032.
“I strongly urge the UAW to make the complete and total repeal of Joe Biden’s insane electric vehicle mandate their top, non-negotiable demand in any strike,” he said, saying it would result in jobs being sent to China. “That’s why there’s no such thing as a ‘fair transition’ to all electric cars. For the American autoworker, that’s a transition to hell.”
rbeggin@detroitnews.com
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