A strike by the United Auto Workers union towards the Detroit automakers would assist President Joe Biden and different politicians decide a aspect with regards to organized labor, UAW President Shawn Fain stated Wednesday night time.
“I think our strike can reaffirm to [Biden] of where the working-class people in this country stand and, you know, it’s time for politicians in this country to pick a side,” he stated throughout CNBC’s “Last Call” with Brian Sullivan. “Either you stand for a billionaire class where everybody else gets left behind, or you stand for the working class, the working-class people vote.”
The outspoken union chief reiterated that placing towards General Motors, Ford Motor and/or Stellantis when contracts for roughly 150,000 auto staff expire after 11:59 p.m. Sept. 14 shouldn’t be the purpose, however the sides stay far aside with regards to key calls for.
UAW President Shawn Fain addresses union members throughout a Solidarity Sunday rally in Warren, Michigan, Aug. 20, 2023
Michael Wayland / CNBC
“We’re down to the wire. We have eight days to go,” Fain stated. “We’re pushing. We’re available 24/7 as we have been for the last seven weeks, so it’s up to the companies on where we end up and whether we end up having to take action or not on the 14th.”
Fain stated the union is about to satisfy Thursday morning with GM, following a Wednesday afternoon assembly with Ford. Stellantis stated Wednesday that it “intends to pass the UAW a counter offer to the members’ economic demands by the end of the week.”
Fain’s feedback relating to Biden add to an uncommon rigidity between the chief of the traditionally Democratic union and the commander in chief, who has known as himself “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen.”
Earlier this week, Fain stated he was “shocked” to listen to Biden say he was “not worried about a strike until it happens” and that he did not “think it’s going to happen.”
“He must know something we don’t know. Maybe the companies plan on walking in and giving us our demands on the night before. I don’t know but he’s on the inside on something I don’t know about,” Fain informed reporters throughout a Labor Day occasion in Detroit.
The UAW has traditionally supported Democrats. However, former President Donald Trump was in a position to acquire notable assist from blue-collar autoworkers throughout his presidential campaigns. Fain has stated he believes one other Trump presidency “would be a disaster,” citing the necessity for the union to “get our members organized behind a pro-worker, pro-climate, and pro-democracy political program that can deliver for the working class.”
The UAW is withholding a reelection endorsement for Biden till issues in regards to the auto business’s transition to all-electric automobiles resembling job safety, pay and organizing are addressed, Fain has stated beforehand.
“Our endorsements are going to be earned not freely given and the actions are going to dictate who we endorse,” Fain reiterated Wednesday.
Simultaneous strikes towards GM, Ford and Stellantis can be unprecedented. It additionally would mark one of many UAW’s largest strikes in latest historical past and will rapidly have a ripple impact on the automotive provide chain, the U.S. financial system and home manufacturing.
Speaking in entrance of a backdrop of American-made automobiles and a UAW signal, President Joe Biden, then a presidential candidate, speaks about new proposals to guard U.S. jobs throughout a marketing campaign cease in Warren, Michigan, Sept. 9, 2020.
Leah Millis | Reuters
A strike towards GM in 2019 over the past spherical of contract negotiations lasted 40 days and value the automaker $3.6 billion in earnings that 12 months, GM reported on the time.
The union’s present calls for additionally could possibly be expensive if tentative offers are reached. Key calls for embody a 40% hourly pay enhance, a diminished 32-hour workweek, a shift again to conventional pensions, elimination of compensation tiers, and restoration of cost-of-living changes, amongst different gadgets on the desk.
Source: www.cnbc.com”