29 votes

US President Joe Biden strongly defends auto workers in first remarks after strike

5 comments

  1. [3]
    vord
    Link
    There's about 150k workers covered by these unions. Three companies employ most of them. GM alone had $9.9 billion in profits for shareholders in 2022. That's $66,000 for every union employee.

    There's about 150k workers covered by these unions. Three companies employ most of them.

    GM alone had $9.9 billion in profits for shareholders in 2022. That's $66,000 for every union employee.

    10 votes
    1. [2]
      OBLIVIATER
      Link Parent
      Wouldn't it be amazing if it worked like that

      Wouldn't it be amazing if it worked like that

      6 votes
      1. vord
        Link Parent
        If the employees were the shareholders it would. :)

        If the employees were the shareholders it would. :)

        9 votes
  2. TMarkos
    Link
    He's saying the right things, but this is also the man who signed the bill to end the railroad workers' strike at the end of last year. The administration's "pro-union" stance has some definite...

    He's saying the right things, but this is also the man who signed the bill to end the railroad workers' strike at the end of last year. The administration's "pro-union" stance has some definite limits to it.

    10 votes
  3. Amun
    Link
    Sara Dorn “It’s my hope that the parties can return to the negotiating table to forge a win-win agreement,” Biden said. “The bottom line is that autoworkers helped create America’s middle class....

    Sara Dorn


    “It’s my hope that the parties can return to the negotiating table to forge a win-win agreement,” Biden said. “The bottom line is that autoworkers helped create America’s middle class. They deserve a contract that sustains them and the middle class.”


    Biden attributed auto companies’ “record profits” to the “extraordinary skill and sacrifice” of union workers and said the profits “have not been shared fairly, in my view, with those workers.”


    • “Let’s be clear, no one wants a strike,” Biden said, adding that he respects “workers’ right to use their options under the collective bargaining system, and I understand their frustration.”

    • Biden, who has called himself the “most pro-union president in American history,” touted the benefits of unions, saying they “strengthen our economy for all workers” and “raise standards across the workplaces and entire industries.”

    • Biden also made a nod to a “clean energy future,” an issue he heavily promotes, but one that has drawn criticism from the UAW over his support of nonunion EV manufacturers: “I believe that transition should be fair and a win-win for autoworkers and auto companies.”

    • Biden—who said on Labor Day he was “not worried about a strike until it happens”— said has been in touch with leaders from both the union and the companies and is sending two members of his administration, Labor Secretary Julie Su and advisor Gene Sperling, to Detroit to participate in the negotiations.

    • Biden made the remarks after about 13,000 UAW workers went on strike at a General Motors plant in Missouri, a Stellantis plant in Ohio and a Ford plant in Michigan at midnight Thursday, when their current contracts expired.

    7 votes