UAW President Downplays Biden’s Role In Negotiations
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UAW President Shawn Fain has downplayed the role of the White House in assisting with ongoing labor contract negotiations between the United Auto Workers labor union and the Big Three Detroit automakers. President Biden previously announced that two White House representatives would be dispatched to Detroit, but travel plans for the reps have since been put on hold. The UAW expanded its strike against GM and Ford on Friday.
UAW President Shawn Fain
Per a report from CNBC, Fain was asked if the White House could play a role in finding a deal between the UAW and automakers.
“No, not at all,” Fain said. “The battle is not about the president. It’s not about the former president or any other person prior to that. This battle is about the workers standing up for economic and social justice and getting their fair share because they’re fed up with going backwards.”
Last week, the Biden administration announced that Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and White House Senior Adviser Gene Sperling would travel to Detroit in order to assist in negotiations. It was later revealed that both officials would instead sit in virtually via Zoom. Su and Sperling may still travel to Detroit, but for the moment, there are no firm plans to do so.
President Biden voiced support for the UAW strikes shortly after the union called for walkouts at all three of the Big Detroit automakers. Biden echoed the union’s call for record contracts on the back of automakers’ record profits.
“Over the past decade, auto companies have seen record profits, including the last few years, because of the extraordinary skill and sacrifices of the UAW workers. But those record profits have not been shared fairly, in my view, with those workers,” President Biden said immediately following the initial strike announcement.
“No one wants a strike. But I respect workers’ right to use their options under the collective bargaining system,” Biden added.
The UAW has yet to endorse Biden for reelection. Labor leaders have criticized Biden for signing a bill blocking a strike by U.S. rail workers last year, as well as inadequate protection for auto workers through the Inflation Reduction Act with regard to the industry-wide shift towards EVs.
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LOL, Fain personally invited him! Be honest. I wonder if Mary feels betrayed?
Jonah Furman on twitter/X had private messages revealed that the union strategy has been to sow chaos, pit the manufacturers against each other and to intentionally makes this go on for months and months. He wants this to publicly be damaging to the reputations of the manufacturers so that they do not know what to do. When he says months, he doesn’t say how many? Uaw only has about 2 months’ worth of strike pay to pay its employees, but they now say that could be significantly less given the rise in healthcare. With the holidays upon us and the uaw picking and choosing what lines will strike, i wonder do the uaw representatives have their pay cut or their benefits cut while they are playing these games with good people’s lives? And this strike of uaw affects more than just the uaw employees, think of all the people who work in dealerships, independent repair shops needing quality oem parts, individuals buying oem parts and vehicles from dealers. Think of all the people on down the line from this strike who will not have any strike pay. I do not believe the uaw truly has their members best interests at heart. How long before the big 3 say, well i guess we will just build some more factories in Mexico where they make 5 bucks and hour and have no benefits? Or come up with a complete robotic workforce. Hopefully this will turn out the best way possible. It doesn’t look good when the uaw says they are ready to talk and sit-down whenever, yet the strategy is revealed thats is just not true.
“Uaw only has about 2 months’ worth of strike pay”? The UAW strike pay fund is dependent on how many members receive strike pay. The more members that receive strike pay, the sooner the fund is depleted.
i am a GM retiree, i would like our $800 COL reinstated, then i see that UAW is asking for 40 hours pay for 32 hours work that to me is just crazy. you ask for big pay raise and then you don’t want to work to earn 8 hours of that pay .this is “one” reason people blame hourly worker for high prices .there are some things i agree that need to change . we gave up raises to fund our pensions “i think back in the 80’s ” we also could invest in 401 psp . that added a LOT of savings after retirement . hopefully a reasonable settlement can be reached soon
Do you want the help for your cause or not? Pick a narrative. Sheesh. Let’s build some cars!
By the way the auto manufacturers have bent over the consumer the last few years due to the democrats shutting down the country for a seasonal flu, the UAW sure picked the wrong time to strike and make totally unacceptable and unreasonable demands of the manufacturers. What the UAW is going to do is drive the manufacturing of American vehicles to foreign countries. This will infuriate the UAW members and the UAW will dissolve and divide all of their “reserves” amongst the upper hierarchy of the union and once again the members will get shafted by the union.
All Biden wants is 146K votes! He needs to shut up & stay out of it! As for Fain, I wouldn’t be surprised if he is trying to completely kill the US auto industry, to assist other country’s interests. I just feel bad for all of the lives he is effecting. He is also putting a strain on many small businesses that depend on the foot traffic, of the UAW workers. This isn’t just about the UAW workers! All of this can be stopped, if he learns how to negotiate for realistic equitable terms.
The Democrats and Unions work hand in hand. My wife is a teacher of 19 years and several times per month, she receives Liberal/Union propaganda in the mail. “Profits bad”, “Successful, wealthy people bad”, “Voting season is coming up, make sure to vote Democrat, twice if possible”, etc.. She opted out of the union and we will save $1,000’s per year in union dues and their other “fees”. On top of that, they still need to represent her if need be. So, other than collecting union dues in order to misappropriate funds for the union bosses’ own personal gains, what is the benefit? Cuckoo. Secondly, my Dad is a retired Pittsburgh Steel Worker (38 years). During the last election, an overwhelming majority of the steel workers supported President Trump, but there were hold overs that still believe “Democrats are for the middle class”. Guess what? Since 2021, numerous Pittsburgh area powerplants have been shutdown and razed do to the “green energy” push by Biden and his crew. I wonder if they are happy now that they are out of work? Now do you understand?
yep, they voted for the two headed one party dictatorship and that includes the dems, they get what’s coming.
The UAW wants distance from “the big guy”.Why not endorse him? Are they really going to endorse a Republican? What has this guy done for the country excerpt bring in millions of illegals and give out “free stuff”.
Well, he did help pass the Inflation Reduction Act. LOL
That’s not even funny
This is no longer a strike against the automakers, this is a strike against the very consumers that buy the UAW-built vehicles. Now that they have expanded to the parts warehouses, the customers that spent their hard-earned money to buy the crap that the UAW produces will be stuck in a service department without the parts needed to fix their ride. That will impact everyone from the one-vehicle family to the traveling salesperson to the self-employed contractors. People that depend on their vehicle to earn a living will be stuck because the line workers want to damn-near double their wages and work less hours for more money. I am ashamed that the truck I bought this summer was built in the USA by the UAW. I come from a UAW family, but this will be my last union-built vehicle. I hope that GM locks the rest of their workers out and that Fain has to spend his strike fund to support them until it runs dry. The line workers wouldn’t survive 5 minutes in a non-union shop with real labor…I hope none of them come to my shop with their hand out begging for a job. Same thing goes for all of the businesses and restaurants that are giving these fools discounts and donating their profits to the strike fund…won’t be patronizing them either.
Service will get parts from where ever they can get them from if it takes giving you chinisium off ebay.
You think the service managers are gonna let a sale go by. They will give you any junk and hope it makes it through the 1 year warranty.
The latest is that Biden IS going on Tuesday. To stump for votes and nothing more. Same with Trump on Wednesday. I agree that these are unnecessary distractions. We need another, independent, candidate because these 2 are jokes.
The roof is on fire . . .