United Auto Workers has determined that a strike against the Big Three Automakers is the most effective way to extract money from these companies at this moment. The UAW also wants to test Joe Biden’s claim that he is “the most pro-union president in history.”
Three Midwestern plants went on strike: the General Motors assembly line in Wentzville in Missouri, the Stellantis assembly line in Toledo in Ohio, and a part of Ford’s Wayne plant in Michigan. They are the only three plants that have been involved in this strike. This means that only 9% of union workers are on the picket lines.
UAW President Shawn Fain, a clown, and a rabble-rouser, wants Biden to choose a side in the strike instead of playing the neutral role that a president traditionally plays. Fain likes to make short videos. In a recording he made at the beginning of August he histrionically dumped a Stellantis contract offer in a trashcan. Fain, who was feigning anger said: “That’s the place it belongs – in the trash – because that’s what it’s.”
Fain will not let Biden get away with it. Fain believes that Biden and other Democrats should also be held accountable for the $27 million donated by UAW to his 2020 presidential campaign.
Fain stated in an interview with CNBC that it was time for the “politicians of this country to choose a side.”
Fain claims that automakers could “double our raises without raising car prices and still make million dollars in profit.” We are not the problem. “Corporate greed is the issue.”
It’s utter nonsense and even scarier is the fact that he could actually believe it.
Fain said to UAW members during a Facebook Live on Thursday evening “This is the defining moment of our generation.” “The money is here, the cause righteous and the world is watching.”
The UAW demands are astounding. The UAW wants to restore the cost-of-living increases that were given during The Great Recession in 2008. This is reasonable and fair. As a result, a two-tiered wage system was created. Workers with less experience received less money at first. This is also a reasonable request that can be negotiated.
The union is also demanding a 46% raise in pay over four years, and a workweek of 32 hours with 40 paid hours. This is beyond “reasonable”, and it would make the U.S. automotive industry uncompetitive against the rest of the world.
USA Today:
The Big Three would be in a very uncompetitive situation compared to foreign competitors, and Tesla. If the UAW is successful in achieving its goals, workers would earn around $100 per hour – about twice as much as their non-unionized counterparts. UAW workers earn more per hour than their competitors.
The negotiations take place at a moment when the Biden Administration, fueled by climate change zealotry and a desire to see the U.S. automobile industry retool quickly for a future of electric vehicles through new emission standards.
UAW leadership is concerned about the aggressive goals of the administration and their impact on members.
Companies are undergoing the largest transition in industry history, from internal combustion engines (ICE) to electric. The companies argue that they cannot give unions everything they want while transitioning to EVs.
NPR:
UAW demanded at first a raise of more than 40%, along with the return of pensions and cost-of-living increases, as well as certain job security provisions. The UAW cited the huge profits made by automakers as well as the high salaries of CEOs in order to support their case for large gains for workers.
This is not the view of automakers. The auto companies argue that, despite their high profits and high costs of electric conversion, they can’t afford to meet the union’s demands.
Analysts claim that the automakers’ position is not completely incorrect.
Ed Kim, AutoPacific analyst, says that there is some truth in this. “Yes, the company has been profitable but, at the same, they are very eager to reinvest these profits in their EV product developments.”
In fact, the automakers will have to spend close to $1 trillion in order to make this transition within the 15-year time frame that Biden has set. Fain and UAW want to be green. But they also want companies to help them organize workers at the many electric battery plants that are springing up all over the country.
Fain is pretty sure that with a pro-union president at the White House if a strike on autos starts to hurt the economy and force Biden into action, he’ll be siding with the other side.
