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Post by Webster on Sept 26, 2023 12:35:02 GMT -5
(The Guardian) The Guardian’s Tom Perkins is outside one of the plants where United Auto Workers members have walked off the job in Michigan, and has this report: On a damp and windy day in Wayne, Michigan, United Auto Workers (UAW) picketing outside the sprawling plant, one of the original to strike earlier this month, burned logs in barrels for warmth, as horns from passing traffic on the busy highway blared in support.
The strike has pushed into its third week, and Biden’s visit will be followed by a Wednesday stop by Donald Trump at an auto facility in nearby Macomb county in what feels like the unofficial kickoff to the 2024 campaign season. Workers here say the appearance by the president is a boost to morale, and Larry Hearn, a 61-year-old UAW committee member, views it as a “monumental and history-making” visit that marks the first time a sitting US president has joined a picket line. “We’re out here on the frontline, taking the brunt for everybody, losing money,” Hearn said. “The support feels good. We don’t need him to get in our business and secure us a contract, but his support is enough, it hits home with people.”
The Trump campaign called Biden’s visit to the picket line a “cheap photo-op”, but at least some workers disagree with that assessment. “As long as Biden is going to come here then do something to help working people when he returns to Washington, then he is welcome,” said Walter Robinson, a 57-year-old quality inspector. “He is going to have to do that if he wants our endorsement. I think he will.”
The UAW has withheld an endorsement so far, but union leadership has been critical of Trump, who has sought to capitalize on the strike and siphon support from the majority-Democratic unions. Trump visits a non-union shop tomorrow, which was not lost on those outside the Wayne plant. “That’s where his loyalties lie,” Robinson said “If he wants to be with working people who are struggling, then he would be here. I don’t know who he is playing for – is he playing for working people, or corporations?”
Trump gets a lot of support among union members because of “guns, gays and taxes”, Robinson said, and inflation has not helped Biden. “That resonates with a certain sector of people,” he added, estimating that there is about a 60-40 split in support at the plant for Biden and Trump. “He has to go to a non-union plant because if he came here we wouldn’t let him in,” Hearn said. “If he pulled up in his motherfuckin’ motorcade right now, we would not let him in.”
Hearn said he is a Democrat and most union members will say they are, but added: “You never what someone is going to do when they get behind the [voting] booth.”
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Post by Webster on Sept 26, 2023 12:36:34 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Biden visits the UAW picket line in MichiganJoe Biden is now at a United Auto Workers picket line in Michigan and addressing striking workers.
Wearing a baseball cap and a blue jacket, Joe Biden spoke through a bullhorn to striking United Auto Workers members (UAW) outside a plant in Michigan. “The fact of the matter is that you guys, UAW, you saved the auto industry back in 2008,” the president said. The union “made a lot of sacrifices, gave up a lot when the companies were in trouble,” Biden said. “Now they’re doing incredibly well. And guess what? You should be doing incredibly well, too.” The workers cheered as he spoke.
Biden was followed by UAW president Shawn Fain, who noted that the workers were striking against a plant that used to manufacture military armaments during the second world war. “Today, the enemy isn’t some foreign company miles away. It’s right here in our own area – it’s corporate greed,” Fain said as Biden, wearing a UAW baseball cap with the words “Union Yes” on the side, looked on. He later put his arm around one of the red t-shirt wearing UAW strikers. “And the weapon we produce to fight that enemy is the liberators, the true liberators, its the working-class people,” Fain said.
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Post by Webster on Sept 26, 2023 12:36:55 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Sept 26, 2023 12:37:35 GMT -5
 Joe Biden addressed striking UAW workers through a bullhorn. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP  Joining the president was the UAW leader, Shawn Fain. Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters |
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Post by Webster on Sept 26, 2023 15:48:18 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Here’s a clip of Joe Biden’s remarks as he joined striking United Auto Workers members (UAW) outside a plant in Michigan. Addressing the picketing workers, the president said they had made a lot of sacrifices when their companies were in trouble. He added: Now they’re doing incredibly well. And guess what? You should be doing incredibly well, too. Asked if the UAW should get a 40% increase, Biden said yes.
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Post by Webster on Sept 28, 2023 15:59:31 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Trump skips debate as he urges UAW to endorse him in speech at non-union car parts makerDonald Trump tried to woo US autoworkers in a rambling speech in Michigan on Wednesday night that took potshots at Joe Biden, electric vehicles and Barack Obama while pushing culture war issues and fell far short of supporting the core issues that have many car workers currently on strike. The speech came a day after Joe Biden spoke to striking United Auto Workers members on a picket line nearby. Biden’s historic appearance was the first time that a sitting president has walked a picket line. Trump dismissed that as a “photo op” at Drake Enterprises, a non-unionised car parts maker in Macomb county, a few miles from where Biden spoke to striking employees picketing a Ford facility. “Your leadership should endorse me and I will not say a bad thing about them again,” said Trump, though he did not substantively address the issues at stake in the strike beyond expressing support for getting better wages. At one stage Trump said that the UAW leader, Shawn Fain, should endorse him and called him “a good man … he’s got to endorse Trump”. In the run-up to the visit Fain, however, was withering in his opinion of Trump and declined to meet him. Biden had attended the UAW picket at Fain’s invitation.
Donald Trump and other prominent Republicans have consistently attacked unions but many are now being more supportive of the UAW strike. Trump is the overwhelming frontrunner in the Republican 2024 nomination race and Michigan and other rust belt states are seen as crucial battlegrounds in the race for the White House. Several hundred people attended Wednesday night's speech, which was timed to coincide with the latest Republican presidential debate. “When you look at the thousands of people outside, why couldn’t you get a bigger plant?” said Trump. The crowd appeared to be in the hundreds and while the speech took place, it thinned to less than a hundred as the rain came down. At one moment Trump – who has a long history of exaggerating crowd sizes at his events – falsely claimed that there were “10,000” people outside the venue. “Just get your union guys, your leaders, to endorse me and I will take care of the rest,” said Trump. -- Under a Trump presidency, gasoline engines will be allowed and sex changes for children will be banned. Is that OK?Trump consistently attacked electric vehicles (EVs) and said US autoworkers would lose their jobs if the country made the shift to EVs. He pledged to support gas-powered cars. -- We will drill baby drill and it will have zero environmental difference.
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Post by Webster on Sept 29, 2023 18:14:59 GMT -5
(The Guardian) US autoworkers expand strikes against GM and FordThe United Auto Workers union escalated its strike against the big three US automakers on Friday as the industrial action entered its third week. In a livestream update on the strike on Friday, the UAW president, Shawn Fain, said another 7,000 workers would be joining the action. About 25,000 workers are now on strike. Fain said bargaining with Ford and General Motors had not made meaningful progress in the past week, adding Ford’s Chicago assembly plant and a GM plant in Lansing, Michigan, to the strike. Action at Stellantis was not escalated this week due to progress made in talks. The strike has become a hot-button issue in political circles with Joe Biden and Donald Trump visiting Michigan this week to address autoworkers. “This strike is absolutely about the worker and listening to the worker,” Haley Stevens, a Democrat representing Michigan’s 11th congressional district, told the Guardian. -- This strike has opened up new channels to hear from workers in ways that we haven’t seen in a very long time in the country.
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Post by Webster on Oct 6, 2023 18:09:27 GMT -5
(The Guardian) United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain is scheduled to say soon whether recent intensified bargaining with the Detroit Three automakers has produced enough progress to forestall more walkouts, Reuters writes. A video address by Fain is scheduled for 2pm ET and will cover substantive bargaining updates, people familiar with the UAW’s plans said earlier.’ That timing is a departure from the previous two Fridays in which Fain addressed union members at about 10am and ordered walkouts at additional factories to start at noon. Fain kept automakers Ford, GM and Stellantis, the maker of Chrysler and Jeep, guessing on Thursday. People familiar with the bargaining said talks have heated up this week after days of little movement. Ford, GM and Stellantis have made new proposals in an effort to end the escalating cycle of walkouts that threaten to undercut profits and cripple smaller suppliers already strained from months of production cuts forced by semiconductor shortages. The pressure is rising on the three automakers as EV market leader Tesla cut US prices of its Model 3 sedan and Model Y SUV, ratcheting up its price war and further pressuring profits on all EV models that are forced to match CEO Elon Musk’s aggression. Deutsche Bank estimated in a research note on Friday that the hit to operating earnings at GM, Ford and Stellantis from lost production has been $408 million, $250 million and $230 million, respectively. Meanwhile, Republican freshman Senator JD Vance swung by an Ohio picket line, only to get a dry burn from Toledo congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, who’s served the district for 40 years.
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Post by Webster on Oct 6, 2023 18:11:01 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Oct 6, 2023 18:11:32 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Oct 13, 2023 22:23:16 GMT -5
(NPR) United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain said on Friday the union would not expand the strike immediately against the Big Three automakers, but left open the possibility that it could do so at any time. Fain, in a Facebook Live appearance, called this a "new phase" in the union's fight against General Motors, Ford and Stellantis as the strike enters its fifth week. Fain had previously used his Facebook Live presentations to announce strike plans, but the UAW changed tactics earlier this week when the union called on 8,700 workers at Ford's Kentucky Truck Plant to walk off the job after Ford declined to offer a better contract. "We're not sticking to one pattern, or one system of giving these companies an extra hour or an extra day," said Fain said on Friday morning. "They know what needs to happen, and they know how to get it done." No deal in sight yetFain's remarks come as the union and the Big Three automakers still appear at loggerheads over a new contract. The UAW has made clear that the automakers' offers still fall short of the union's demands. Ford, GM and Stellantis have all said they've already put record offers on the table that include wage increases of more than 20% over four years, the return of cost of living allowances, a faster progression to the top wage, additional paid holidays and more. Other sticking points remain, including retirement security and whether there will be union jobs at electric vehicle battery plants. Ford reacted angrily to the UAW's sudden decision this week to strike at its Louisville plant. In a media call on Thursday, Ford said it had reached an economic ceiling on what it can offer, although the automaker said it was willing to adjust components of its offer. "On the economics, I would say, yes, we're pretty much — we have reached our limit," said Kumar Galhotra, president of Ford Blue, the automaker's internal combustion and hybrid division. We have to set a very clear limit beyond which it starts to hurt our business and starts to hurt our future, and that is not good for anybody."
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Post by Webster on Oct 30, 2023 13:24:10 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Biden call GM, UAW deal 'great' as end of six-week autoworkers strike appears nearGeneral Motors and the United Autoworkers have reached an agreement on a new contract that would end the six-week strike against the Big Three Detroit carmakers. In a brief comment to reporters, Joe Biden called the development “great”. He has made supporting unions a priority of his administration, and last month traveled to Michigan to stand with UAW picketers. Here’s more from the Guardian’s Michael Sainato on the agreement: The United Auto Workers’ six-week strike against the US’s three largest automakers appeared to be coming to an end on Monday as the union brokered a deal with General Motors.
The agreement follows on the heels of deals with Ford and Stellantis, brokered in the past few days, effectively ending the first simultaneous strike against the three Detroit automakers.
The UAW strike has been the largest by car workers in decades, and has proved an unusual political flashpoint, with Donald Trump and Joe Biden supporting workers over the car companies.
Biden lauded the reported agreement reached with GM. “I think it’s great,” said Biden, who has touted himself as pro-union.
After the union reached a tentative agreement with Ford last week, Stellantis reached an agreement with similar contract terms on Saturday, and General Motors followed suit on Monday. The agreements include 25% wage increases for workers over the life of the contract and cost-of-living adjustments.
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Post by Webster on Oct 30, 2023 13:24:58 GMT -5
(The Guardian) The UAW strike is part of a larger wave of union activism in recent months that has seen laborers win significant concessions from employers. Here’s more on that from the Guardian’s Steven Greenhouse: Call it the Great Reset. Across the US, labor unions are winning surprisingly large contract settlements as workers have reset their expectations to demand considerably more than they did just a few years ago, and that has in turn pressured many corporations to reset – and increase – the pay packages they are giving in union contracts.
The result has been a wave of impressive – sometimes eye-popping – union contracts over the past year, far more generous than in recent decades. In August, 15,000 American Airlines pilots won pay increases of 46% over four years. In a huge labor confrontation last summer, 340,000 Teamster members at UPS won raises of $7.50 an hour over five years, with drivers’ pay climbing to $49 an hour and part-time workers receiving a pay increase of 48% on average.
After a three-day strike earlier this month, 85,000 Kaiser Permanente workers won raises of 21%, as well as a $25 minimum wage for Kaiser’s workers in California. In March, 30,000 Los Angeles school district workers – bus drivers, cafeteria workers and teachers’ aides – won a 30% wage hike over four years. In Oregon, 1,400 nurses at Providence Portland hospital secured raises between 17% and 27% over two years.
Union leaders and rank-and-file workers hailed these contracts as great and historic, but Thomas Kochan, a longtime professor of industrial relations at MIT, put it another way: “All this reflects a a reset in expectations and wage norms for workers and for employers. “These successes,” Kochan continued, “are a reflection of the workforce’s strong expectations and the workforce’s demands to make up for lost ground due to inflation – and to signal that times have changed. The modest wage increases of the past will no longer be adequate to deal with our situation.”
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Post by Webster on Oct 30, 2023 18:46:51 GMT -5
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