Joe Biden proclaims himself the most pro-union president in the history of the United States. This Friday he demonstrated this with an unusual act: he joined the picket line of the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike against the Big Three of Detroit: General Motors, Ford and Stellantis (which includes Chrysler). . Megaphone in hand and with a union cap, he has shown his support for the strikers’ demands: “Stay firm. “You deserve a considerable raise and other benefits,” he said. “Wall Street did not build this country, the middle class is what did,” he added.
“This is a historic moment: the first time a sitting president of the United States has joined the picket lines,” said UAW President Shawn Fain, the Chrysler electrician-turned-union leader who made the public call to Biden to join the protest.
Biden has visited pickets at a General Motors facility in Wayne County, Michigan, outside Detroit. With his unprecedented move, he has moved ahead of former President Donald Trump, who plans a rally with union workers in Michigan this Wednesday, coinciding with the second Republican primary debate, scheduled for that day at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley ( California). Michigan is one of the key states for the 2024 presidential elections.
The president was received at the foot of the steps of Air Force One by the president, Fain, the lieutenant governor of Michigan, Garlin Gilchrist, and three congressmen. A large caravan with the security detail that usually accompanies the president later headed to the factory, where the pickets were more numerous than in recent days.
The UAW has been the most powerful and influential union in the United States throughout its 88-year history, but it had fallen into an era of decadence and corruption for which two of its presidents ended up in prison. Fain became the union’s first president to be elected directly by its members in March. Despite Biden’s support for their demands, the UAW, unlike other unions, has not yet requested support for Biden in the 2024 elections.
The unions demand a new group with strong salary increases that compensate for the purchasing power lost since the financial crisis, in addition to eliminating or reforming the double salary scale that penalizes new workers and guarantees of job security in the midst of the transition to the electric car.
Trump stole from the Democrats the traditional support of a large part of the industrial workers of the so-called rust belt of the United States, where heavy industry is concentrated. He beat Hillary Clinton in 2016 in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, among other states where the weight of blue-collar workers has an important weight, and thanks to that she achieved the presidency. Biden won back all three in 2020 and, along with Arizona, Nevada and Georgia, they could be decisive again next year. The president of the United States already campaigned insistently with the unions before the legislative elections in the middle of his term to retain the worker vote in those three states.
Companies have not liked Biden’s visit. Last year at this time, Biden visited the Detroit Auto Show with Mary Barra, the head of General Motors. A year later, he demonstrated against it in front of a plant of that same company. Before Biden’s visit, Stellantis has defended its offer: “On the first day of the strike, President Biden said that UAW workers ‘deserve a contract that sustains them and the middle class.’ “We agree and present a record offer,” he said through a statement. “Here are the facts: 21.4% compound wage increase, including a 10% hike upon ratification, $1 billion in retirement security benefits, inflation protection measures, job security and much more,” he added.
“Unlike the non-union operators and electric car startups that make up the majority of the US market, Stellantis relies on collaboration between management and labor to ensure our company remains competitive and therefore sustainable. It is a position we have taken with pride. But it also requires a balanced agreement that fairly rewards our workers for their contributions to our success, without significantly harming Stellantis against our non-union competitors. “We are willing to sign a record contract that positions our company to continue providing good jobs here at home and be the winner in America’s transition to an electrified future,” the statement concludes.
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