It represented an iconic moment in recent American history. From mid-September to early November of last year, tens of thousands of automotive workers – some 45,000 – paralyzed Ford, Stellantis and General Motors factories. The cars that circulated on the roads of Detroit, the epicenter of that strike, whistled in solidarity with those union members. It was an image to remember in the first world power that symbolized for decades the hegemony of neoliberalism and the decline of unions. A year later, that social victory, with a 25% increase in salaries among other achievements, is still present in the collective memory of Michigan.
The covers of both the national and local press are now monopolized by Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Tuesday’s presidential elections take place after recent years marked by the resurgence of workers’ organizations and the multiplication of strikes. The worker has burst into American political language again, after decades in which only the consumer and the taxpayer were talked about. It is one of the main novelties of an electoral race that, as happened in 2016 and 2020, consists of a duel between the far-right Donald Trump and a representative of the moderate wing of the Democratic Party (Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and this time Vice President Harris).
As a good reflection that politics is not limited to the polls, the union struggle has continued during the campaign. Some 45,000 stevedores interrupted their activity at the beginning of October in 40 ports in the east and south of the country. Port workers had not gone on strike for fifty years and in just three days they achieved a 62% salary increase. More than 30,000 employees at Boeing plants, 10,000 in the hospitality industry, Volkswagen workers in Tennessee… The list of sectors mobilized in recent months is long.
The union struggle has continued during the campaign: 45,000 dockers, more than 30,000 Boeing employees, 10,000 in the hospitality industry were stopped…
Detroit, whose decadent and rebellious appearance gives it a special charm, is no exception. Despite being the main urban center of Michigan – one of the seven key states in the elections – the duel between Trump and Kamala takes place in parallel to a work stoppage of more than eight weeks at the city’s main refinery. Marathon management “did not want to speak to us for a month and a half and that is why we resisted. Finally, he has called us for next week,” Daniel Hammon, one of the oil company workers and Teamsters activist, told CTXT. “Of the 500 employees at the plant, more than half are on strike. Unity is our strength,” he boasts.
A campaign under the shadow of strikes
“Work stoppages doubled between 2022 and 2023 in the United States. Trade union organizations have regained vitality, although their capacity for mobilization remains below that of the 1970s,” explains historian Jean-Christian Vinel, a specialist in the political and social history of labor in North America. This expert remembers the Hollywood screenwriters’ strike or the creation of the first unions at Amazon or Starbucks as paradigmatic examples of this resurgence, caused by the labor shortage during the pandemic, the loss of purchasing power due to inflation (of double digits in 2022) and the fear of robotization.
This phenomenon undoubtedly affects the race for the White House. “Unions have superior political influence in several swing stateslike Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Nevada, than in the average of the country,” recalls sociologist Daniel B. Cornfiel, professor at Vanderbilt University and director of the magazine Work and Occupations. According to Peter Berg, professor of labor relations at the University of Michigan, the main contribution of these organizations, in addition to contributing to the financing of campaigns (in 2020 they gave 27 million to Biden), “is to mobilize their bases to go to vote”. And that in a country with high levels of abstention, up to 40% in 2016 and 34% in 2020, “this is something fundamental.”
The United Auto Workers (UAW), which led the auto strike, has dedicated itself to mobilizing its bases to support Harris
The leadership of the United Auto Workers (UAW), which led the auto strike, has dedicated itself to mobilizing its bases to support the Democratic Party. Karen Bennette, 38 years old and who was involved in the fight in that sector, left her job for a few weeks at a Stellantis plant to collaborate with the campaign. “Ordinary people are often made invisible in democratic processes like this. “We want Harris to be aware of our concerns and take them into account,” says this union member, sitting in a chair in the main room at the large UAW headquarters, on the outskirts of Detroit. There is a small office right there where the telephone operators work. Almost all of them are African-American and the majority are women.
“We do not support her because she is part of the Democratic Party, but because last year she supported us in our fight,” says Yolanda Passement, one of the first Hispanic women to hold positions of responsibility in the UAW, created in 1935. They were the four in the afternoon of October 30 and a few minutes ago a rally had ended in the parking lot in front of one of the offices of this organization.
It concluded with a speech by its leader Shawn Fain in which he warned Stellantis – the multinational that has least respected last year’s agreement – that they plan to “paralyze their factories again.” This electrician, son and grandson of automobile workers, took the reins of this union, often accused of corruption, at the beginning of last year. Not only has he managed to revitalize it, but last year he also starred in one of the iconic images of this union spring.
“There is a great division”
Biden went to one of the pickets in September 2023 and gave a speech alongside the UAW leader, making him the president of the United States who has spoken out most clearly in favor of union action. “Pensions in our sector had problems of economic viability and the Government resolved them. For that reason alone (Biden and Harris) deserve my trust,” says Hammon, who attended the UAW rally despite being a member of the Teamsters. To these types of concrete measures was added the billion dollars invested to promote green reindustrialization.
Biden’s Labor fiber does not guarantee, however, majority support for Harris from unionized workers. 60% of them supported the current president in 2020, but they were only 53% in 2016, according to data from the Cooperation Election Study, a survey promoted by Harvard University. The vice president risks suffering the same punishment as Hillary Clinton. “She is a progressive from California and does not have the same closeness to unions as Biden. It is one of their problems,” warns Vinel.
“I participated in the last four campaigns and this last one is being the most difficult,” declares Jeffrey Gardner, 81, involved in the telephone mobilization tasks. “When I call our activists, some of them hang up on me instantly,” acknowledges this retired Stellantis worker, referring to Trump supporters. “There is a great division,” he acknowledges.
Fragmentation is also reproduced at the top. In addition to the foreseeable support of the police groups for the Republican Party, the Teamsters, with 1.3 million members, put themselves in profile and decided not to support any candidate, unlike in the past when they used to opt for the Democrats. Even Sean O’Brien, leader of this historic truckers’ organization, participated in the Republican Party convention in July, where he was whistled for denouncing the unlimited power of the companies. However, “the local Teamsters chapters in Pennsylvania, Michigan or Wisconsin do support Harris,” Cornfield clarifies.
Trump “knows nothing about factory work”
“People just want to express their anger, as they fear losing their jobs due to the transition to electric vehicles. But they should direct it against companies, which are selfish and want to keep every last cent,” says Bennette. The multiplication of strikes shows how this path is making incipient progress. But it also shows the economic malaise and “is a warning for the Democratic Party,” considers writer Olivier Amiel, a good connoisseur of Detroit.
Trump tries, on the one hand, to channel this discomfort through his protectionist speech, in which nationalism and xenophobia serve to camouflage essentially neoliberal proposals, based on tax cuts. The former president praised Elon Musk for the severity of the owner of Tesla or X when it came to firing his employees. On the other hand, it has carried out a whole show to present himself as the candidate closest to the humble American, from suddenly becoming a salesperson at a McDonald’s to his recent speech in Wisconsin with an orange vest. All of this has helped him not to talk about his poor balance in terms of job achievements between 2016 and 2020.
“He insulted us UAW militants and really doesn’t know anything about what it means to work in a factory, about the injuries and back pain we suffer,” Passement defends. “In reality, he is a supporter of the decline of unions,” says Gregg Miller, 48, present at Wednesday’s rally in Detroit wearing a red T-shirt with the slogan in English “Trump is a scab.” Although the automobile Spartans are clear about it, there are serious doubts as to whether the union cordon will resist the siren song of far-right populism.
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