Karine Jean-Pierre refuses to say if ‘Union Joe’ backs UAW workers’

President Joe Biden will “stand with workers” when he visits a UAW picket line in Detroit — but the White House won’t say whether he will adhere to their specific negotiating demands. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was repeatedly asked whether Biden supported the United Auto Worker position in negotiations in their extended strike against auto companies. But she declined an immediate answer when asked if he supported the union’s call for a 32-hour workweek with 40 hours of pay, a 40 percent increase over time.

Biden heads to Detroit on Tuesday, where he will stand on the picket line during a strike that began on September 15 against three auto companies: Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. “This is the president standing by the workers… It’s not confusing. What he’s saying, and we’ve been very clear about it, he’s standing firm. He stands with the workers,” Jean-Pierre said at the White House press conference on Monday. She called him “the most union president in history.”

The White House would not provide details of Biden’s visit, but he is visiting a state where workers have been striking at the Ford assembly plant in Wayne, Michigan. “The president is a unionist,” she said, calling him the “most unionist president of modern times.” But when pressed for the details of the negotiations, Jean-Pierre said that “we’re not going to talk about what’s on the table.”

‘I will not enter into negotiations from here. This is for the parties to negotiate,” she said. She said the UAW “should have a record deal” to match the company’s profits. She also brushed off a question about past presidents who have acted as mediators to resolve strikes, fearing that labor action could drag on and damage the economy. She pushed back when asked whether Biden’s trip, announced late last week, had anything to do with former President Donald Trump’s decision to meet with striking workers in Michigan on Wednesday.

That event pits Trump against the Republican presidential debate taking place in Los Angeles. Trump will deliver a prime time speech from Michigan that will compete with the debate. Biden’s own visit comes ahead of a trip to San Francisco. “Absolutely not,” she said. “This is what the president wanted to do to stand with our workers.” The unions voted to strike after talks with the companies failed.

Their demands include a wage increase of up to 40 percent, changes in contract length, a 32-hour work week with full pay for the current 40-hour week, along with changes to pension and health care plans. The companies responded with a salary increase of 19.5 percent, compared to an earlier offer of 17.5 percent.

“What drives members’ expectations are the profits of the Big Three,” UAW President Shawn Fain said this month. Annual gross profit has increased 34 percent at Ford, 50 percent at GM since 2019 and 19 percent at Stellantis from 2021 to 2022, NBC reports. The company was founded when Fiat Chrysler merged with Peugeot.

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