President Joe Biden on Monday rejected the idea that a massive auto workers’ strike could take place in the coming weeks.
At the end of August, the approximately 150,000 members of the United Auto Workers union voted to strike if an agreement could not be reached with the three Detroit automakers: Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.
UAW President Shawn Fain has promoted a four-day work week, saying workers deserve a 46 percent raise because “record profits mean record contracts.”
The current four-year contract expires on September 14.
“I’m not worried about a strike,” Biden told reporters as he arrived in Philadelphia to deliver a Labor Day speech. “I don’t think it’s going to happen.”
President Joe Biden on Monday rejected the idea that a massive auto workers’ strike could take place in the coming weeks. “I’m not worried about a strike,” Biden told reporters when he arrived in Philadelphia
After the strike was approved, Fain denounced the auto company executives for enriching themselves on the backs of the workers.
“While the Big Three executives and shareholders grew wealthy, UAW members were left behind,” he said in a statement.
On Thursday, Ford Motors offered union workers a 9 percent pay raise, which Fain says “insults our value” during a live event on Facebook.
“I know our demands are ambitious, but I have repeatedly told the companies that I am not the reason members’ expectations are so high. What drives members’ expectations is the profits of the Big Three,” he said. “You can’t make $21 billion in profit in six months and expect members to sign a mediocre contract.”
“You can’t make a quarter of a trillion dollars in North American profits in the last 10 years and expect us to keep aiming low and paying lower,” he added.
While the auto companies are raking in big profits, it’s also a troubling time in the industry due to the shift to electric cars, with the president aiming to make 50 percent of all new car sales electric by 2030.
The conventional wisdom is that fewer workers will be needed to assemble these vehicles than gas-powered cars.
United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain (center) slammed the Detroit Three for not sharing record profits with the workers. In August, 150,000 car workers threatened to go on strike if a new agreement was not reached by mid-September. He walked in the Detroit Labor Day parade on Monday
That being said, according to a study from Carnegie Mellon University quoted by Axios found that electric cars require more labor hours, especially to produce batteries.
Batteries are mainly produced in Asia, but more and more companies are moving their production lines to the United States after the introduction of the Inflation Reduction Act last summer.
However, these jobs don’t necessarily fall under the UAW umbrella and pay less money.
In November, Ford Motors CEO Jim Farley said electric vehicles will require 40 percent less labor, so the company would have to bring more components in-house to maintain jobs and be competitive.
Tesla is the largest electric vehicle manufacturer in the country.
During his speech in Philadelphia on Monday at the Sheet Metal Workers’ Local Union 19, the plight of the auto workers was alluded to.
And by the way, we’re going to move into an electric vehicle future, made in America, it will be made in America. And that protects and expands good union jobs,” he said.
“Car manufacturing has largely been a middle-class career. With a good wage that you can start a family with,’ he continued.
“Well, that won’t change under my watch,” the president added.
Following that, former President Donald Trump — who is currently running for the Republican nomination — released a video message berating Biden for pushing the industry toward electric vehicles, suggesting China would be the country to benefit .
‘And I tell you: you don’t have to pay that contribution. You don’t have to pay your dues because they will sell you to hell,” the ex-president told union workers. “You’re going to hell. You won’t have a job anymore.’
All those cars will be made in China. Each of them. You can forget it, Michigan. You can forget it, South Carolina. You can forget it all. All those cars will be made in China,” Trump said.