Democrats embrace Biden’s UAW visit
He will support striking workers on Tuesday
As strikes against the Big Three Detroit automakers entered their 10th day Sunday, Democrats are praising a visit by President Joe Biden to Michigan, scheduled for Tuesday, to show support for autoworkers on the picket lines.
The White House announced the news Friday, as union members walked out of 38 parts warehouses and distribution centers for General Motors and Stellantis in 20 states. The strike escalation, which spared Ford, added another 5,600 workers to the work stoppage for a total of 18,300 — about 12 percent of the United Auto Worker’s autoworker members.
Biden’s Michigan visit — which labor experts say is probably the first time a sitting president has visited a strike in at least 100 years — will come a day before his expected rival in the 2024 presidential race, former President Donald Trump, plans to deliver his own speech to hundreds of union members in Michigan.
“President Biden is doing what he has always done, which is to stand with American workers,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. Defending the president’s decision to visit, Buttigieg added that a strong deal would be a “win-win” for both parties: “Record profits should lead to record pay and record benefits for the workers.”
On CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., also applauded Biden’s trip as a “historic event” warranted by the “crisis of inequality in our economy.”
Asked about UAW leadership’s decision to withhold an endorsement of Biden for now, Ocasio-Cortez said “it needs to be earned,” adding, “President Biden is working toward that, especially when he lands in Michigan on Tuesday to earn that.”
The strike against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis began Sept. 15 at three auto manufacturing plants in Michigan, Missouri and Ohio, which assemble the Ford Bronco, the Chevrolet Colorado and the Jeep Wrangler.
The expansion of the strike Friday focused on the warehouses that send parts to dealerships and other locations for vehicle repairs. That move could increase pressure on General Motors and Stellantis because more American drivers seeking these parts could feel the consequences of shuttered locations across the nation: Denver, Chicago, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Orlando, Boston, Reno and beyond.
Negotiations between Ford and Unifor, the union that represents 5,400 Ford employees in Canada, have been running parallel to UAW’s bargaining with the Big Three in the United States.
Unifor announced Sunday that 54 percent of workers had voted to ratify a contract that includes wage increases of nearly 20 percent over three years for production workers, along with the reinstatement of cost-of-living allowances. Unifor said it was focused on reaching a deal with Ford first — one that could serve as a template before beginning talks with General Motors and Stellantis.
Canadian Ford workers will receive a 10 percent wage increase in the first year of their contract, faster progressions to top pay, improvements to pensions and the first cost-of-living adjustments since 2008.