Around midday on Friday, September 15, President Joe Biden delivered remarks at the White House addressing the United Auto Workers (UAW) union strike.
After failing to reach contract agreements with GM, Stellantis, and Ford, UAW President Shawn Fain announced targeted strikes at three union facilities in Michigan, Ohio, and Missouri.
This is the first instance in its 88-year history that the UAW initiated a strike at all three of the Detroit-Three at the same time.
Biden encouraged all parties to continue negotiations until they can reach an agreement. “No one wants to strike,” he said. “But I respect workers’ right to use their options under the collective bargaining system and I understand the workers’ frustration.”
Biden also dispatched Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and senior aide Gene Sperling to Detroit to support further negotiations.
“The companies have made some significant offers,” Biden continued. “But I believe they should go further to ensure record corporate profits mean record contracts for the UAW.”
The self-proclaimed “most pro-union president” faced a barrage of criticism leading up to, and after the strike began.
“The UAW strike and indeed the ‘summer of strikes’ is the natural result of the Biden administration’s ‘whole of government’ approach to promoting unionization at all costs,” Suzanne P. Clark, President and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said Friday in a statement.
The UAW expressed that the union’s demands are a response, in part, to Biden’s electric vehicle policies.
Traditionally, the UAW has endorsed Democratic candidates, including Biden in 2020. Yet, they are currently the only major union that hasn’t endorsed him for re-election.
Stay tuned to CBT News for more strike coverage.
