• Union strategy: 13,000 autoworkers at the three Midwest plants, about 9% of the unionized workforce at the Big Three automakers, were the first to walk off the job. Now, more workers are temporarily out of work as the automakers are asking hundreds of non-striking workers not to show up to work.
  • Negotiation and demands: The UAW’s call for a 40% pay increase is still intact as negotiations continue. Also on the docket are pensions, cost-of-living adjustments and quality-of-life improvements.
  • Reactions: President Biden urged automakers to share their profits with workers as the strike tested his bid to be the “most pro-labor” president. He is dispatching Julie Su, the acting labor secretary, and Gene Sperling, a White House senior adviser, to Detroit to help with negotiations.
  • Kichae@kbin.social
    46·
    9 months ago

    Imagine you’re Biden and you hear about this railroad strike. Your advisors are telling you if the strike goes through how many rail passengers are stranded in the middle of nowhere, how much food is just going to go to waste and not make it to various towns, which factories manufacturing hospital equipment will be without material and unable to continue production.

    Strikes are supposed to be inconvenient. A strike that is not inconvenient garners workers no leverage. Interfering with a strike because it is inconvenient is union busting.

    On top of a gigantic economic impact there could be deaths associated with the strike.

    There are deaths associated with a lot of things that the administration is not acting on. Why was this one special?

    Imagine you’re that guy and have to make the call to say nope, I don’t care, the strike continues.

    Imagine you’re that guy, and your call isn’t to tell the rail companies to negotiate in good faith and get the strike dealt with.

    He sided with the companies, not the workers. He did so publicly, and with the weight of the state.

    There’s no nuance here. He interfered with workers’ rights to strike and to negotiate, favouring business over workers.