Biden makes appeal to unions as possible UAW strike looms over 2024 reelection bid
Eden Villalovas
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President Joe Biden is making his pitch to union members as a possible labor strike threatens to upset both the economy and his 2024 reelection bid.
Biden’s latest appeal to labor unions comes after the United Auto Workers lodged complaints against Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis over unfair wages and pensions, and voted in favor of a strike at the Detroit Three automakers if their demands are not met by the end of their four-year contract, which expires on Sept. 14.
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In an opinion written for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Sunday, Biden said his economic policies will lift up American workers while touting the success of his administration in creating new jobs, 800,000 of which are in manufacturing.
“Wages and job satisfaction are up. Restoring the pensions of millions of retired union workers — the biggest step of its kind in the past fifty years,” Biden wrote in an opinion for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Sunday.
Biden called out Republicans for trying to prevent an increase to the minimum wage and for attacking unions, stating he’ll “continue to make progress where I can.”
Earlier this year, several of the most prominent unions in the country endorsed Biden, including The American Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of State, AFL-CIO, County and Municipal Employees — who agreed with his self-proclaimed description as “the most labor-friendly president in history.”
However, Biden has struggled to secure endorsements from the UAW and Teamsters, both large organizations that have threatened to go on strike this year and that endorsed him in 2020.
Legislation passed this year to accelerate an electric vehicle transition in the nation has been met with a flurry of criticism from automobile manufacturers who say the incentives will result in layoffs for thousands of union jobs.
“Why is Joe Biden’s administration facilitating this corporate greed with taxpayer money?” UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement after the Energy Department announced a $9.2 billion to Ford to create three major electric vehicle battery factories, in partnership with South Korean battery manufacturer SK Innovation.
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Teamsters narrowly avoided a strike in July, which would have been the largest single employer strike in United States history, with a majority of UPS workers voting to strike.
While Biden won the support of most union members in 2020, declaring himself “a union man,” tensions are rising on this year’s campaign trail as the president faces pushback over the move to transition to electric vehicles.