On September 15, the United Auto Workers began a targeted strike against Ford, GM, and Stellantis (the conglomerate that includes Chrysler) in an effort to secure higher wages, a four-day work week, and other protections in the union’s next contract. The strike is a huge development for American workers, but it’s also a big deal for President Joe Biden—these car companies are central to his green-infrastructure agenda. The union wants assurances that the industry’s historic, heavily subsidized transition toward electric vehicles will work for them, too.
Biden, whose National Labor Relations Board has been an ally of labor organizers in fights against companies such as Amazon and Starbucks, has called himself “the most pro-union president in American history.” He has expressed support for the UAW’s cause (workers “deserve their fair share of the benefits they helped create,” he said last week) and has sent aides to Michigan to assist in the negotiations.
“Pro union only if I like the union, otherwise fuck them”
Collective bargaining of organized labor isn’t going to always pick the universally best option for everyone. Police unions should have made that glaringly obvious. If an electrical workers union agrees to a deal that benefits them but not others, it’s an incredibly shitty thing to do, but it’s still collective bargaining in action.
No, how collective bargaining works is if they dont get a deal that benefits enough people, they collectively strike. That was banned, collective bargaining was banned, and then after the fact these assholes are praising the move.