Biden to walk the picket line in Michigan to support UAW strikers | CNN Politics
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President Joe Biden will travel to Michigan on Tuesday and walk the picket line with members of the United Auto Workers union, he announced Friday, a trip that comes after the president faced political pressure to ramp up his public support for the union members.

President Joe Biden will travel to Michigan on Tuesday and walk the picket line with members of the United Auto Workers union, he announced Friday, a trip that comes after the president faced political pressure to ramp up his public support for the union members.

“Tuesday, I’ll go to Michigan to join the picket line and stand in solidarity with the men and women of UAW as they fight for a fair share of the value they helped create. It’s time for a win-win agreement that keeps American auto manufacturing thriving with well-paid UAW jobs,” Biden said in a post to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Biden’s trip, and the historic presidential appearance on a picket line, underscores the political opportunity as the strike against the nation’s three largest automakers – General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis – enters its second week. It will come one day before former President Donald Trump, currently the front-runner in the GOP presidential race, is scheduled to deliver a primetime speech to an audience of current and former union members, including from UAW, in Detroit. Earlier in the week, Trump’s team confirmed he would be skipping the second Republican primary debate for the Michigan speech.

    • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
      361·
      1 year ago

      I remember a state of the union address where he said, “It’s time for Americans to get back to work and fill our great downtowns again,” like people didn’t bust their asses working from home during the pandemic. Small moment but it always really stuck in my mind for showing how he thinks of the commercial property owning class before he thinks about workers.

      • Zorque@kbin.social
        202·
        1 year ago

        I busted my ass working not from home during the pandemic.

        Not everyone had the flexibility to work from home. Which makes his condescension that much worse.

        • Chetzemoka@startrek.website
          44·
          1 year ago

          Source is one of the unions themselves:

          https://www.ibew.org/media-center/Articles/23Daily/2306/230620_IBEWandPaid

          "Since then, several other railroad-related unions have also seen success in negotiating for similar sick-day benefits. These 12 unions represent more than 105,000 railroad workers.

          “Biden deserves a lot of the credit for achieving this goal for us,” Russo said. “He and his team continued to work behind the scenes to get all of rail labor a fair agreement for paid sick leave.”

          • Zaktor@sopuli.xyzEnglish
            8·
            1 year ago

            This is a union that voted for the original contract without sick days. They didn’t want to strike in the first place.

            And there were more demands that what they ended up getting.

      • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
        158·
        1 year ago

        Not what happened

        …this September, Biden reversed course, helping negotiate a deal between railroad bosses and unions that would only grant workers a single paid sick day per year, despite the unions pushing for as many as 15 sick days — a number they were ultimately willing to reduce to as few as four. Now, to avoid a shutdown of the nation’s rail network, he is asking Congress to force that deal on workers who voted to reject it.

      • Zorque@kbin.social
        83·
        1 year ago

        So basically he sequestered all the power within his office, and when (not if) that office changes, they lose all they fought for.

        Taking power from workers so you can pander to the masses is not a good thing. It erodes the entire fabric of labor rights. It means they have no power to negotiate on their own behalf, and have to wait on the convenience of politicians.