TOLEDO, Ohio -- At the heart of who the United Auto Workers union members are and what they want are three very American concepts: pride in their work, the ability to navigate an economy that is working against them, and a government strong-arming a prosperous and secure future away from them and their community.
As CNBC's Brian Sullivan said so succinctly after his visit to the picket line in Detroit 60 miles from this GM plant, the UAW workers are "proud of their jobs and roles in American manufacturing," burdened by the "inflation of the last few years which is crushing them" and "fearful of what they view as mostly forced Electric Vehicle (EV) mandate from D.C."
Wednesday, the one-month-old strike against all of the "Big Three" American automakers (Ford, General Motors, Stellantis) escalated when more than 8,000 autoworkers walked off work at the Ford Motor Company's truck plant in Kentucky, their most profitable plant. It was a move no one saw coming and likely will have the biggest impact on the historic strike.
UAW President Shawn Fain said in a press release as the autoworkers walked off the job, "We have been crystal clear, and we have waited long enough, but Ford has not gotten the message. It's time for a fair contract at Ford and the rest of the Big Three. If they can't understand that after four weeks, the 8,700 workers shutting down this extremely profitable plant will help them understand it."
Last week, Sen. J.D. Vance, a Republican who grew up in Middletown, Ohio, visited members here at the Toledo Jeep Assembly Complex who have been on the picket line since the strike began in September.
Vance said it was a no-brainer for him to show up and give his support for the workers here in Ohio, given his roots in Middletown. His grandparents left Jackson, Kentucky, in the 1940s for a better life and the ability to achieve the American dream when his Papaw found work in the Armco steelworks, which eventually became AK Steel.
By the time Vance was born in 1984, Middletown was on the precipice of going from a prosperous industrial town with a robust business district that had flourished since the steel mill opened to the beginning of a free fall. By the time Vance was a teenager, the massive 175,000-foot four-story building and the town were in decay. They were no longer where thousands were employed, and in response, the business district started to shutter, and families moved away.
Vance said watching his hometown decay and the people in the community suffer under the weight of corporate greed formed his worldview.
Vance told reporters at the picket line it was important to be here and listen to their stories, stories he said were so strikingly similar to what he heard growing up in a steel town on the brink of workers worried about being shut out by trade deals or replaced by automation.
"I talked to a woman who moved from the Illinois facility that was closed about a year and a half ago. She's now working here, struggling to get by. I talked to a guy who's got three kids, which hits me pretty hard because I've got three young kids myself, worried about paying for baseball leagues for his kids," said Vance, adding, "If you're working 60, 70 hours a week, you shouldn't be worried about paying for baseball league for your kids. You should be able to afford that good life for your family."
Vance said it was important to show up and support the workers but even more important to take stories he heard and apply them to his job in Washington.
Vance said the UAW workers message was pretty simple. "Ten years ago, the auto industry was in a state of crisis; they took it on the chin, accepted lower wages so the industry could prosper. Now that the industry is prospering, it's fair for us to share in some of the gain and I think it's totally reasonable."
Vance said most of the people he talked to on the picket line said they could not afford the very cars they were making, "I've heard from so many people out here who are struggling to get by, working 60, 70-hour weeks, that is not okay in this country ... it's a failure of Washington," he said.
"I was raised by a union steelworker who made enough to actually buy a good American car. And I've talked to some folks who are worried that every time they dare to speak up at their own place of business, the company threatens to move their job to Mexico. What the hell is wrong with our country that when workers actually make their voices heard, we threaten that we're going to move their job to Mexico? It's disgraceful," he said.
As for Washington, Vance said the thing he can take back most to the U.S. Capitol is there has to be a resolution that benefits the workers, and this strike needs to end.
"This is obviously an economically devastating thing. It's devastating for the workers. It's devastating for the broader community. And I think the message I can take back to Washington is, look, this thing can end. The auto industry is doing well. You just got to give the workers a fair shake."
Before Wednesday's walkout in Louisville, Ford's largest plant and one of the largest auto plants in the world, the union had excluded Ford plants when the pop-up strikes expanded after Ford indicated it was dedicated to reaching a deal with the UAW.
Ford, in a statement, held nothing back, saying the UAW's move was "grossly irresponsible but unsurprising," and they insisted they had made an offer to the UAW that showed a "positive difference" for their members.
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