Burgum: Here's Who's to Blame for the UAW Strike

Madeline Leesman | September 28, 2023 11:30 AM

During the second 2024 Republican presidential debate on Wednesday, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum said that the United Auto Workers strike is a direct result of President Joe Biden’s green agenda.

“We’re missing the point, and every other network is missing the point,” Burgum said of the strike against Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis.

“The reason why people are striking in Detroit is because of Joe Biden’s interference with capital markets and free markets. The subsidies…we’re subsidizing the automakers and we’re subsidizing the cars, and a particular kind of car, not every car. We’re particularly — we’re subsidizing electric vehicles. And, when you decide that we’re going to take all of your taxpayer monies, take a billion dollars, subsidize a certain type of vehicle, and the batteries come from China, China controls 85 percent of the rare-earth minerals. They’re called rare-earth because they are measured in parts per million. China is moving 100,000 pounds of earth in Indonesia, in Africa, they’re literally destroying the planet so that we can make them make a battery that’s in a car subsidized here. That’s why they’re striking – because they need two-thirds less workers to build an electric car. This strike is at Joe Biden’s feet,” Burgum said.

In the debate, Burgum added that Biden’s green climate policies are “the real existential threat to America’s future.”

This week, The Washington Post noted that the union is “skeptical” of transitioning to electric vehicles because fewer workers are needed to build them. Townhall previously reported that union members want a wage increase of about 40 percent over four years and has a strike fund of $825 million.

Reports this week indicated that Burgum was the final GOP presidential candidate to qualify for the second debate. He is running against South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.