High inflation and economic stagnation are becoming mainstay attributes of the Biden administration. Disastrous labor strikes are also another recurring nightmare. It took an act of Congress to avert a rail strike last year. The Teamsters and UPS reached a new agreement as zero hour approached last month. And now, United Auto Workers have greenlit their war measure against the Big Three automakers should negotiations collapse over a new agreement in September.
The new contract isn’t a recent development. Since May, this has been a looming issue, which Biden might or might not be aware of, as he’s too busy on vacation. The current contract between the UAW and the Big Three expires on September 14, but negotiations opened in July. The union’s rank-and-file approved a strike by a near-unanimous vote today (via Fox Business):
The votes are in, and the results are astounding: 97% of Big Three members voted YES to authorize a strike if the automakers don't give us a fair deal.
— UAW (@UAW) August 25, 2023
Get strike ready: https://t.co/gbtJCcQMwN pic.twitter.com/ZZ6IwbHUqs
The United Auto Workers Union announced Friday its strike authorization vote passed with "near universal approval" from its 150,000 members at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.
"Final votes are still being tabulated, but the current combined average across the Big Three was 97% in favor of strike authorization," it said in a statement. "The vote does not guarantee a strike will be called, only that the union has the right to call a strike if the Big Three refuse to reach a fair deal."
The UAW is currently negotiating new contracts with the automakers, with its current ones expiring on Sept. 14.
"Our union’s membership is clearly fed up with living paycheck-to-paycheck while the corporate elite and billionaire class continue to make out like bandits," UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement. "The Big Three have been breaking the bank while we have been breaking our backs."
The massive labor union says its demands "include the elimination of tiered wages and benefits, wage increases to offset inflation and match the generous salary increases of company executives over the last four years, the re-establishment of cost-of-living allowances and defined benefit pensions and retiree healthcare, the right to strike over plant closures, significant increases to current retiree benefits, and more paid time off to be with family."
"Our members' expectations are high because Big Three profits are so high. The Big Three made a combined $21 billion in profits in just the first six months of this year. That’s on top of the quarter-trillion dollars in North American profits they made over the last decade," Fain added. "While Big Three executives and shareholders got rich, UAW members got left behind. Our message to the Big Three is simple: record profits mean record contracts."
With weeks until the deadline, I wouldn’t be shocked if a new agreement is hashed out. When the Teamsters negotiated their new contract with UPS, Sean O’Brien, the labor union’s president, was adamant that the Biden White House stay out of it. Does the UAW feel the same way?
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