A hoarse sounding President Joe Biden, with a more furrowed-than-normal brow, spoke from the White House on Friday afternoon about the UAW strike at the Big 3 automakers to express his concerns and announce he was sending federal officials to participate in negotiations.
Biden said that his administration had "been in touch with both parties since this began" despite saying on Labor Day that "No," he was "not worried about a strike until it happens." Well, it did, and now he's apparently worried, albeit too late.
Stating that "record profits" for Big 3 automakers "had not been shared fairly" with union workers, Biden scolded the companies for their success before leaning heavily on the claims made in a Treasury Department report that gushed about the benefits of labor unions, one Townhall noted was little more than a gift to union leaders who were due some repayment for their work to elect Democrats.
Summarizing his own administration's report on labor unions' effect as if it was some expert analysis from a nonpartisan think tank, Biden said "strong unions are critical to a growing economy" before pivoting to part of the reason for strike for which Biden bears blame: the "transition to a clean energy future."
That transition Biden and his administration are attempting to force, Biden said, "should be a win-win." It's difficult to see, however, where the win-win would come in when Biden is seeking to enact potentially unconstitutional rules from federal agencies to force private companies to comply with his agenda.
"No one wants a strike," Biden reiterated despite his checkered record in dealing with labor unions as president. "I respect worker's rights," the president added, seemingly forgetting — or hoping Americans have forgotten — that his attempts to negotiate with rail unions ended with workers voting down the contract Biden helped construct. In the end, Biden had to beg Congress to force a contract on rail unions, the same one workers had rejected.
Biden, despite his administration's failed attempt to negotiate an acceptable contract for rail unions, said he was "dispatching" Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and his Senior Advisor Gene Sperling to participate in ongoing negotiations to reach a deal and end the UAW strike.
Seeking to thread the needle between potential economic harm from the strike while not throwing autoworkers under the proverbial bus, Biden called for the deal to see "record corporate profits...shared by record contracts for the UAW" which should set the standard for "labor agreements for the future."
"Bottom line is that autoworkers help create America's middle class," Biden said. "They deserve a contract that sustains them and the middle class. That's all I'm gonna say," the president concluded before shuffling out of the room while ignoring shouted questions from reporters.
If Biden were truly worried about the state of the middle class and his desire to see it sustained, he would actually take accountability for the inflation his policies caused — sending prices surging to 40-year highs — and work to fix his flawed agenda. If workers need more money, it's probably because the average American is still seeing prices some 16 or more percent higher than they were when Biden took office and is struggling after trying to make ends meet through more than 24 consecutive months with negative real wages.
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