President Joe Biden was dealt an economic and political blow Friday as the United Auto Workers went on strike after the union and major American automakers failed to reach a new contract, a development the White House worked to avoid and now places the president in a bind.
On one side, Biden faces pressure to support workers he has championed for decades and whose support he’ll need to win reelection. On the other is the potentially destabilizing risk of an auto manufacturing shutdown, threatening higher prices on vehicles and a blow to the economy just as Biden ramps up his “Bidenomics” sales pitch.
Until now, the White House has remained on the sidelines of the talks, declining to take a position in the contentious negotiations. It remained to be seen whether the start of a strike would push the president toward more vocal support for one side, or unlock steps by the administration to contain the economic fallout.
For Biden, who has labeled himself the most “pro-union president in history,” the strike also lays bare a tension between two of his chief objectives: Improving wages and conditions for American manufacturing workers and leading a transition to clean energy.
The president has insisted repeatedly those can be parallel goals, not competing ones. But the launch of the strike makes clear that reconciling those intentions will still be a complex challenge. Negotiations between the autoworkers and the Big Three car companies – General Motors, Ford and Jeep-maker Stellantis – had been complicated by the shift to electric vehicles.
In the lead-up to the strike, Biden and White House officials had been carefully monitoring developments in the negotiations, though were not directly involved. The union said targeted strikes would commence at an undisclosed number of facilities if its current contract expired at 11:59 p.m. on Thursday. Among…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply