Mastodawn

MicroWave Sep 26, 2023

Biden says UAW should fight for 40% pay raise in Michigan strike visit

Biden says UAW should fight for 40% pay raise in Michigan strike visit - Lemmy.world

President Joe Biden on Tuesday joined a picket line with striking autoworkers in Michigan, supporting their call for a 40% pay raise and saying they deserve a “lot more” than they are getting. Biden’s appearance, the first visit by a U.S. president to striking workers in modern history, comes a day before Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner for president, will speak to auto workers in Michigan. The rare back-to-back events highlight the importance of union support in the 2024 presidential election, even though unions represent a tiny fraction of U.S. workers. Democrat Biden traveled to a Belleville, Michigan, parts distribution center owned by General Motors (GM.N), and joined dozens of picketers outside. “Companies were in trouble, now they’re doing incredibly well. And guess what? You should be doing incredibly well, too,” Biden said through a bullhorn. “Stick with it.”

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danc4498 Sep 27, 2023

I think this would mean more if he actually stood up for the railway workers during their strike.

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GR_Pete Sep 27, 2023

https://www.ibew.org/media-center/Articles/23Daily/2306/230620_IBEWandPaid

‘We Never Stopped Applying Pressure’: Hard-Fought Success on Rail Sick Days

After months of negotiations, the IBEW’s Railroad members at four of the largest U.S. freight carriers finally have what they’ve long sought but that many working people take for granted: paid sick days.

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bdonvr Sep 27, 2023

Far less than they asked for, and did nothing towards meeting their other major demands such as Precision Scheduled Railroading.

If Biden was incapable or unwilling to force the rail companies to give better terms, he should have stayed out of it.

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SeedyOne Sep 27, 2023

Then perhaps they shouldn’t have accepted it and striked as planned? The fact that it wasn’t “enough” for the workers isn’t on the POTUS and doesn’t negate his actions.

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BarrelAgedBoredom Sep 27, 2023

They kind of kick-started this years huge labor push. Sure, it was bubbling up for a while before the rail unions decided to take action but they were the first “big” players to threaten a strike in a while. It’s easy to say that from the sidelines after the fact but they were being vilified by national media 24/7 for weeks, getting a bunch of pressure from Congress and being threatened to have the book thrown at them if they decided to strike. They were early to the party and didn’t have all of it’s completely understandable.

It’s also completely valid to criticize Biden for not doing enough when it really mattered, he could’ve put more pressure on Congress, he could’ve visited the workers and given his approval. He’s clearly capable of these things when it suits his interests, why didn’t he do any of that for the rail unions? Surely they could’ve used the help. Why was “working in the background” good enough for them but all of a sudden it’s insufficient for the UAW?

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SeedyOne

Criticism is totally fine and often deserved, I’m just saying using the rail strike (or any past Biden ball-drops) as a measuring stick for this one servers little purpose and detracts from the core issue. He should be held to task for those things when it comes election time, not fielding “but what about XYZ?” statements.