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.”
I think this would mean more if he actually stood up for the railway workers during their strike.
Did he though? His Congress pushed through a bill with a smaller compensation package, 1(one) day of sick time, no removal of advance notice for sick time, none of the OT protections, and no acknowledgement of safety concerns.
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.
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.
Far less than they asked for
Have you ever heard of the word “negotiation”? Why aren’t you talking about how the result was “far less than what the rail companies asked for”?
Gotta give the president props for that, as well as democrats. Didn’t realize they got that through. I’d like them to keep pushing for a least 12 national sick days for all mid to major companies.
Would love to see some universal protections.
It would, absolutely, but it still means a whole lot.
It’s a recognition by a slick, seasoned, career politician in the highest office in his country that the winds are shifting with respect to the labour movement.
Don’t think of this as Biden expressing any deeply held belief. Don’t think of anything he does in those terms. The Democrats in general, and Biden especially, are a mirror that reflects something meaningful about the socio-political environment. Just as Trump and the Republicans are.
He and his team believe that something in that environment has shifted, and that labour is poised to be ok the winning side of that shift.
Why isn’t he championing a massive raise in minimum wage? Everyone other than the rich are struggling. Is he just trying to make cars even more expensive than they already have gotten here? I’m in my 40s and my first house cost less than an average new car today. Help all the people, man.
The problem is that owners are profiting off of labor while not doing any real work themselves.
The rich need to make less profit so ‘everyone other than the rich’ can have more. It’s that simple, not sure why it needs to be spelled out for you.
This should not be paid for by raising prices. It should be paid for by people wealthier than you making less profit while still being wealthier than you can ever hope to be.
I’m in my 40s and my first house cost less than an average new car today.
That’s because people like you don’t understand how basic economics work, so you’re routinely taken advantage of by people who do.
Republicans blocked Biden’s previous attempt to raise the minimum wage so not a lot of use to try again unless there is some more pressure.
I didn’t say I expect him to get it done right now. He doesn’t even talk about it anymore.
Because all that would accomplish right now is get some asshole on the Internet to comment “if that’s the case why doesn’t he do something about it?” Or “why doesn’t he do something about Medicare?”
Does he need to give a 6 hour speech outlining every policy he supports every day to satisfy you?
He has asked Congress to legislate a higher minimum wage. He issued an executive order requiring federal contractors to raise their minimum wage to qualify for government contracts.
What are YOU doing to raise the minimum wage of you care so much about it? Are you contacting your representatives? Your state can raise its own minimum wage: are you harassing those officials?
Or are you just trying to criticize Biden and draw attention away from his strike support on the Internet?
Biden: “You should get paid more.”
Trump: indicted for 91 crimes and found liable for decades of tax fraud
Michigan Republicans: ¯\(ツ)/¯
Biden had a majority for two years and did jack shit on pay.
Can’t really blame them for being angry.
You can’t pass a minimum wage increase with a 50-50 senate. It’s literally not possible.
I guess that should have been the only focus. All I remember is that before he took office we couldn’t leave our houses and people were dying from COVID like crazy. It’s not Biden’s fault that wages haven’t increased with inflation since before I was born. Sure he could probably do more but I don’t see anyone else jumping up to help in any meaningful way either. No one will even primary him and his major opponent is just litigating things from 3 years ago to save his ego and or freedom. I don’t see anyone else stepping up from a position of power.
They are when it comes to wages.
The federal minimum wage has been 7 bucks for fifteen years. Both sides have had a total majority with the presidency in that time frame.
Literally the same.
Just going to ignore how Biden has asked Congress to legislate a higher minimum wage and issues an executive order requiring a higher minimum wage for Federal contractors?
The Democrats have only controlled Congress and the presidency at the same time for about 4 months in the past 4 decades, beginning in September 2009. Before then… idk it would have been before Reagan. When was the last time the minimum wage increased? 2009.
“Both sides are the same” is a Republican talking point.
Democrats had it for 2 years in the past 20+ years…not the fuckin same. Republicans had it for 14 years. Anything Barack tried to do was shit on for 6 years of his presidency by Congress and his first two years he had he got a lot done, not to mention that he did actually raise the minimum wage for federal workers in 2014 by executive order because that’s the only way anything could get changed when the dumb ass party had control. https://money.cnn.com/2014/02/12/news/economy/obama-executive-order-minimum-wage/index.html
Our state GOP was totally hijacked by MAGA radicals and now answers to Karamo, who’s an utter nut job and die-hard Trump loyalist.
But they’ve gone so far a lot of moderate Republicans feel alienated and with our new balanced voting districts Democrats will probably secure victory for the foreseeable future. It still will be a tight race, but I would not be surprised if Biden’s margin in 2024 is bigger in Michigan than it was in 2020.
Hopefully he keeps the same message when the executives refuse to make a reasonable offer and “the economy” might suffer again.
I don’t think it’s as likely that the Feds break this strike like they did with the railroads. Their argument against the rails was that almost every other industry relies on them to move product, while having fewer new cars will only effect the new and used car markets. With however hundreds of millions of usable vehicles that are already out there, this strike doesn’t really have the same opportunity to spill over to the larger economy.
I wonder where the Big 3 will send their campaign cash for the 2024 election?
To both sides. They need to work with whatever party is in power. On top of that the real Big 3 American companies - Ford, GM, and Tesla - have committed so hard to EVs they literally can’t back out now, but EVs are popular with liberals, not conservatives. They’ve made it clear their business interests align with the liberal agenda, and at this point any regulation on emissions is doing them a huge favor, something they won’t see from the GOP.
Wonder no more: https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=T2100
