White House reverses course on planned Detroit visit, will monitor UAW strike remotely
The Biden administration has reversed plans to send a two-person team to Detroit this week with the UAW striking Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, saying it will instead continue to monitor the situation remotely.
Last Friday, after the union began its limited strike of the Detroit Three automakers, demanding better wages and benefits and more job protection, President Joe Biden spoke in support of workers and said he would send senior adviser Gene Sperling and acting Labor Secretary Julie Su to Michigan this week to offer any help needed as the parties negotiate a new contract.
On Wednesday, a White House official confirmed in a statement sent to the Free Press that Sperling and Su would not be coming this week after all.
"Acting Secretary Su and Gene Sperling have consistently engaged with the parties on the state of negotiations," the statement said. "Given that negotiations are ongoing between the negotiating parties, it is most productive for Sperling and Su to continue their discussions from Washington and allow talks to move forward, and we'll continue to assess travel timing based on the active state of negotiations."
"The president stands with UAW workers, and believes that record corporate profits must mean record contracts for the UAW," the official added.
On Sunday and Monday, UAW President Shawn Fain made several statements insisting that Sperling and Su had no active role in negotiations between the parties. Former President Donald Trump has been active on social media, making comments about the strike as well. Fain made clear that neither Biden nor Trump have any role in the talks. "This battle is not about the president, it’s not about the former president or any other person prior to that," he said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Monday.
Throughout the strike, Biden has sought both to voice support for workers and their right to take a job action for a better contract, while at the same time keeping his distance, not wanting to be seen as meddling in talks.
Trump, however, has maintained no such distance, urging union workers to reject the transition to the Detroit Three making more electric vehicles, or EVs, which is also a priority of the Biden administration and the Democratic Party. Trump — who is expected to hold a prime-time speech before former and current union workers in Detroit next Wednesday — has claimed that the transition will cost autoworker jobs with EVs being made overseas.
That statement is at least partially refuted by the fact that more than two dozen manufacturing plants, especially those making batteries for EVs, are opening or are being planned in the U.S., in large part due to automakers' investments in transitioning to EVs and the Biden administration winning passage of legislation subsidizing new manufacturing plants and purchases of EVs made in the U.S.
It's also true, however, that EVs take fewer autoworkers to make and that many, though not all, of the new plants are opening up in Southern states where it has been more difficult for the UAW to organize.
Trump, on the other hand, hasn't said anything about the union's demands for better pay and benefits, or, unlike Biden, whether he believes better-paid union workers should be the ones making any kind of vehicles, though, when president, he did fight to try to keep car production in the U.S., with some success.
In a statement Tuesday, Fain urged workers to reject Trump's overtures. "Every fiber of our union is being poured into fighting the billionaire class and an economy that enriches people like Donald Trump at the expense of workers," he said.
But neither has the UAW endorsed Biden, with Fain saying he has to earn it with his support.
Biden is in a much trickier spot than Trump — who is running for reelection and is currently the favorite to face Biden in a rematch next year — as regards the auto strike. Political analysts believe there is a limited but not insignificant percentage of UAW workers in Michigan and across the Midwest who have supported Trump, especially in the 2016 election, and could play a role in the politically important region next year. And many of those workers are worried about the transition to EVs, even though it is a priority for Biden and Democrats.
At the same time, as he runs for reelection, Biden has to show that he is committed to fighting climate change and greenhouse gas emissions from transportation sources, including cars and trucks with internal combustion engines, and that's a huge factor.
"Trump has a lot to gain by energizing his base in Michigan," said Marick Masters, management professor at the Mike Ilitch School of Business at Wayne State University. "He knows that autoworkers are apprehensive about losing their jobs. ... There’s a schism between labor and the environmental movement. It's not a perfect alliance."
Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@tsspangler.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Biden team to skip Detroit visit, will monitor UAW talks remotely
