this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2023
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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 7 points 11 months ago (3 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 104 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Cryophilia 0 points 11 months ago

Didn’t realize they got that through.

As always, Democrats are the WORST at PR.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] paultimate14 19 points 11 months ago (1 children)

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"?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (2 children)

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?

[–] rockSlayer 13 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

The labor movement is a positive feedback loop of direct action. I'm still contending with the fact that I'm a major player in the labor movement within tech, but I can trace the labor action of the last few months directly to CODE-CWA forming to help organize Google workers in 2020. Labor action fuels labor action. The ABK Workers Alliance were inspired by Paizo, who inspired Vodeo Workers United, who inspired ABKWA members to unionize at Raven into GWA, who inspired more tech unions to form, who inspired SBWU to perform militant labor actions, who inspired WGA and SAG-AFTRA (they work in the games industry).

Edit: I feel like downvotes are coming from my claim about being a major player in the labor movement. Without revealing who I am or where I work, my workplace will be the largest union in tech when we file, beating ZWU by approximately 160 people. I'm the lead organizer of this campaign, and we have approximately 40% card saturation (the campaign started very abnormally). There is almost 0% chance anyone has seen my name outside of my home town, except my labor actions have placed me on an obscure games media podcast talking about GDC, in a picture of a CWA newsletter, and I was quoted on an article from WSJ regarding my activism.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Launching an illegal strike is far different from launching a legally protected strike. They'd have to accept the possibility that everyone loses their jobs and some people might even get taken to court. Things just aren't that bad yet.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Fair point! Thanks.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

4 days out of the desired 15, and no addressing of the myriad of other issues. Wow, such good. Much work. Good Biden.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 28 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

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.