Joe Biden’s love of unions runs into a giant strike
It is sometimes said that Americans are not class-conscious. A few minutes of listening to Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers, one of the country’s biggest unions, ought to put that notion to rest. “The very existence of billionaires shows us that we have an economy that is working for the benefit of the few and not the many,” he told UAW members in a recent live-stream. His theme, hammered home again and again, was that workers were losing out while companies were profiting. “Why is that?” he asked. “So another asshole can make enough money to shoot himself to the moon?”
Mr Fain was at his fiery best because he was rallying his troops ahead of a possible strike against the “Big Three” carmakers in Detroit, Ford, GM and Stellantis, when their contract ends on September 14th. (Stellantis’s biggest shareholder, Exor, also owns part of The Economist’s parent company.) That would mark the culmination of a heated few months in American labour relations. The 146,000 UAW members set to walk off their jobs would add to roughly 190,000 other workers, including actors, screenwriters and hotel staff, already on the picket line. Together, more American private-sector employees would be on strike than at any point since the 1980s.
When strikes have been averted recently, the terms have been favourable for workers. UPS, a delivery company, agreed in July to lift pay and benefits for its drivers to $170,000. Some in the labour movement think they are just getting started. Or as Mr Fain says: “Our fight is not just for ourselves but for every worker.”
2023-09-13 11:19:50
Original from www.economist.com