UAW

Wednesday

Neal Pollack

Calling Trump a ‘pedophile protector’ was ‘fate’

In a time of political turmoil, the world cried out for a hero, and it may have found one in the person of TJ Sabula, a 40-year-old Ford assembly line worker, who, when Donald Trump visited his plant yesterday, shouted “pedophile protector,” at the President. Trump responded by saying “fuck you,” and “you’re fired,” and flipping Sabula the bird. That was it, we assumed, Sabula’s job was done. You don’t cross the big boss. But though Ford did suspend Sabula without pay, he’s not done yet. Sabula happens to belong to the United Auto Workers, and a UAW representative issued this statement today: “The autoworker at the Dearborn Truck Plant is a proud member of a strong and fighting union – the UAW.

Trump pedophile protector

Wednesday

Joel Kotkin

The gloomy future facing trade unions

Few developments have more cheered progressive activists than the perceived resurgence of labor unions. This has been sparked by largely symbolic efforts to unionize in places such as Starbucks and Amazon, as well as more sizable wins by the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild and United Auto Workers, the country’s most important private labor union. In 2022 strike activity more than doubled from the previous year. Yet ultimately these wins may turn out to be largely Pyrrhic.

unions

Tuesday

Bill McMorris

Was 2023 the year of the labor union?

It is only fitting that the low point of the American labor movement occurred in 2009, the Year of the Rat. The Great Recession may have started with Wall Street speculation in the housing market, but your average American had most likely never heard of Henry Lehman or his siblings until the day Dick Fuld drove the 150-year-old bank bearing their name into the ditch. But General Motors, Chrysler? Cars, even more than Hollywood, jazz and the semi-automatic rifle, are the quintessential American business. How could those get driven into the ground? As soon as freshly evicted homeowners finished packing the remains of their subprime split-levels into the backseats of their battered Tahoes, they went looking for culprits. They settled on the United Auto Workers.

labor

Monday

The Spectator

Biden’s green agenda threatened by historic labor strike

At midnight Friday, more than 12,000 workers walked out of factories owned by Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, marking the first time in history that the United Auto Workers union has gone on strike against all of the Big Three auto manufacturers at once. The UAW started contract negotiations asking for a 40 percent pay increase over four years and a four-day work week. The Big Three have countered with an offer of an approximately 20 percent pay increase, which would make up for real wage decline due to inflation since 2008. Neither side has moved significantly since bargaining began two months ago.  The unprecedented strike is centered in the Midwest, but it no doubt has major political ramifications back in the nation’s capital.