President Joe Biden offered his support to the United Auto Workers on Friday as he addressed their strike targeting the Big Three automakers.
Auto companies have made record profits thanks to the “extraordinary skills and sacrifices” of UAW workers, Biden said in a brief speech at the White House.
“Those record profits, in my opinion, are not fairly distributed among those workers,” the president added.
“The companies have made some significant offers, but I think they need to go further to ensure that record corporate profits mean record contracts for the UAW,” he also said.
Biden made his comments after about 12,700 workers went on strike Friday morning over their union and the Big Three automakers’ failure to reach an agreement before a contract expired.
It’s a targeted attack on a Ford Motor F,
plant in Michigan, a General Motors GM,
plant in Missouri and a Stellantis NV STLA,
factory in Ohio.
The UAW has so far not endorsed Biden’s reelection bid, even as the AFL-CIO and other major unions have aligned themselves with the Democratic incumbent.
The 2024 presidential race could be a repeat of the 2020 battle between Biden and former President Donald Trump, who won a number of union households that historically supported Democrats like Biden rather than Republicans.
To see: Here are the Republicans running for president
Biden received more support than Trump from union households in the battleground states of Michigan and Wisconsin in 2020, but Trump received more support from such households in Ohio and Pennsylvania, according to Edison Research exit polls.
Trump has seized on concerns about the auto industry’s shift to CARZ electric vehicles,
that the Biden administration has promoted could hurt American workers. “The all-electric car is a disaster for both the United Auto Workers and the American consumer,” the former president said in a post on his Truth Social platform on Friday.
On Friday, Biden said he hopes the UAW and auto companies can “return to the negotiating table to forge a win-win agreement,” and he said he is sending two administration officials to Detroit — Julie Su, the acting Secretary of Labor, and Gene . Sperling, a senior advisor.
GM posted a net profit of $11.04 billion in 2022, compared to $10.38 billion in 2021, while Ford posted a net profit of $7.62 billion in 2022, compared to $6.43 billion in the previous year. For Stellantis, the parent company of brands such as Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep, net income last year was $17.83 billion, up from $15.12 billion.
Read now: Tesla could be the winner of the Big Three labor problems
And see: Will the UAW Strike Raise Car Prices?
Plus: UAW strike has limited impact on the Big Three, Fitch says
Claudia Assis contributed.