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.”
This could be the start of something good. The 40% number isn’t out of thin air. It is the amount the CEO got his pay raised to . Unions can tie exec raises to worker pay in a way that boards aren’t doing.
I agree if its done correctly.
Got to be careful about execs getting paid through shares. My CEO gets millions in shares but only gets paid like 120k. This gets reused in certain indexes and pitched as being a decent ratio of executive to drone pay ratios.
True, but unions as an external force can simply state the exec total pay package rose by 25% in value. “pay us” The problem has been looking to the boards installed by investors to cut their own pay. My hope is boards will cool down on huge exec bonuses if it means they may have to do the same for workers.
40% = 8.77% a year during 4 years.
More than reasonable.
What?
8.77 x 4 = 40?
Lol.
Lol indeed. Lack of basic math skills is part of the reason workers get the shaft every time.
Successive raises compound, they don’t multiply.
100 * 1.0877 * 1.0877 * 1.0877 * 1.0877 = 140… There’s your 40% raise.
Or as the math nerds like to put it, 1.0877^4
Hmm.
They’d get more money sooner if they just added 10% to what they’re getting paid now every year.
They’d get even more money sooner if they just added 40% to what they’re getting paid now.
Hopefully he keeps the same message when the executives refuse to make a reasonable offer and “the economy” might suffer again.
I don’t think it’s as likely that the Feds break this strike like they did with the railroads. Their argument against the rails was that almost every other industry relies on them to move product, while having fewer new cars will only effect the new and used car markets. With however hundreds of millions of usable vehicles that are already out there, this strike doesn’t really have the same opportunity to spill over to the larger economy.
Well, there are a lot of folks that make parts for those cars. Auto is a pretty large sector, but otherwise… I think I agree.
The 4-Day Workweek is more important.
Good
Biden: “You should get paid more.”
Trump: indicted for 91 crimes and found liable for decades of tax fraud
Michigan Republicans: ¯\(ツ)/¯
“Both sides are the same!”
They are when it comes to wages.
The federal minimum wage has been 7 bucks for fifteen years. Both sides have had a total majority with the presidency in that time frame.
Literally the same.
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I’m sorry guaranteeing healthcare for tens of millions of Americans with the 2 years they had government control wasn’t enough for you.
… is it enough for you?
You’re moving the goalpost. Is it enough? No. But there’s one party where it happened and another party that literally did everything they could against it. Both parties are definitely not the same.
I don’t think both parties are the same. I think they’re both bad and we’re fucked no matter who wins, but I can admit America will collapse slower under Democrats. I guess that’s preferable.
I’m still voting for Cornell West. Nyaa nyaa~
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The HCA is a private for profit insurance company.
I think this would mean more if he actually stood up for the railway workers during their strike.
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.
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.
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.
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Did he though? His Congress pushed through a bill with a smaller compensation package, 1(one) day of sick time, no removal of advance notice for sick time, none of the OT protections, and no acknowledgement of safety concerns.
Hih
- Fuck you for assuming I’m any kind of liberal. Especially fuck you for insinuating I’m a Republican.
- Regardless of the RLA holding a gun to their Union’s head, they did vote to approve the Senate’s contract. I’m personally very dissatisfied with the agreement, but ultimately, their union voted to ratify the agreement. As NPR notes, the deal falls significantly short of the goals rail workers were fighting for. They decided to accept it, in the face of a repeat of PATCO.
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I didn’t say anything about your personal politics - I have far too little to go off to make that kind of claim.
You accused them of listening to Hannity, so uh
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I wonder where the Big 3 will send their campaign cash for the 2024 election?
They were gonna do that shit anyways. The wealthy joined a side already vs back when they played both sides. Democrats lose nothing anymore by shunning the upper class entirely.
To both sides. They need to work with whatever party is in power. On top of that the real Big 3 American companies - Ford, GM, and Tesla - have committed so hard to EVs they literally can’t back out now, but EVs are popular with liberals, not conservatives. They’ve made it clear their business interests align with the liberal agenda, and at this point any regulation on emissions is doing them a huge favor, something they won’t see from the GOP.
Where were you when the railworkers wanted to strike?
Only doing this because of the upcoming election year. What about the rest of us?
The American people deserve better than another demopublican. There are other colors and letters besides blue and red and d and r.