There's So Much More UAW News, We Needed Another Post

Union! Union! Union!

The United Auto Workers union has only been on strike for a little over a half a day, but there have been enough developments so far that we’re just gonna go ahead and drop a round-up.

Who Would Have Thought A Billionaire Would Be Anti-Union?

Following the announcement of the strike, Elon Musk, owner of What Used To Be Twitter and non-union auto manufacturer Tesla, went ahead and deleted the checkmark that the UAW paid for.

The site no longer does actual verification and the checkmark is really just an emoji, but by paying Musk $8 a month, users can get their “posts” boosted, write longer “posts,” and do some other stuff that definitely isn’t worth it. Still, it’s actually a little funny in light of the fact that one of the reasons he and his supporters wanted to get rid of actual verification for actual celebrities and journalists was because the site previously took checkmarks away from professional bigots and disinformation purveyors as punishment for being professional bigots and disinformation purveyors.

This move is obviously meant to limit the amount of reach the UAW is getting — and he probably hoped nobody would notice, but Ryan Grim and Ken Klippenstein of The Intercept did notice and wrote it up. Not long afterwards, the checkmark mysteriously reappeared.

As noted in The Intercept, Musk has a long history of union-busting nonsense — including actually firing workers for talking about unionizing, which is very illegal, and barring employees from talking about their wages, which is also very illegal. He also pays his workers a lot less than workers at the Big Three make (“averaging $45 to $50 per hour versus $64 to $67 per hour, respectively”).

Even though his workforce is nonunion, the fact is that when unions win, wages and benefits go up for all workers — and Musk is pretty happy paying people peanuts.

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Trump Also Hates Auto Workers, Natch

In an interview with NBC News’s Kristen Welker for next Sunday’s “Meet The Press” (in case you thought it was gonna get less both-sidesey without Chuck Todd), Trump attacked UAW leadership for not supporting him. He also claimed that the strike would push the manufacturers to move to China, which they actually will not because Chinese car factories are not very good or very well developed and won’t be for years. There’s a reason they are not making cars in China right now. You can’t SHEIN a car, it would cost too much to insure.

Via CNBC:

“The auto workers will not have any jobs, Kristen, because all of these cars are going to be made in China. The electric cars, automatically, are going to be made in China,” Trump told NBC News’ Kristen Welker in an exclusive, wide-ranging interview set to air Sunday on “Meet the Press.”

“The auto workers are being sold down the river by their leadership, and their leadership should endorse Trump,” the Republican presidential frontrunner added.

So basically what he’s saying is that he thinks the best thing to do would be to just let these car companies pull in massive profits off the backs of their workers without sharing any of that with said workers, and the union should support him in this. Nice!

The fact is, these auto manufacturers are not staying in America out of the pure goodness of their hearts. They’re just not. And if it does become feasible to move their operations overseas, they will do so regardless of what they are paying American workers now, because what they pay American workers will always be significantly more than it costs to build something in a sweatshop. The average automotive worker in China makes, on average, about $3000 a year. So unless we want people in America making $3000 a year (we don’t!), sacrificing good wages now is not going to keep these companies from moving to China in the future if that is what they want. So get the damn bag while it’s available.

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General Motors CEO Making $30 Million Unclear On Why Workers Should Get More Money

Effortlessly clueless General Motors CEO Mary Barra made an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” this morning, where she repeatedly avoided answering questions about why she thinks it is okay to screw her workers.

Barra claims in the interview that she put an “historic offer on the table,” and yet repeatedly fails to explain why that offer includes only a 20 percent increase over four years, while her own salary is increasing by 34 percent.

Barra kept trying to explain that her salary is simply based on how well the company does, while CNBC’s Vanessa Yurkevich kept trying to press her on whether or not she thought that the people actually making the cars should also benefit when the company is doing well, which she avoided by talking about profit sharing. Which, again, is not the same thing as one’s salary being raised 34 percent.

The UAW was not impressed, tweeting, “During the eight and a half minutes @GM CEO Mary Barra appeared on CNN this morning, she "earned" more money than any autoworker makes in a full work day. And that's how the Big Three wants to keep it.”

President Biden Is Here To Help!

President Joe Biden is sending (acting) Labor Secretary Julie Su and senior aide Gene Sperling to Detroit to assist in the negotiations between the UAW and the Big Three automakers in hopes of ensuring a win-win on the next contract.

“The companies have made some significant offers,” Biden said. “But I believe they should go further to ensure record corporate profits mean record contracts for the UAW.”

They should!

The fact is, the workers took a hit back in 2008 because the auto industry was seriously in danger of bottoming out. They actually modified their 2007 contract and cut back on their pensions and wages in hopes of preventing the industry from going into full bankruptcy. It worked! Those companies are now, as mentioned, posting record profits, and it’s time to for them to give back to their workers.