UAW Endorses Fellow Picket Line Walker Joe Biden
UAW Endorses Fellow Picket Line Walker Joe Biden
'Donald Trump is a scab,' said UAW President Shawn Fain, in an instant TV ad.
The United Auto Workers Union on Wednesday gave Joe Biden its enthusiastic endorsement for his reelection campaign. Not too big a surprise, since Biden became the first US president ever to walk a union picket line, during the union’s six-week strike last fall, in which it got just about everything it wanted.
In his announcement of the endorsement, UAW President Shawn Fain — Wonkette’s Sexiest Person Alive — told union members meeting in Washington DC,
“Joe Biden bet on the American worker while Donald Trump blamed the American worker. […] We need to know who's gonna sit in the most powerful seat in the world and help us win as a united working class. So if our endorsement must be earned, Joe Biden has earned it ... UAW is endorsing Joe Biden for president of the United States!”
As for the other candidate in the election (yes, Nikki Haley, we are writing you off already), Fain said.
“Donald Trump is a scab. Donald Trump is a billionaire and that's who he represents. If Donald Trump ever worked in an auto plant, he wouldn't be a UAW member, he'd be a company man trying to squeeze the American worker.”
Factcheck true, particularly considering that the day after Biden stood on the picket line with autoworkers, Trump held a rally with an anti-union parts supplier where he accused UAW leaders of betraying workers, and if negotiating wage increases and job security gains, plus winning union representation for workers at EV battery plants is a betrayal, Trump might have had an argument. Goddamned Scab.
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Just in case anyone might have missed his point, Fain pointed out that when the UAW went on strike against General Motors in 2019, Trump “said nothing. He did nothing. Not a damn thing because he doesn’t care about the American worker.”
“This November we can stand up and elect someone who stands with us and supports our cause, or we can elect someone who will divide us and fight us every step of the way. That’s what this choice is about,” Fain said.
“Together, we’re proving what I’ve always believed: Wall Street didn’t build America. The middle class built America, and unions built the middle class. That’s a fact.
“Look, I kept my commitment to be the most pro-union president ever, and I’m proud you have my back. Let me just say I’m honored to have your back and you have mine. That’s the deal.”
Biden also called attention to the fact that, after the strike was resolved, even non-union automakers gave their employees raises too, “or, as we call that, the ‘UAW bump.’” He added that nonetheless, “Thousands of these workers are already asking to join your union.”
He went on to tout the benefits for American manufacturing that have come from his signature industrial policy bills, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act, and said that the climate policies in the IRA would help with the auto industry’s transition to electric vehicles:
“That’s why I announced $12 billion to help companies that respect their workers implement a just transition to electric vehicle future. Because I strongly believe that companies transitioning to new technology should retool, reboot, and rehire in the same factories in the same communities with comparable wages. And existing union workers should have the first shot at those jobs.”
Just for good measure, he invoked the New Deal’s legacy of supporting unions, and compared Trump — “the last guy” — to Herbert Hoover: “He’s already Herbert Hoover. He’s the only president other than Herbert Hoover who lost jobs when he was president.”
He also urged the union members to remember this election presents a real contrast, and will make a real difference to workers, too:
“While I stood in solidarity with you on the picket line, as your president said, I went to the picket line; Donald Trump went to a non-union shop and attacked you. […]
“The days of working people being dealt out of the deal are over in this country as long as I’m president. Working people are going to get their fair share. You’ve earned it, you’ve fought for it, and you deserve it.”
Biden closed by saying he “could not be more proud or more honored” by the UAW’s endorsement, calling workers the real heroes of the ongoing economic recovery.
As for Donald Trump, we assume he just plans to keep being a scab and hoping that union members will be as racist as he is so they’ll elect him. Then he can give their bosses another big fat tax cut.
Fuckin’ scab.
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[AP / CBS News / White House]
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Could the difference between OHJB and that hideous, loathsome bag of shit the Traitor Party is getting ready to run against him be any more stark?
Old Scranton Joe understands unions in ways that Trump can only dream of.