TAKING THE WHEEL: The United Auto Workers Strike against Detroit’s Big Three car makers is underway, and now the operative questions are: for how long and what will it take to reach a deal? “Progress is slow and I don’t really want to say we’re closer,†UAW President Shawn Fain said Sunday on MSNBC. It is certainly shaping up to be a work stoppage that’s better measured in weeks, not days. Both camps’ interests favor digging in their heels, at least for the time being, lest they be seen as capitulating to the other. Since UAW made its opening move — to strike at one plant of each automaker, with a standing threat to expand at any moment — Ford temporarily laid off some 600 workers at the plant the union targeted and GM said it expects to idle a Kansas plant due to the strike at a nearby facility in the coming days due to the disruption of the work stoppages. While the public rhetoric surrounding the situation remains heated, the parties are continuing to negotiate behind closed doors. UAW on Saturday said it had “reasonably productive conversations†with Ford, and Stellantis over the weekend released its latest offer, which included a 21-percent raise over the life of the deal. However the union blasted Stellantis — the parent company of brands like Jeep and Chrysler — for dangling ahead of the strike the possibility of reopening an assembly line in Belvidere, Ill., that shuttered indefinitely earlier this year. “That’s how they see these workers. A bargaining chip,†Fain said in a statement. Work stoppages are unpredictable, as are their ripple effects. Delayed car deliveries could boost competitors like Tesla, as The Wall Street Journal suggested, or afford time to iron out internal issues, which Reuters reported could be a possibility for General Motors’ electric vehicles. The union has made a point to explicitly link its demands to the plump pay packages the automakers’ top executives received in recent years and dare the companies to justify why workers deserve less — a line on which Democratic allies in Congress have been happy to sing chorus, as our Zachary Warmbrodt reported. On Friday, President Joe Biden made his most full-throated comments to date in support of the UAW and directed acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and senior adviser Gene Sperling to assist where possible. There’s concern, both in and outside the White House, that the standoff is one of several delicate situations that could blow back on the president and his reelection efforts if things go awry, per our Sam Sutton. Conservatives and business groups have fanned the flames, casting those anxieties as a problem of Biden and fellow Democrats’ own making given their efforts to bolster union’s power — with being strikes a natural consequence. Republicans are also test driving messaging in hopes of steering the strike to their political advantage, our Myah Ward and Ally Mutnick report. At the same time UAW and those on the pro-union left have implored Biden to do more to support the workers’ cause, and instead of fretting about strikes’ economic costs redirect the blame for them on companies for shortchanging their workers in negotiations. “Who the president is now, who the former president was or the presidents before them isn’t going to win this fight,†Fain said on CBS’ “Face The Nation.†“This fight is all about one thing — it’s about workers winning their fair share of economic justice, instead of being left behind as they have been in the last decades.†For your consideration: “Here is what Detroit automakers have to give the UAW to get a deal, experts say,†from the Detroit Free Press. GOOD MORNING. It’s Monday, Sept. 18. Welcome back to Morning Shift, your go-to tipsheet on labor and employment-related immigration. It’s been 188 days since the Senate received Julie Su’s nomination. Send feedback, tips and exclusives to [email protected] and [email protected]. Follow us on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @NickNiedz and @oliviaolanderr.
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