At midnight Friday, more than 12,000 workers walked out of factories owned by Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, marking the first time in history that the United Auto Workers union has gone on strike against all of the Big Three auto manufacturers at once. The UAW started contract negotiations asking for a 40 percent pay increase over four years and a four-day work week. The Big Three have countered with an offer of an approximately 20 percent pay increase, which would make up for real wage decline due to inflation since 2008. Neither side has moved significantly since bargaining began two months ago.
The unprecedented strike is centered in the Midwest, but it no doubt has major political ramifications back in the nation’s capital. President Joe Biden, who has described himself as the most pro-union president in American history, surmised over Labor Day that the strike wouldn’t happen. When it did, he sided with “record contracts” for workers and sent acting labor secretary Julie Su and White House aide Gene Sperlin to assist with negotiations. The UAW is skeptical; it has thus far withheld its endorsement from Biden in the 2024 race, saying he still needs to “earn” it with his “actions.”
Biden’s likely opponent, former President Donald Trump, who swept the Rust Belt in his 2016 victory, has taken a slightly different approach. He says Biden’s energy policies, including massive electric vehicle subsidies and regulations on gas-powered cars, are going to destroy the industry in the long run. If the UAW leadership isn’t interested in addressing that problem, the workers are being “sold down the river,” he argued.
The Biden administration has waved away concerns about EV mandates along with the help of a dutiful media; Washington Post reporter Jeff Stein insisted in a report on the UAW strikes that Trump is “exploit[ing] fears” and that worker demands are “unrelated to the clean energy transition.”
But there’s no question that the EV switch is already having a major impact on both the auto companies and UAW workers. Companies like Ford are facing steep losses from the development and manufacturing of EVs, even with government subsidies and tax breaks. EVs overall require fewer parts and about 30 percent less labor to produce, while the uber expensive batteries are overwhelmingly made in China. An increase in labor costs amid a “challenged transition to an EV world,” as Barclays analyst Dan Levy put it, will almost certainly not end well for workers.
UAW president Shawn Fain conceded that Trump has a point on the EV issue: “I have cautioned everybody in Washington DC that they better understand one thing — our workers’ experience right now with this EV transition is not a good thing.”
Biden should be wary about chugging full steam ahead on his green energy goals, lest he break his promises to American labor.
–Amber Athey
On our radar
SENATE DITCHES DRESS CODE Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer quietly sent out a notice to colleagues Friday informing them that a dress code for members will no longer be enforced. Schumer noted that he would still wear a suit on the Senate floor, but that others are approved to dress more casually.
GOP STRIKES A DEAL Republicans agreed internally on a continuing resolution (CR) that would fund the government through October 31, avoiding a shutdown. The bill would cut discretionary spending by 8 percent and includes GOP-led border security measures. the Hill, however, reports that the CR “faces slim odds of passing in the Democratic-controlled Senate” and is already facing opposition from the GOP’s most conservative members.
Hunter Biden’s conservative legal team
Hunter Biden has been hiding a dirty secret, one that might even scare his own father. It has nothing to do with his illicit drug use, penchant for prostitutes or even his questionable overseas business deals.
Rather, it seems that Hunter Biden is in fact a proud conservative — a gun-toting, IRS-hating, Tea Party-style conservative.
A few days ago, the feds indicted Biden for lying on a federal gun form and illegally possessing a firearm while using drugs. But Hunter and his legal team will be making a case against regulatory overreach and arguing the charges themselves are unconstitutional. They will focus on a recent federal appeals ruling that held that regular past drug use is not sufficient cause to disarm sober citizens.
This morning, Hunter’s team announced that the president’s son is suing the IRS, alleging that agents who blew the whistle on alleged interference in an investigation of Hunter’s taxes “targeted and sought to embarrass” him.
“IRS agents have targeted and sought to embarrass Mr. Biden via public statements to the media in which they and their representatives disclosed confidential information about a private citizen’s tax matters,” lawyer Abbe Lowell wrote.
So, how long until Hunter shows up to court with a Gadsen flag draped around his shoulders?
–Juan P. Villasmil
Key Virginia House seat opening up
Representative Jennifer Wexton, a Virginia Democrat who represents the commonwealth’s 10th district in Congress, announced today that she will no longer run for re-election. Wexton was diagnosed this past spring with Parkinson’s disease but planned to seek another term regardless. However, Wexton revealed that after her treatment did not go as planned, doctors rediagnosed her with progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare neurological condition with no cure. She plans to spend her remaining years at home with her family.
The devastating circumstances bring about a rare opportunity for the GOP. Republicans have a good shot to regain the House seat, which they held for forty years before Wexton defeated incumbent Representative Barbara Comstock in the 2018 midterms. Wexton held onto the seat in 2022 despite recent redistricting efforts across the commonwealth and a challenge from retired Navy Captain Hung Cao, who is now running for the Senate. With the loss of about 100,000 votes from blue Fairfax County and the retirement of a well-liked incumbent, VA-10 is ripe for GOP investment.
–Cockburn
From the site
Ben Domenech: Beware the DoJ’s Hunter Biden distraction
Elbridge Colby: World events are not going America’s way
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