According to the AFL-CIO union, there have been more than 200 strikes in the United States this year, involving more than 320,000 workers. And while some strikes, like the one being waged by SAG-AFTRA in Hollywood, are not substantially threatening the national economy, a new poll out of Michigan makes it clear any strike by the United Auto Workers (UAW) is going to hurt a lot of us. The UAW is currently a little more than one week away from the expiration of its automaker’s contract and is threatening a walkout.
According to Patrick Anderson, the principal and CEO of the Anderson Economic Group (AEG) in Lansing, Michigan, one of the significant differences between the UAW labor threats and the SAG-AFTRA strike comes down to inventory.
During the last big UAW strike in 2019, “there were plenty of cars on the lots and others in factory parking lots and in the pipeline. This year, within days of a strike, customers would be prevented from getting their cars,” Mr. Anderson said to The Epoch Times. “UAW members are paid on average far more than the SAG-AFTRA workers that have been on strike, but public support hasn’t generated any effective pressure on Hollywood studios. American consumers can make use of decades of movies and reruns of TV shows and can probably do that for the rest of the year.”
An analysis by the AEG estimates that a strike on all three automakers by 143,000 UAW members could result in a total economic loss of more than $5 billion after 10 full days of striking. The consulting firm calculated the total financial loss by estimating potential losses to UAW workers, the manufacturers, and the auto industry in general. The UAW and Big Three automakers—Ford, Stellantis and General Motors—are continuing negotiations, but little movement in talks is being reported.
Michael Hoover, a lifelong Michigander with 30 years of experience in the auto industry, is now running as a Republican for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the departing Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D). He told The Epoch Times that supporting American workers, while important, should come with some necessary changes.
“It also requires scrapping the failed policies that created these horrible work conditions in the first place. We have to unshackle American innovation and support American manufacturing instead of the government incentivizing product lines and subsidizing foreign manufacturers,” Mr. Hoover said. “We also need to ramp up American energy production. Low-cost, abundant energy lowers the costs across the board for every consumer product and turbocharges American manufacturing.”
At a Labor Day parade and observance in Philadelphia, President Joe Biden, when asked whether he believed the UAW would strike, said, “No, I’m not worried about a strike until it happens,“ said the president. ”I don’t think it’s going to happen.” That statement drew a sharp response from UAW President Shawn Fain, marching in the Detroit Labor Day parade.
“He [President Biden] must know something we don’t know. Maybe the companies plan on walking in and giving us our demands on the night before. I don’t know, but he’s on the inside on something I don’t know about,“ Fain told reporters at the march. ”Our intent is not to strike. Our intent is to get a fair agreement. That’s been our intent from Day One.”
The UAW leadership has repeatedly stated that it’s prepared to strike against all three automakers. Mr. Anderson says that factor represents a significant difference in this threatened strike compared to the last one in 2019. “The previous pattern and the well-trod path is for them to engage in bargaining where they pick one automaker as a strike target and hammer out an agreement that’s advantageous to the workers, and try and make the other two follow the pattern.”
Mr. Hoover believes that allowing jobs to go overseas has contributed to the rising amount of worker strike threats and walkouts. “For decades we’ve pursued economic policies that have resulted in the offshoring of tens of millions of direct manufacturing jobs to other countries. These policies didn’t just eliminate good jobs for U.S. workers, they continually devalued the worth of every labor hour and a worker’s quality of life. These policies have equally hurt nonunion workers as well.”
At the end of the Detroit Labor Day parade, Mr. Fain let loose with his most passionate speech to the crowd. “We are fed up living in a country where corporations violate labor rights and there’s little to no consequence for their action,“ he said. ”Look at what’s going on right now across this country. Thousands of Starbucks workers ... voted to organize, and the company refuses to bargain,” he said.
Mr. Anderson says the kind of vitriol he’s seen and heard during these UAW negotiations has been elevated compared to previous labor negotiations. “The rhetoric is much harsher than I can remember in any other bargaining season.”
