By Jessie Seigel/September 27, 2023

President Biden supports the United Auto Workers strike.
Yesterday, President Biden joined a United Auto Workers (UAW) picket line in Michigan. In brief remarks, he told UAW workers:
...you saved the automobile industry back in 2008 and before. You made a lot of sacrifices. You gave up a lot. And the companies were in trouble. But now they’re doing incredibly well. And guess what? You should be doing incredibly well, too...stick with it, because you deserve the significant raise you need and other benefits. Let’s get back what we lost, okay? We saved them; it’s about time for them to step up for us.
It cannot be emphasized enough how much of a truly unprecedented historical first this was. NO prior president has ever so clearly weighed in on the side of workers.
It is true that President Roosevelt's (FDR) administration brought the country the National Industrial Recovery Act, authorizing collective bargaining, and the National Labor Relations Act, which required businesses to bargain with unions in good faith. These were crucial aids to unionism. But FDR never referred to himself and unionists as "we."
When prior presidents have taken a side, they have, traditionally, been on the side of management, and sometimes violently so. For example, the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890--meant to reign in business trusts, monopolies, and cartels--was instead, under President Grover Cleveland's administration, first applied against labor unions. As if that were not enough, in 1894, Cleveland sent troops to Chicago to break a strike by the American Railway Union against the Pullman Company. He did so against and over the express wishes of then Illinois governor John Atgeld.
In a more recent century, President Ronald Reagan fired the striking members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO), heralding the start of a major anti-union slant of the federal government, and 40-plus years erosion of workers' rights.
At best, as Timothy Naftali, former director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library told CNN on Tuesday, "Presidents have basically positioned themselves as mediators between both labor and management."
So, a United States president joining a picket line--and saying "stick with it"-- is not just a political stunt but a really big deal.
By contrast, candidate Donald Trump--will try to appeal to autoworkers by speaking in Michigan tonight--at a non-union facility. His record on unions is abysmal, if any care to look.
Workers in this country who want to get fair treatment from their employers should sit up and take notice of who is genuinely on their side.
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