President Joe Biden is trying to walk a fine line as the clock ticks toward a looming deadline for a possible UAW strike of the Big Three automakers, keeping in direct touch with the key players engaged in the negotiations.
The situation has proved tricky for the president – he has called himself the most pro-union president in history, but a strike would also harm the economy that he constantly points to as a success while he makes his case for reelection. Anderson Economic Group estimates that a strike against all three companies would be a $5 billion hit to the economy after just 10 days.
Jared Bernstein, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, stopped short of telling reporters on Wednesday that the president would support a strike, instead emphasizing that Biden wants a fair deal for autoworkers.
“I’m going to leave it at he believes the autoworkers deserve a contract that sustains middle class jobs and he wants the parties to stay at the table to work round the clock to get a win-win agreement,” Bernstein said. “And he’s encouraged the parties to do that, he’s explicitly encouraged them to do so.”
Biden spoke with UAW president Shawn Fain on Labor Day, a White House official tells CNN, and also spoke with the leaders of the Big Three – GM, Ford, Stellantis – last week ahead of his trip to Asia.
Negotiators remain far apart in the final hours before the deadline. The union is demanding job protections among its ambitious slate of bargaining goals. It says it is ready to have its 145,000 members at the three companies go on strike as early as Friday if it can’t reach a deal with the companies, and a strike could have widespread economic consequences.
The Labor Day Fain call, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, came after CNN asked the president about the strike earlier in the day ahead of planned remarks to union workers in Philadelphia.
“No, I’m not worried about a strike until it happens,” Biden said when asked if he was worried about the possibility. “I don’t think it’s going to happen.”
Asked about those comments last Monday, Fain told CNN affiliate WXYZ that he was “shocked” by Biden’s reaction.
“I appreciate the president’s optimism and I also hope that the Big Three will come to their senses and start bargaining in good faith, but we are ready to do what is necessary come September 15 if they don’t,” Fain later told CNN.
The official described the Labor Day call between Biden and Fain as “productive.”
And Biden encouraged the auto executives, the official said, “to provide more forward-leaning offers and stay at the table.” Talks have yet to yield a resolution.
Biden was frequently briefed on the ongoing talks during his trip to India and Vietnam.
Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and senior adviser Gene Sperling, who was tapped to lead the White House’s response, have also been engaged during the negotiations. Still, the Biden administration is limited in what it can do.
The president doesn’t have the legal authority he would have if a freight railroad or airline was threatening to strike. In those cases, a different labor law gives the president the authority to order both sides to continue on the job. So the best he can do is apply public pressure.
And despite Biden’s reputation as a pro-union president, his influence with the UAW union is fairly limited, especially considering its criticism of the administration’s support of a move away from gas-powered cars to electric vehicles, which the union sees as bad for the jobs of many of its members.
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