Not everyone is thrilled with President Joe Biden’s visit to the United Auto Workers picket line on Tuesday.
Biden visited the picket line in Belleville, Michigan, where he allegedly offered his support for striking auto workers. Biden was on the ground at the picket line for just 12 minutes, and he spoke to UAW members for less than 90 seconds.
Steven Rattner, whom then-President Barack Obama tapped as “car czar” in February 2009, strongly denounced the visit, which the media celebrated as “historic.”
“For him to be going on a picket line is outrageous,” Rattner told NBC News.
“There’s no precedent for it. The tradition of the president is to stay neutral in these things. I get the politics. The progressives all said, ‘We don’t want a mediator; we want an advocate.’ And he bowed to the progressives, and now he’s going out there to put his thumb on the scale. And it’s wrong,” he declared.
Meanwhile, well-paid UAW brass love Biden (because he is a Democrat). But some rank-and-file workers who spoke with Fox News shared concerns about the Biden administration’s far-left climate agenda and electric vehicles push.
“We have been the backbone of these companies for so long. Trying to push us out to these electric vehicles — it won’t last,” one UAW member told Fox News. “We’re hard-working. We have families. We need this.”
That pro-climate electric-vehicle initiative is problematic for union workers because auto executives are outsourcing parts of the manufacturing process, both overseas where labor is cheaper and to non-unionized regions of the country.
Other workers who spoke with local news stations in Michigan expressed concern that Biden’s visit will over-politicize the negotiating process and distract from worker grievances.
“This is between the UAW and the corporations, and just securing a good contract. Everything [Biden’s] had his hands in — it’s all failed,” one worker told WLNS-TV. “Election year is just around the corner. Maybe [his visit] is a way to gain some more votes.”
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