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A strike by nearly 50,000 auto workers prompted Democrats to participate in the key 2020 races, not only to show their support for a key constituency, but also to pressure President Donald Trump into a state of the field. battle.
Members of United Auto Workers began a strike on Sunday night as the union failed to reach an agreement with General Motors. Workers have set pickets at dozens of factories and parts warehouses across the country. Discussions resumed Monday morning as the parties tried to resolve disputes over benefits and wages.
Democrats will run to challenge Trump next year – Bernie Sanders, Senator, and Cory Booker, D-N.J. In South Bend, Indian mayor, Pete Buttigieg – have shown their solidarity with workers in the automotive sector. Although the unions have lost their political strength in recent years, the party still views their support as a critical step in winning the voters of the working class.
Some officials also spoke of the strike, saying Trump had not kept the promises made to Midwestern voters to protect jobs in the manufacturing sector and put an end to outsourcing. A protracted strike could create a special plot in Michigan – the home country of GM and the region that Trump won by just 11,000 votes in 2016.
"It is clear that this administration has no manufacturing policy, there is no strategy to keep jobs in the United States," said Senator Gary Peters, Democrat of Michigan who will do Re-election next year, at MSNBC on Monday morning.
Trump transported Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania in 2016 in part by promising to revise trade agreements that he said undermined jobs in the US manufacturing sector. While he criticized unions as "sucking dues" organizations, he outperformed recent GOP presidential candidates among unionized households in 2016.
The President has only published a brief tweeted comment on the strike Sunday.
"Here we are again with General Motors and United Auto Workers," the president wrote. "Gather up and make a deal!"
The White House and Trump campaign did not immediately give further comments on the work stoppage.
Trump's message on the strike has taken a decidedly different tone from the Democrats who are trying to deny him a second term in the White House. Several leading Democratic candidates, including former Vice President Joe Biden, Sanders, Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. And Buttigieg, have issued statements supporting the auto workers.
The candidates congratulated the workers for launching the strike – as they have done several times this year during work stoppages, while they are arguing for the support of unionized workers. They also took risks at GM, continuing to criticize companies for what they call putting profits above the workers.
"I am proud to support the UAW workers who are struggling against GM's greed," Sanders said in a statement posted on Twitter on Sunday.
Warren tweeted Sunday that she stood alongside union members as "they are going on strike to get what they deserve". She pushed "GM to come to the table and negotiate in good faith".
Biden also wrote that he was "proud to stand by the side of the UAW to demand fair wages and benefits for its members". He added that "American workers deserve better".
In a statement on Sunday, GM defended its latest offer to UAW. The company called the offer "a strong offer that improves" wages and benefits and "substantially creates jobs in the United States". The automaker said the plan provided for investments of more than $ 7 billion, including possible uses for plants in Michigan and Ohio, where it recently shut down production.
GM also said the proposal included salary increases or flat-rate increases over the four years covered. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the critics of Sanders and other Democrats.
The use of temporary workers, who generally receive lower wages and lighter benefits, would have triggered the negotiations.
The strike comes at a delicate time for the UAW, which has more than 400,000 people among its active members. The negotiations took place after federal prosecutors accused Vance Pearson, director of UAW Region 5, of helping to conspire to steal dues. Officials also reportedly implicated UAW President Gary Jones, although he was not charged with any wrongdoing.
Most Democrats supporting the strike took care to rent the individual members of the UAW rather than the organization itself.
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