Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) will hold a rally on Friday in support of the United Auto Workers just steps from the picket line, less than one day after the country’s largest auto union began a historic strike.
The rally is scheduled for Friday at 5 p.m. at the UAW-Ford National Programs Center in Detroit, Michigan, yards away from where workers are picketing. It will include Sanders, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and UAW President Shawn Fain.
UAW ANNOUNCES HISTORIC AUTO STRIKE AFTER NEGOTIATIONS WITH AUTOMAKERS FALTER
Sanders, champion of the progressive movement who joined the UAW picket lines during its last strike four years ago, said late Thursday evening that he wanted to “applaud the courage of Shawn Fain and the workers at the UAW for standing up and saying, ‘You know what? Enough is enough.’”
“The outcome I want to see is that the UAW workers get the kind of contract they deserve," Sanders said in an interview after the strike was announced. "The corporate media hasn't covered this very well, but the reality is over the last 20 years, real wages for automobile workers has gone down by 30% when you account for inflation.”
The Vermont senator noted that the salaries of the CEOs of the "Big Three" automakers had “gone up by 40% over the last four years. They have billions of dollars for dividends and stock buybacks. And what the workers are saying is, 'Hey, we made you those profits. We gave you those salaries. Pay attention to our needs.'”
Sanders explained that he did not want to “see a situation where workers at the low end make all of $17 an hour.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The union represents some 150,000 workers at General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis, the company that took over Chrysler’s operations. Any union of that size announcing strike action is big news. The last time UAW went on strike, a six-week stoppage against General Motors in 2019, it cost the auto giant some $3.6 billion, and Michigan, home to many GM workers, experienced a recession during that quarter.
But this time is a bit different. This strike is the first work stoppage to involve all three Detroit automakers. Fain also said the stoppages would be strategic, targeting one major plant each of GM, Ford, and Stellantis. That means that it could drag on longer than other strikes and gives the union leverage to keep adding pressure by shutting down additional factories.
Zachary Halaschak contributed to this report.