(NewsNation) — Neil Bradley, executive vice president and chief policy officer of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, shared his insights on the ongoing UAW strike and the Biden administration’s stance on unionization.
About 13,000 workers at three U.S. vehicle assembly plants went on strike Friday after the United Auto Workers union and Big Three automakers failed to agree on a new contract.
The UAW strike could be the biggest labor crisis of Biden’s presidency.
Suzanne Clark, CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said, “The UAW strike and indeed the ‘summer of strikes’ is the natural result of the Biden administration’s ‘whole of government’ approach to promoting unionization at all costs.”
During remarks, President Joe Biden emphasized that autoworkers should be fairly compensated.
“Record corporate profits — which they have — should be shared by record contracts for the UAW,” Biden said. “And just as we’re building an economy of the future, we need labor agreements for the future. It’s my hope that the parties can return to the negotiation table to forge a win-win agreement.”
Bradley clarified that unions and profit-sharing are not inherently bad.
“Well, unions aren’t bad, and sharing profits aren’t bad, and increases in wages for union workers, including the UAW isn’t bad — that’s not the issue at hand here,” he said.
Bradley said wage increases and profit-sharing can benefit workers. However, he pointed out that the expectations created by certain policies and the actions of the Biden administration have led to demands that may not be economically feasible.
“The three automakers have put large, substantial wage increases, 20% in some cases, on the table,” Bradley said, noting that the Biden administration’s policies are influencing the UAW to ask for an unrealistic “40% pay increase.”
Bradley floated the idea that the policies call for workers to get paid for five days when only doing four days of work.
“And so you add all of these things together,” Bradley said. “And it’s they’re really asking for things that just aren’t economically feasible. And that’s where the difference lies.”
When asked whether he blamed the White House for the strike, Bradley emphasized that the administration’s policies have emboldened unions and created unrealistic expectations.
Bradley mentioned policy changes that favor unionization, such as making it easier to become certified as a union without winning an election and offering union shops preferences for government grants and contracts.
“The question is can we avoid creating these unrealistic expectations that just can never economically feasibly be met,” Bradley said. “You could ask for wage increases that would have put employers out of business; that does no one any good. And so what we have to do is restore some balance to this debate.”