Bernie Sanders at UAW rally: ‘The average American worker today is worse off than he or she was 50 years ago’
“Despite record breaking corporate profits, despite corporate America spending hundreds of billions on dividends and stock buybacks, the average American worker today is worse off than he or she was 50 years ago,” said Sanders.
“Brothers and sisters, that is exactly what this strike is all about,” he added.
Key events
“We will not accept that over the last 20 years, the average wage for American auto workers has decreased by 30% after adjusting for inflation,” said Sanders.
“You’re wanting to know why you’re out on strike right now, that’s the reason,” he continued.
Sanders also addressed Ford CEO Jim Farley, saying:
“Mr. Farley, last year, you made nearly $21 million in total compensation and my guess is that when you retire from your job, you’re going to have a great compensation…and all kinds of benefits.
Do you have any clue as to what it’s like to be a worker getting older, having worked your entire life and not having any money in the bank as you prepare for retirement?”
Sanders also addressed the CEO of Stellantis, Carlos Tavares, saying:
Do you know, Mr Tavares, what it is like to be classified as a temp and despite working year after year, you’ll remain a temp, receiving wages and benefits significantly lower than your brothers and sisters doing the same exact work?
Mr Tavares, do you have any clue what that is about?”
“Do you have any clue clue what it’s like for one of your workers to try and survive on $17 an hour, which is the average starting wage of an automobile worker?” Sanders said in his remarks, addressing General Motors CEO Mary Barra.
“Do you know, Miss Barra, what it’s like to try and raise a family, put food on the table and pay rent when you’re making $20 bucks an hour?” he continued.
“In the last 50 years, there has been a massive redistribution of wealth. The problem is it’s gone in the wrong direction,” said Sanders.
“Instead of going from the top down to the bottom, it’s going from the bottom up to the top … we’re going to reverse that trend,” he continued.
“If the ruling class of this country wants a redistribution of wealth, we’re going to give it to them,” he added.
Bernie Sanders at UAW rally: ‘The average American worker today is worse off than he or she was 50 years ago’
“Despite record breaking corporate profits, despite corporate America spending hundreds of billions on dividends and stock buybacks, the average American worker today is worse off than he or she was 50 years ago,” said Sanders.
“Brothers and sisters, that is exactly what this strike is all about,” he added.
Bernie Sanders has taken the stage in Detroit where he is addressing UAW workers currently on strike against auto companies.
“The fight that you are waging here is not only about decent wages, decent benefits and decent working conditions in the automobile industry.
It is a fight to take on corporate greed and tell the people on top this country belongs to all of us, not just a few,” said Sanders.
Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer also made an appearance at the rally during which she addressed the crowd of UAW workers, telling them:
We all want the same thing … our chance at a good life, a fair shot. We all want to be able to make it in Michigan, for us and our families and we are all on team Michigan.
We will continue to fight to ensure that every worker is treated with dignity and respect and that Michigan continues to lead the world. I am here with you my brothers and sisters from the UAW. I love you. I respect you and I stand with you.”
Michigan’s secretary of state made an appearance at the rally and pledged her support to UAW workers at the rally, saying:
“We’re going to stand with you. We’re going to win. No matter how long it takes, no matter how long we need to stand together, we will lock arms and say, ‘Solidarity wins.’”
UAW members to hold rally at Ford site in Detroit, with Bernie Sanders set to appear
UAW members are set to host a rally at the UAW-Ford National Programs Center in Detroit at 5pm ET where Vermont senator and vocal union supporter Bernie Sanders is set to make an appearance.
We will have a live feed of the rally and will bring you the latest updates.
Republican senator JD Vance of Ohio has issued a letter to White House advisor Gene Sperling who president Joe Biden dispatched to Detroit as part of the White House’s liaising efforts in the negotiations.
Vance, who said in a separate press statement that he supports the UAW’s demands for higher wages, told Sperling that his involvement “deserves further scrutiny”.
Vance accused Sperling of seeking political gain by steering the strikes in traditionally Republican states, saying:
The UAW’s planned strikes have targeted just three plants, including two in the deeply Republican states of Ohio and Missouri. Only one strike affects Michigan, where the bulk of UAW members live and work. This pattern seems hardly coincidental.
A major, multi-plant strike in Michigan could be costly to one of the president’s closest gubernatorial allies. It might create economic reverberations across a state that Donald Trump won in 2016. Perhaps these are mere coincidences, but your involvement supplies a different explanation and raises questions about the work President Biden enlisted you to do.
It is unclear whether your purpose was to facilitate negotiations and avert a strike or to shield President Biden’s policies from scrutiny and protect his and Democrats’ political fortunes.”
He went on to accuse Sperling of exploiting the “UAW to protect your boss at the expense of American workers”.
Democrats throw their support behind striking auto workers
Other politicians that are voicing their support for UAW workers include Massachusetts’s senator Elizabeth Warren, representative Ayanna Pressley and New Jersey senator Cory Booker.
On Friday, Warren wrote:
“@Ford, @GM and @Stellantis have raked in record profits for years. I stand in solidarity with @UAW workers striking for wages and benefits that reflect the work they do.”
.@Ford, @GM and @Stellantis have raked in record profits for years. I stand in solidarity with @UAW workers striking for wages and benefits that reflect the work they do.
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) September 15, 2023
Meanwhile, Pressley said:
“Organized power is realized power & our movement for workers’ justice is stronger than ever.”
Solidarity with our @UAW siblings as they strike for a fair & just contract.
Organized power is realized power & our movement for workers’ justice is stronger than ever. https://t.co/yW0W3EOLbh
— Ayanna Pressley (@AyannaPressley) September 15, 2023
Booker, who said that his grandfather used to work on an assembly line in Detroit, said that he is confident that UAW will achieve a deal with auto companies.
“My grandfather worked on an assembly line in Detroit, and fought for his fellow workers as a UAW union rep. He would be proud of the UAW members striking today. I stand with them & am confident they will achieve a deal that lifts up workers, their families, and their communities,” Booker wrote.
My grandfather worked on an assembly line in Detroit, and fought for his fellow workers as a UAW union rep. He would be proud of the UAW members striking today. I stand with them & am confident they will achieve a deal that lifts up workers, their families, and their communities.
— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) September 15, 2023
UAW chief Shawn Fain hit back at Ford CEO’s claim that UAW’s demands would bankrupt the company.
Speaking to reporters, Fain called Ford CEO Jim Farley’s comments “a joke”, adding:
They could double our wages and they could not raise the price of vehicles and they would still make billions of dollars. It’s a lie like everything else that comes out of their mouth.”
“They could double our wages and they could not raise the price of vehicles and they would still make billions of dollars. It’s a lie like everything else that comes out of their mouth.”
— UAW chief Shawn Fain on Ford CEO’s claim that UAW’s demands would bankrupt the company pic.twitter.com/iLm6I0TppL
— The Recount (@therecount) September 15, 2023
Rashida Tlaib, Democratic congresswoman from Michigan, backs striking workers
Rashida Tlaib, a Democratic representative of Michigan, has also thrown her support behind UAW auto workers, many of whom are striking in her state.
In a tweet on Friday, Tlaib wrote:
“Workers are asking to be valued. They shouldn’t have to beg BCBS MI. They are making billions and shouldn’t leave their workers struggling.”
Join Joshua (just 2 years old!) and the @UAW workers @BCBSM who are on strike to address the extreme outsourcing and pay inequity.
Workers are asking to be valued. They shouldn’t have to beg BCBS MI. They are making billions and shouldn’t leave their workers struggling. pic.twitter.com/8KWGTbwNnd
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) September 15, 2023
In an earlier message to Congress, Tlaib said, “They have record profits and that should result in record contracts” and urged for stronger contracts for auto workers.
Here’s an essay that Senator Bernie Sanders wrote for the Guardian about why Americans should support the UAW, prior to Friday’s strike declaration.
… The UAW members will be fighting not only for themselves but against a corporate culture of arrogance, cruelty and selfishness causing massive and unnecessary pain for the majority of working families throughout the country. Their fight against corporate greed is our fight. Their victory will resonate all across the economy, impact millions of workers from coast to coast and help create a more just and equitable economy.
What are some of the issues that are pushing UAW members to strike? At the top of the list is the extraordinary level of corporate greed shown by industry leaders.
In the first half of 2023 the big three automakers made a combined $21bn in profits – up 80% from the same time period last year. Over the past decade, these same companies made some $250bn in profits in North America alone.
Yet last year, the big three spent $9bn – not to improve the lives of their workers, not to make their factories safer, but on stock buybacks and dividends to make their wealthy executives and stockholders even richer.
Read the full essay here.
Ohio Democratic senator Sherrod Brown joins strikers in Toledo
Ohio’s Democratic senator Sherrod Brown showed up at the auto strikes outside the Toledo Jeep plant on Friday in a show of solidarity with the striking workers.
“The ratio of CEO pay to average worker pay in this plant is 365 to 1, and they’re telling workers to keep making these concessions?” Brown told reporters.
“I don’t care what they’re paid, as long as workers here are paid well. ” Brown said, referring to the auto companies’ CEOs.
“CEOs make that kind of money, 20 or 30 million a year, but you know, they’re making that kind of money and not only won’t settle – I know negotiations are tough – but they won’t even offer a serious legitimate proposal for a contract to this union,” he added.