President Biden looked on approvingly and clapped his hands as the head of the striking United Auto Workers union on Tuesday compared top automotive executives to the Axis powers in World War II.
Biden, 80, stood on a picket line outside General Motors’ Willow Run parts center as UAW President Shawn Fain denounced “corporate greed”, likening his union’s strike against the “Big Three” automakers – Ford, General Motors and Stellantis – to a collective effort US to produce military equipment for the Allies during World War II.
Fain, on his bullhorn, noted that the division’s center outside Detroit had previously been part of the nation’s so-called “arms of democracy,” and the site where Ford assembly line workers assembled B-24 Liberator bombers for the war effort.
“So today, 80 years later, we find ourselves here again, with the weapons of democracy,” Fain said. “It’s a different kind of democratic weapon, and it’s a different kind of war that we’re fighting.”
“Today, the enemy is not far from a foreign country. It is right in our own area,” he said.
“It is corporate greed, and the weapon we have produced to fight that enemy is a liberator, a real liberator. It’s the workers, you all work – work hard on that line to deliver a great product for our company. That’s how we’re going to beat these guys,” added Fain.
President Joe Biden on a UAW strike picket line outside GM’s Willow Run Distribution Center in Belleville, Michigan September 26, 2023.REUTERS/Evelyn HocksteinBiden looks on as UAW President Shawn Fain compares Big 3 auto executives to WWII Axis powers. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Biden pumped his fist as Fain made the comparison.
“Wall Street doesn’t build a country — the middle class builds a country,” Biden told pickets after taking the bullhorn from Fain. “Trade unions build the middle class. That’s a fact”
“So, let’s continue. You deserve what you get and you have earned more than what you are receiving now,” he added.
The UAW is demanding a 40% wage increase and a 32-hour work week for workers from the automaker.
Fain said that the “enemy” was “right here on our own turf” during his speech. Photo by MATTHEW HATCHER/AFP via Getty ImagesBiden greets striking UAW workers.REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
The White House declined to say whether the president supported the striking workers’ demands.
Former President Donald Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential candidate, will address union workers in Detroit Wednesday night instead of attending the second GOP primary debate in Simi Valley, Calif.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
