Host nathan bomey is with us. Nathan boehm he is with us. Is this reporter and coauthor and here with us this morning to talk with us about the United Auto Workers strike entering day five. Welcome to washington journal. As the strike continues in detroit, what is the latest on negotiations . They are still prfar apart. The uaw just last night threatened to expand the strike on friday if they dont make serious progress with ford, general motors, insta lantus. And the strike started on friday. They are asking for a wage increase of 36 percent. They have only offered about 20 . The uaw wants traditional pensions, healthcare, and a whole host of other things and the automakers are not willing to budge on those asks so at this point it feels like we could be headed toward an expansion of this strike later this week. This is what has been termed a standup strike. Tell us how this approach is different from previous auto strikes and other strikes in general. The best way to think about it is as a targeted strike because what theyve done is selected each plant at each automaker. Ford, gm, and stellantis for a strike and this is unprecedented for multiple reasons. The uaw has historically only selected one automaker for a strike. In 2019 they decided to strike at gm and they ended up reaching a deal there and they ended up using that as a pattern to bargain with the other automakers and reach contracts there. In this case theyve decided to strike all three but only pick one plan at each to start with but the president of the uaw has said if the negotiations continue to not reach the progress that he believes is necessary, they will expand the strike to other plants, possibly including all the factories in the United States run by uaw workers. What do we know about sean fain . How long has he been Union President and what his approaches . He was only elected as president of the uaw earlier this year. I think he is trying to make his mark. I think he understands that uaw workers have been looking for progress on their compensation and benefits for years and the uaw went through a very difficult period. They have struggled with corruption for several years. Federal charges. The last couple in prison because of all sorts of accusations against the union over the last several years. He is trying to regain the moral authority that the union sort of lost over the last couple of years and show his members that he is fighting for them. So, i think that is the context in which this occurs. What he is doing is putting the focus on the automakers and saying they have had these problems over the last several years and they can afford now to deliver that back to the workers. Give us an idea of the potential economic effect of a strike if it is expanded and more plans are added to the list of the three currently being struck. Right now its somewhat limited because of the fact that its just the three, like you mentioned. Right now it will affect vehicles like the ford bronco and the jeep gladiator. These are vehicles that are important to the automakers but not the fullsize pickups where they are making all of their money. If the uaw were to start to strike some of those even more critical plans like the river ruiz plant in michigan where ford makes the f150, thats the most popular vehicle in america. The most profitable vehicle. If they were to hit that plant, you would see an escalation in tensions. If they get to all plans, this could be a devastating effect on the midwest. Likely a recession in the midwest and possibly triggering substantial damage to the economy on a broader basis. We are not there yet but it is a threat that the uaw has made. Nathan bomey is our guest. Axials business reporter. We would love to hear from you. Republicans use 2027482001. And for independence and others. If you are a member, we would love to hear from you. We have a piece with your colleague, ben demon how ev worries are helping fuel the historic uaw strike. Tell us more about this and the role of Battery Manufacturers and what the uaw is asking for. The transition to electric vehicles is a centerpiece of this debate because electric vehicles dont require as many workers to make as your traditional gas engine car and, because of that, that means that you a w is concerned about the transition, naturally. If theres fewer workers required to build evs, that could mean fewer members of the uaw, so they have publicly expressed concern about the subsidies for evs and the automakers handling of this transition. They have said they are cautiously in favor of the ev transition but they want it to be equitable and they want to make sure that its done by unionized workers. I think the problems with the automakers is that most other evs, in fact all other evs in the United States made by other companies are made by nonunionized workers area that includes tesla. Tesla already has a significant wage advantage on gm, ford, and stellantis. The only question is how much wider is that gap going to be after these negotiations are complete . Is the uad hoping to make in states that have right to work laws in states like georgia or kentucky where plants are those battery plants are opening up. Battery plants. I think they certainly have a dream of doing that someday. They havent had much success in the south. You look at the volkswagen plan in tennessee, for example and the nissan plant in tennessee, they just failed to organize those plants over the years. I think they have a better shot of going after tesla. The Fremont California plant in california used to be organized, when it was gm and toyota plant, long before tesla ever acquired it. So there is a history of unionization at that factory. The uaw went after tesla several years ago and failed to organize that plant but we live in different times now. Tesla has become a more mature company. Could the uaw go after tesla after this is over . It certainly a possibility but right now they are focused on getting the deal at the detroit three. You can call on 2022784 3003. I want to play the comments on friday from President Joe Biden. I dont think weve heard from him on the strike since then, but these were his initial comments as the strike got underway and here are some of your responses after we hear from president biden. After negotiations broke down, the uaw announced the targeted strike at the big three auto plants. Lets be clear, no one wants a strike. But i respect workers right to use their options on a collective bargaining system and i understand the workers frustration. Over generations, autoworkers sacrifice so much to keep the industry alive and strong especially the economic crisis and the pandemic. Workers want the fair share of the benefits theyve helped create for an enterprise. I do appreciate the parties have been working around the clock. When i first called them at the very first day of the negotiation and i said please stay at the table as long as you can to try to work this out and theyve been around the clock and the companies of made some significant offers, but i believe this should go further to ensure record corporate profits mean record contracts. Let me say it again. Record corporate profits, which they have, should be shared by record contracts for the uaw. And just as we are building an economy of the future, we need labor agreements for the future. Its my hope that the parties can return to the negotiation table for an agreement. The president clearly coming out in favor of a better deal for uaw workers. Pretty fascinating remarks because i think he kind of told the line in the sense that he is in a difficult position here. On one side he has the Progressive Left that once mac to have more electric vehicles. On the other side he has got the labor left which is focused on Getting Better unionized jobs and better compensation. These are both priorities for him, and i think he wants to have this all go away. This is a very difficult position for the president to be in. He has been very clear he is prounion and he wants these to be record contracts. I think theres not much risk of that not happening. I think these will be record contracts in all likelihood but there was one phrase in that speech that really stood out to me also which was when he said that the companies had made significant offers. I dont think that was well received by the uaw. Not long after that speech, they said that the white house is afraid. Im not really sure what that means, but the uaw is not really embracing joe bidens role in this process and, they continued to say that they are fighting for their workers and they will stand up to anybody who is in their way. He also said no one wants a strike. Now theyve got one. Does the administration have any ongoing presence or connection with the uaw or the automakers if these negotiations continue . The president dispatched labor secretary judy hsu and his sparling who is a veteran of these types of talks. They are on the ground. They are not brokering the talks though. They are sort of observers. The president said they are able to provide help if needed. I dont really think that is going to play much of a role in the outcome here. I think that the president wants to get the uaws endorsement, understandably, but surprisingly, they have withheld that endorsement. This is historically something that the democrat president could assume was coming. Thats not the case anymore, and i think you need to look at whats happened to the uaw and the way that membership has changed over recent years. In 2016 and 2020, about one third of uaw members voted for President Trump. So, i think the uaw understands this is not an organization thats going to endorse President Trump. Thats not going to happen. They just issued a statement the other day bashing President Trump. So, thats not going to happen, but i do think this is a union that is starting to question where some of its loyalties lie. Lets go to our line for Union Members. Bill is a former union member, retired. He is calling from delaware. Go ahead. Let me tell you something. Dont want to go too far. One time we had almost 1 million workers nationwide. Yv■ they are down to 145,000 and counting. So, go ahead and keep passing all these and stuff. You people are going to put yourself out of work and thats just the way its going to be. And bill, how long did you work as a u member . 30 years. We had two plants in delaware. Joe biden and chris let them clo they them close. They told people to go on welfare do not believe joe biden about prounion. Nathan. The uaw compensation by all accounts did contribute to the bankruptcy of gm and chrysler in 2008 and 2009. That was wellestablished. The uaw made major concessions and gave back what they had gotten overtime. I think since then the uaw has been very affordable for the automakers and has contributed to their contracts. The callers concern is appropriate in the sense that, it the compensation was way out of whack in the automakers could not afford it, that would be bad for the future of their jobs. The only question is where is middleground . How much is too much . I think we will see if the automakers and uaw can reach middleground and make an affordable deal. Lets hear from gabe calling from holly, michigan, independent line. This has been for years who is getting more or less. I think if they just create a tear, if the top down, whatever the ceo gets or the highest level, that percentage is balanced out with the Union Members and whatever the Union Members are promised in terms of compensation and retirement plans and pension percentage, that can only be equal towards the ceo. It is a balance. You want more room at the other side gets more area if there is a lawsuit, the problem with the cars that goes against union money whatever the agreement is for it if it is a crappy design and people dont buy it that goes against the ceo. The each share the problems and they each share the benefits and they can be done with this once and for all and create a stable balance between the two. They are a symbiotic relationship. The only people who suffer are the workers. I have family members who have been uaw. Anytime they struck it was always the most profitable time and the next thing you know, we are close to bankruptcy or my dad was struggling all the time. Whenever overtime was about to be there, they would strike. It is interesting. Overtime uaw deals have changed to include percentage of a prophet. Since the bankruptcies in 2009, uaw members actually get profitsharing checks with ford, stellantis and gm, those are profitsharing checks, that is a percentage of the north american prophets for the automakers and that happens to be where they make most of their money. What you are seeing with gm and ford, profitsharing checks in the order seven, eight, nine, 10,000 at the end of the year, it is a nice boost for the Union Members at the end of the year. It does reflect, if the company does well then they do well. With the uaw wants and assessed your point, the ceos of making way too much and their bonuses and their pay far outstretched the pay of the average worker. They want some of that to flow down to the ordinary folks on the Assembly Line. Caller from delaware, the retired uaw worker said members it had been up to 1 million and he thinks it is ,000today. How has automation and the line of making an automobile changed . It is dramatically more automated than it ever used to be. I remember being a reporter in michigan, the plant in the area had 14,000 workers in the mid 1970s. When it closed in 2009 it had 1000 or 2000 people. That gives you a sense for not just the automation, the decline of the detroit three and their sales overtime. Automation has been a big factor. Onto st. Louis. John is on the democrats line. Good morning. I have two thoughts, one is, where is the profit share . You would have think it happened the same time with the manager bonuses. That is number one. Number two, trump is talking to the uaw on the 27th. Is he extending the strike . That strike could have been settled by now. Is he looking for a win where he talks to them and they get the profitsharing and the strike is over. John is referring to reports this morning that former President Trump will be going to detroit to speak to Union Workers including uaw on september 27. Nathan, your followup. I do not think resident trump has information in the sense of the talks, i do not think the timing is related to it. I think they could reach a deal before he comes, i am a little surprised at this point. I think what President Trump is trying to do is connect with uaw workers who have voted for him. About one third of uaw members voted for donald trump in 2016 and 2020. He has a big basis of support. He is antiuaw leadership, they are antihim, there is no love lost there, he is trying to circumvent the leadership and go directly to the workers because he has bashed president bidens ev agenda and he is going to tell the workers that the president s agenda is hurting their jobs. That is up for debate but that will be his message. Many states, or some states are benefiting from the ev agenda oma the states we talked about earlier, and several red states have battery plants. Absolutely. There is a lot of battery and ev manufacturing in the midwest with jobs that are unionized. I think the uaw is concerned about the advent of these joint venture operations between a Battery Company and an automaker where the jobs may not be unionized. For example, in ohio, gm has a factory that the uaw wants to be unionized. The point is, ev jobs in the future will be different, and the uaw wants to make sure that those folks are in the fold. Lets hear from mark in maryland, independent line. Good morning i just want to clarify about the prior bankruptcies from the Auto Companies back in 2000 with rich medical benefits but they were not really managed that well from a costcontainment perspective. There were independent studies by Johns Hopkins research in the late 90s that forecast the bankruptcies because of overly extravagant medical Care Coverage with no deductibles, no copays and kind of within proper alignment. , might have been reasonable but the rest of the noncomp was high. When you combine that with product quality, the seats are not as comfortable as some of the competitors, Product Reliability issues in the 90s and then it was catchup. It was just dealing with those factors, then we had the financial crisis and that environment. The, had the opportunity in the late 90s and of course the ev products for the big three and gm were killed. It is not labors fault. That is the Product Design and executive management problem and execution problem. Better management all around is what is needed combined with more reliable consistent product quality that is leading edge and not following. Thank you for those observations. The good news is Vehicle Quality has improved dramatically since the bankruptcies. I think you are right, the automakers really fell down on the job in the lead up to those bankruptcies and the fact that people did not want to buy their vehicles and it was a big problem. They did not necessarily have the kinds of vehicles people wanted. As it relates to uaw and the automakers on who is to blame for the crisis, a great auto journalist wants to once said that uaw and the autoworkers were coconspirators in some way oma co. Complacent in the sense that they were arguing and bitter at each other and at the same time they did not look over their shoulders and see toyota coming down the road. They both did deserve lame. They worked together and they got the government to allow it and they reconstructed the companies and they are in much better shape, the question is how do you share the wealth. Kim is on the line a retired postal worker. First off i am supporting the uaw workers 100 . In 2008 and , i do not think there wasnt industry, or auman who did notel the great economic ppen. We felt its in the Postal Service. Every time that a Company Makes record profits, usually those profits come because many times you have three or four tiers of workers in. That is o