Autoworkers strike would test Biden's assertion he's the 'most pro-union president in US history'

[Omaha Steve]

https://apnews.com/article/biden-uaw-strike-unions-trump-2024-826a9a74a73497a62943d26c31d455c3

By WILL WEISSERT and JOEY CAPPELLETTI
Updated 2:02 PM CDT, September 13, 2023

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The prospect of an autoworkers strike could test Joe Biden’s treasured assertion that he’s the most pro-union president in U.S. history.

The United Auto Workers is threatening to strike against General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, if tentative contact agreements aren’t reached by 11:59 p.m. on Thursday. That could reshape the political landscape in the battleground state of Michigan and potentially unleash economic shockwaves nationwide.

The auto industry accounts for about 3% of the nation’s gross domestic product and though union leaders say they are mulling strikes at a small number of factories run by those automakers, as many as 146,000 workers could eventually walk off their jobs. The effects would be most immediate in Michigan and other auto job-heavy states such as Ohio and Indiana. But a prolonged strike could trigger car shortages and layoffs in auto-supply industries and other sectors.

“Anything that goes beyond a week, you’re going to start feeling the pain,” said Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University in Detroit. “And anything beyond two weeks, that’s when the effects start to compound.”

FULL story and video at link above.