“I fear that you have exploited the UAW to protect your boss at the expense of American workers.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator JD Vance (R-OH) has demanded answers regarding the involvement of a top Biden aide in UAW strikes at the Stellantis plant in Toledo, Ohio, a GM plant in Missouri, and a Ford plant in Michigan. In a letter to Gene B. Sperling, President Biden’s senior advisor and hand-selected liaison for the negotiations between the UAW and Big Three automakers, Senator Vance highlighted the role the Biden administration has played to shape the strikes and protect its disastrous policy agenda.
Earlier this week, Senator Vance expressed his support of autoworkers’ demands for higher wages and insisted negotiations must address President Biden’s failed electric vehicle (EV) policies, which will enrich Chinese manufacturers at the expense of American workers.
In today’s letter to Mr. Sperling, Senator Vance notes the negotiations have yet to address the premature EV transition. Since Mr. Sperling became involved in negotiations, the UAW has been silent on this critical issue altogether. Senator Vance also notes the strikes are hitting deeply Republican states the hardest while largely sparing Michigan, where the bulk of UAW members live and work, and where Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Senator Vance’s letter to Mr. Sperling reads, in part:
“Now that negotiations have failed to conclude in time to avert a strike, your involvement deserves further scrutiny …
“First, the negotiations have so far failed to address the existential threat posed by the premature transition to EVs. Electric vehicles and batteries are far less labor-intensive than typical automobiles and have supply chains that run through China. Conservative estimates show that the rapid transition to EVs could cost nearly half a million autoworkers’ jobs …
“Second, 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. If this is the case, I fear that you have exploited the UAW to protect your boss at the expense of American workers.”
Read the full letter here and below.
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