UAW's Shawn Fain meets with President Joe Biden in White House
Washington — The United Auto Workers' new president, Shawn Fain, met Wednesday with President Joe Biden at the White House, The Detroit News has confirmed.
The pair spoke in the West Wing, a UAW official told The News, followed by a meeting with other senior White House officials including Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard.
The discussion centered on ongoing contract negotiations with The Detroit Three and the union's interest in getting the president's public support for strong labor standards in the transition to electric vehicles, the official said.
The UAW leader asked to speak with senior White House staff on the union's positions related to the negotiations, a White House official told The News. When the president learned of the meeting, he asked to speak directly with Fain.
Fain also met Wednesday with Gene Sperling — a senior adviser to the president who the White House designated as a liaison between the union and automakers as the negotiations approach — and spent time on Capitol Hill talking with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and fellow Democratic Sens. Gary Peters of Bloomfield Township, Debbie Stabenow of Lansing, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, the UAW official said.
He had additional meetings planned with Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Reps. Ro Khanna of California, Dan Kildee of Flint Township, Elissa Slotkin of Lansing and Shri Thanedar of Detroit, and Deputy Labor Secretary Julie Su.
The UAW official declined to cite specific requests the union is making of members of Congress, but noted that attaching labor standards to subsidies and loans going to auto companies was a top priority, as well as public support for the union's demands.
The UAW is one of the few major labor unions in the United States that has publicly withheld its endorsement for Biden's re-election campaign and has been openly critical of the administration's approach to subsidizing electric vehicle production.
Fain told Reuters, which first reported news of the meeting Wednesday, that the union hasn't publicly supported the president yet because "we expect people to be there for us if they want our endorsement."
Last month, it slammed the Department of Energy for loaning $9.2 billion to Ford Motor Co.'s joint battery plants with SK On Co. in Tennessee and Kentucky, which would cover the majority of the $11.4 billion projects.
"These companies are extremely profitable and will continue to make money hand over fist whether they're selling combustion engines or EVs. Yet the workers get a smaller and smaller piece of the pie," Fain said in a statement shortly after the loan was announced. "Why is Joe Biden's administration facilitating this corporate greed with taxpayer money?"
Robyn Patterson, a spokesperson for the White House, said in a statement at the time that the union and the president are "working toward the same goal ... which is to ensure the future of the auto industry is made here in America, with good-paying, union jobs."
The meeting with Biden came after the UAW began negotiations with the Detroit Three automakers over the past week without the traditional handshake ceremonies. A news release highlighted opening remarks by Fain during those meetings, sharing a particularly sharp rebuke of Stellantis NV leadership.
The “pathetic irony in the fact that we were late in getting started today (is) because the head of Stellantis North America, Mark Stewart, was late for our 10 a.m. start time," Fain said on July 13, according to the pulled comments, "and Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares wants to constantly talk about absenteeism when it comes to our workers, yet Mr. Tavares can’t find the time to attend the beginning of the most critical set of bargaining in this company’s and our workers’ history.”
Stellantis spokesperson Jodi Tinson responded in a statement Wednesday.
"Our single most important priority is to negotiate a contract that is in the best interest of the company and our 43,000 represented employees, their families and our communities," she said. "We will not be distracted. We believe last week's meeting with the UAW leadership team members went well and we intend on continuing to approach these discussions in a respectful manner."
Stewart, chief operating officer for Stellantis in North America, wrote a letter to employees last week following the meeting, emphasizing that the company isn't seeking a "concessionary agreement" but to improve efficiency, productivity, unplanned absenteeism and quality to secure its future.
"This is an opportunity," he wrote, "for us to come together with our UAW partners to be forward thinking and truly innovative in how we protect the long-term sustainability of our business while addressing the concerns of our employees in a responsible way."
Fain, according to the UAW release, also declared to Ford Motor Co. executives on Friday that "September 14 is a deadline, not a reference point ... we do not expect the traditional path of opening bargaining and then spending a month and a half talking our demands to death."
To General Motors Co. on Tuesday, he emphasized wanting "to bring pride back to working for a Big Three company, and to leave things better than we found them."
rbeggin@detroitnews.com
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