Unions

2004-2023 | 19 years

This episode focuses on an international trade deal and the conflict it causes with the Communications Workers Union after an American company decides to move programming jobs to India as part of the deal. Last Thursday the United Auto Workers went on strike for better pay along with other improvements at General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis, which produce vehicles for Jeep, Ram, Dodge, and Chrysler. By striking at only a couple of plants at each company, the unions are able to effectively shut down production for these companies. Thousands of workers have already been laid off as a result of the strain the strikes have caused on the supply chain.

Former President Trump has planned a rally with the auto workers next week during the second Republican Primary Debate. Because he is warming up to the Unions, Democrats have been encouraging Biden to go meet with the unions to express his support and make sure they are not losing voters in that area. Another reason Democrats want Biden to do more in support of auto workers is that some are accusing his climate change goals of making things more difficult for the union.

President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act incentivizes the implementation of electric vehicles, in an attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and keep China from dominating the market. But electric vehicles require fewer people to assemble them, and there is not yet a guarantee that the jobs the expanding electric vehicle market will make will be unionized. The task of balancing the needs of middle-class workers and progress to help the environment will continue to be difficult for President Biden, who is trying to straddle environmental progress while calling himself the most pro-union president in our country’s history.

In this episode rather than trying to find a balance between the environment and union workers, they are trying to find a balance between free trade and union workers. Still, the episode can be applied to our current situation. For example, when talking about the effect their trade deal will have on the jobs of communications workers, Leo remarks, “Lose 17,000 here, gain 30,000 there,” to which Josh replies “They're human beings. You're talking in abstractions.” This mirrors our own dilemma. By making the move to electric vehicles there are negative effects on certain industries, but those effects will be outweighed in the future by the mitigation of the effects of climate change. But at the same time, it is hard to reconcile working towards something with such an abstract payoff at the expense of Americans imminently facing threats to their jobs.

At the end of the episode, Josh says “We can't save your jobs. We are gonna create more in the long run, but we can't save your jobs. It's the short run we gotta figure out. The world's moving faster, we can't stop it. I wish we could. We are gonna do more to prepare you. We have to.” As our world continues to advance, we will have to continue to adapt.

Unions are a very complex issue, holding large sway over elections, and subsequently, politicians. And the Auto-Workers are not the only ones currently striking, in fact, as part of the ongoing actors/writers strike in Hollywood, the West Wing cast got together to picket. Should I continue on this topic and make this post a two-parter, talking about the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes?