President Joe Biden called on Monday for a "win-win" labor agreement between US car manufacturers and the United Auto Workers (UAW), weighing in as a potential strike looms next month.
"I support a fair transition to a clean energy future," Biden said in a statement released a month before the September 14 expiration of UAW contracts at Detroit's "Big Three" -- General Motors, Ford and Stellantis.
The UAW, under newly elected president Shawn Fain, has adopted a tough public posture in talks with the automakers, demanding hefty wage increases, the reinstatement of cost-of-living adjustments and the elimination of a two-tiered labor structure.
Many auto experts see a high likelihood of at least one company facing a strike this fall. The UAW has a long history of strikes, most recently in 2019 at GM.
Biden said automakers must provide good-paying jobs, "avoid plant closings" and ensure "fair" treatment of workers in a transition.
"The UAW helped create the American middle class and as we move forward in this transition to new technologies, the UAW deserves a contract that sustains the middle class," Biden said.
A self-professed "labor guy," Biden has strongly backed the right of workers to organize and already obtained key endorsements from some unions, as well as the AFL-CIO.
But the UAW has thus far been conspicuous in refraining from endorsing a candidate in 2024.
Fain, who met with Biden last month at the White House, has at times slammed the Biden administration for not doing more to ensure the transition to electric vehicles lifts workers.
Fain weighed in critically in June when US officials gave preliminary approval to a $9.2 billion loan to Ford joint-venture to build three new battery plants in the southern states of Tennessee and Kentucky.
A UAW statement noted the lack of labor guarantees, including that wages would measure up to traditional Big Three manufacturing levels.
"We have been absolutely clear that the switch to electric engine jobs, battery production and other EV manufacturing cannot become a race to the bottom," Fain said.
"Not only is the federal government not using its power to turn the tide –- they're actively funding the race to the bottom with billions in public money."