As Biden joins the UAW picket line in Michigan, Orlando auto workers hold the line

As President Joe Biden joined a United Auto Workers picket line in Michigan, in his strongest show of support for striking auto workers yet, UAW-represented auto workers continued to hold the line outside of a Stellantis (formerly Chrysler) auto parts center in Orlando, Florida.

Upon reaching the scene in Orlando early Tuesday morning, an Orlando Weekly reporter was greeted by Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child O’Mine” blaring from a speaker set up on the picket line. Under Florida’s hot though-no-longer-summer sun, the temperature outside already exceeded 80 degrees.

Workers at the Stellantis depot, located just a few miles from Orlando International Airport, first walked off the job at noon last Friday, after UAW President Shawn Fain announced the union would expand its targeted “Stand Up Strike” to all 38 Stellantis and General Motors parts distribution centers across the United States — a profitable arm of the companies’ business — joining thousands of striking workers at three auto assembly plants in Michigan, Ohio and Missouri.

Ford, the third major auto company, was spared from last Friday’s strike expansion after making progress in contract talks with the union.

The UAW is negotiating new contracts with the so-called Big Three automakers, pushing for the elimination of divisive wage tiers, increased job security, double-digit raises to match the CEOs’ and the reversal of many concessions workers agreed to give up amid the auto industry’s downturn during the 2008 financial crisis, such as defined pension plans and cost-of-living adjustments tied to inflation.

The UAW work stoppage marks the first simultaneous strike against the Big Three in the union’s 88-year history, since the union usually negotiates labor contracts with the automakers separately, one after the other.

Out of 146,000 UAW-represented employees of the three automakers across the U.S., just about 80 work at the distribution center in Orlando, which serves as a supplier of auto parts and accessories for dealerships.

Kalilah Austin, a worker of nearly 12 years, is one of several workers in Orlando who moved to the less labor-friendly state of Florida after the company shuttered their assembly plants somewhere else.

Austin made her way to Orlando just a couple of years ago, following layoffs and the eventual closure of the Belvidere Assembly Plant in Illinois. Jamey Pierce, another UAW member in Orlando, moved to the local parts depot himself from Indiana 20 years ago, after a plant he worked at there was bought out.

One item the union is fighting for in this next contract (which Ford has already agreed to) is the right to strike over plant closures, as well as certain protection such as income security for workers who are laid off.

Austin, who “works [her] butt off” on the job, is used to working 60, sometimes 70-hour weeks — earning $32 per hour at the top of the wage tier — and yet, she still feels like she’s hustling just to make ends meet, paying $1,500 per month for her one-bedroom apartment in Orlando.

A mother of two, both her kids live with their father out of state, and she can’t imagine how she’d make it work if she — like several other workers on the picket line with families at home — were the sole provider for children at home.

“Imagine if I had my children here, and I was living in a three-bedroom apartment, you know, paying $2,300 or $2,700 or something,” said Austin. “I work my butt off for this. Blood, sweat and tears, seven days a week,” she added. “I just want to be able to have stability, financial flexibility and stability, and not have to work 60, 70 hours to get there.”

At the same time, she recognizes this importance of this contract fight. Not just for herself, but for her fellow union members in Orlando and across the U.S., from longtime workers who’ve labored for decades to temporary workers who can spend years on payroll — earning less, with access to fewer job benefits — before they even have a chance to secure a permanent job.

“That’s not fair,” said Austin. “We’re doing the same work; everybody should get paid the same.”

Public support for auto workers among the U.S. public is high, with three out of four Americans in support of the workers, according to recent polling. And that’s been made apparent by visitors to the Orlando picket line, and enthusiastic honks from cars and semi-trucks speeding past.

A handful of politicians (State Reps. Anna Eskamani and Rita Harris) and candidates for office (Carlos Guillermo Smith, running for the Florida Senate; Tom Keen and Marucci Guzman, running for the Florida House) have shown up to the Orlando picket line in solidarity. So have members of organizations like the Democratic Socialists of America, allied labor unions like the Teamsters, and the Central Florida AFL-CIO, a group of supporters that’s just as diverse as the workers they’ve shown up to support.

U.S House Rep. Darren Soto, a Congressman who reliably endorses pro-labor policies like the PRO Act, also stopped by the picket line Tuesday.

“This is a crossroads for many in labor, including the auto industry,” Soto told Orlando Weekly, mentioning the auto industry’s expansion into electric vehicles.

With job security a key concern of the UAW, the union’s fighting for what they call a “just transition” to electric vehicle manufacturing — one where workers’ jobs are protected, and workers hired at nonunion EV plants in the industry have access to the same higher standards associated with union representation.

“We want to make sure the next generation of workers have the same robust salaries and benefits,” continued Soto, a Democrat representing Osceola County and parts of Polk and Orange Counties in Florida’s Ninth Congressional District.

“These companies are making record profits, and the workers need to share in that success,” he added.

‘Which side are you on?’

As Stellantis workers picketed in Orlando, President Biden on Tuesday paid a visit to striking workers at Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant, becoming the first known sitting U.S. president to visit a picket line in modern history.

“Wall Street didn’t build this country, the middle class built this country,” Biden said to workers, wearing a UAW cap, megaphone in hand. “And unions built the middle class.”

The UAW, unlike several other influential labor unions, has not yet endorsed a candidate for president in 2024. But UAW President Shawn Fain, a union reformer elected by union membership earlier this year, invited Biden to the picket line to speak to striking workers, after the Biden administration had hesitated on whether to signal such an explicit demonstration of support. Last December, in a controversial move, Biden signed legislation that blocked a national railroad strike, conceding to concerns that a rail shutdown could have devastated the American economy.

Kalilah Austin, from the Orlando parts depot, was surprised to hear that Biden planned on walking the picket line Tuesday afternoon. “That means a lot,” she said.

“It’s important for the leaders of our nation to stand behind the United Auto Workers, because they are the leaders of our nation,” she continued. “If you support us, everybody will follow. Most people will follow.”

“It’s important for him [Biden] to stand behind us,” she added.  “Both of them. Trump, Biden.”

“It’s important for the leaders of our nation to stand behind the United Auto Workers, because they are the leaders of our nation”

Biden’s visit to the picket line precedes a Wednesday speaking event by former president Donald Trump, who’s also running for U.S. president in 2024.

Hardly a friend to organized labor, Trump — who recently accused UAW leadership of failing union workers — will be speaking at a non-union auto parts supplier in Macomb County, which is part of northern Metro Detroit.

UAW President Shawn Fain, a subject of Trump’s criticism, has made it clear union members wouldn’t be duped by the former president’s false promises.

“Every fiber of our union is being poured into fighting the billionaire class and an economy that enriches people like Donald Trump at the expense of workers,” Fain shared in a statement.

UAW member Austin said that it’s “insulting” Trump would go speak at a non-union auto parts supplier. “They’re not the ones going through what we’re going through,” she said. “So what does their opinion matter, when we’re the ones on the front lines?”

Meanwhile, the UAW recently filed a labor complaint against U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, another GOP candidate running for president in 2024, who used the legacy of former president and union betrayer Ronald Reagan to imply striking workers should be fired.

Scott, who recently advocated for “[breaking] the backs of teachers unions,” apparently didn’t know that firing workers for participating in lawful strikes is prohibited under the federal National Labor Relations Act.

Nikki Haley, another GOP presidential hopeful, proudly described herself in a recent Fox News interview as a “union buster.” Current Florida governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis has largely avoided offering his take on the UAW strike, instead pivoting to an attack on Biden over electric vehicles in an exclusive interview with KCCI last week in Iowa.

DeSantis, however, has a record of undermining Florida’s labor unions, save for the ones that heartily support and donate to his electoral campaigns.

So far, over 18,000 UAW auto workers across 21 states are on strike, out of nearly 150,000 union-represented Big Three workers total, as part of a staggered strategy the union’s taken to avoid quickly depleting their $825 million strike fund, and to keep the companies guessing where they’ll strike next if they don’t come to an agreement with the union.

For now, the Orlando workers plan to be out picketing from sunup to sundown, and have set up six shifts of striking workers to keep the picket line going, as they wait for Stellantis to feel enough heat from the work stoppages to offer their union a stronger contract proposal.

“Pivotal,” Austin remarked to Orlando Weekly Tuesday morning, in reference to their strike. “You’ve gotta use that word.”

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This article appears in Sep 27 – Oct 3, 2023.