Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and senior White House adviser Gene Sperling were in Michigan Tuesday to speak with the United Auto Workers union and representatives from the Big Three legacy automakers, a move by the Biden administration to ramp up communication with the parties amid a historic strike.
(Bloomberg) — Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and senior White House adviser Gene Sperling were in Michigan Tuesday to speak with the United Auto Workers union and representatives from the Big Three legacy automakers, a move by the Biden administration to ramp up communication with the parties amid a historic strike.
The two officials accompanied President Joe Biden on Air Force One to the Detroit area, where the president visited a picket line to show solidarity with striking workers. Su and Sperling remained behind in order to aid the negotiating process and are not intervening in the talks, according to a Labor Department official.Â
Biden announced on Sept. 15 hours after the UAW called a strike that Su and Sperling would travel to Detroit to meet with auto company and union officials. But the White House pulled down the visit after the parties said they did not need to be there in person.Â
The president lacks legal means to intervene to force an end to the strike, which is now in its 12th day, and the cancelled visit was emblematic of a White House with few options to get involved. Union officials and workers have expressed concern with politicians getting involved, and the White House has said it is committed to letting the collective bargaining process move forward.
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