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BUCKS COUNTY, Pa. – When Russ Oxley read on Facebook that a group of striking auto workers needed firewood to stay warm, he loaded his GMC pickup and drove to the picket line outside a General Motors warehouse.
The rain-soaked workers gratefully accepted the donation and threw a few logs on a fire they had been lighting since last week as they walked out of their auto parts warehouse on strike for better wages and benefits.
“The CEOs and all the people at the top have all the money,” said Oxley, 68, a retired truck driver in a Harley-Davidson hat who last belonged to a union when he was 18. “But the guys at the bottom hardly get anything.”
Crouched over the fire was Selvin Sandoval, a striking employee who earns $31 an hour after 10 years of stocking shelves at the warehouse that supplies vehicle repair parts to GM dealers. Sandoval often works ten or twenty hours of overtime a week to make ends meet for his wife and three children.
“Without the overtime, it would be extremely difficult,” said Sandoval, who recently completed a 74-hour work week. “I work practically every hour they offer.”
The United Auto Workers began their strike two weeks ago specifically against GM, Ford and Jeep maker Stellantis, closing three factories that assemble popular SUVs and pickup trucks. Last week, the union expanded the action to 38 parts warehouses across the country, broadening the work stoppage to affect more drivers – those trying to get their cars repaired.
So far, Bucks County residents seem mostly sympathetic to the workers. Some expressed concern about the strike’s impact on car prices and availability, but most who spoke to The Washington Post said they supported working people pushing for better wages at a time of rising income inequality.
The views here in Bucks County — a well-known swing county on the northern edge of the Philadelphia suburbs — could provide clues about how the electorate will view the strike and its potential economic impact heading into an election year. Bucks County voted for President Biden in 2020, but Republicans also came out strong and re-elected Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick to Congress.
Biden and former President Donald Trump are both speaking publicly about the walkout this week, hoping to convince union voters and Americans in general that they are on the side of the working class.
On Wednesday, Trump is scheduled to speak at a non-union auto parts manufacturer in suburban Detroit instead of taking part in the Republican presidential debate. On Tuesday, Biden stood with UAW President Shawn Fain outside a GM parts warehouse in Wayne, Michigan, and told strikers they “deserved a hell of a lot more” than they were being paid today.
Biden joins the UAW picket line in a historic but sensitive move
GM warehouse workers hired after 2015 are stuck in a lower wage level that starts at about $17 an hour and tops out at a maximum of $25, which is below the $18 to $32 range for full-time workers in the vehicle assembly lies. GM’s current offer to the UAW would raise warehouse workers’ pay to the level of assembly workers, an improvement Fain welcomed in a Facebook Live address on Sept. 22. But he said GM’s offer was still unacceptable because the company refused to provide the union with job security provisions or periodic cost-of-living-to-wages adjustments sought by the UAW.
GM called its offer, which also includes a 20 percent pay increase over four years for full-time employees, the best in the company’s 115-year history.
Auto workers used to be the highest paid workers in the United States. What happened?
Working-class pay is clearly an issue that resonates with voters of all political stripes in Bucks County, who are venting their frustration over the gaping gap between rich and poor.
At the Langhorne Coffee House, a 10-minute drive from the striking workers, Sherri Crisenbery had breakfast this week with two friends from church.
“I think there’s just been this huge disconnect between management and workers for years, many, many years,” the self-described liberal voter said. “I think most people sympathize with union workers because the inequality is too great… there has to be a little balance in every industry.”
Her church friend, Karen Marquis, said she saw the strikers recently as she drove past the warehouse. Marquis, who describes herself as a moderate Republican who has never supported Trump and voted for Biden in the last election, recalled a recent talk on economic justice at her Unitarian church.
“I think most people would be OK with saying that someone should be paid a wage that is proportional to the success of the company,” Marquis said. “The people who make the product are the reason for the company’s success.”
““In general, I’m compassionate – until I want to buy a car, of course,” Marquis added with a laugh.
At the next table, Randy Hips, a longtime conservative and Trump supporter who is looking for a used Chevy Suburban, said he was a little worried about how the strike might also affect car prices. He’s also concerned that Detroit manufacturers are losing ground to foreign automakers with lower labor costs. But he said he supports UAW workers fighting for more.
“They should get what they’re entitled to and be able to maximize their talents and get what they’re worth,” said Hips, who sells deli products to supermarkets.
Maintaining public support will be important for the strike, especially if it drags on, said Jake Rosenfeld, a sociology professor and labor expert at Washington University in St. Louis. He said he was surprised so far by the high level of public support among adults who are not union members, pointing to polls that showed 2-1 support among that population. “This level of support for such a potentially disruptive industrial action is truly impressive,” he said.
Why UAW workers say they’re on strike
The UAW has emphasized that auto prices have already risen to record highs in recent years, driven by pandemic-related market fluctuations and automakers’ increasing focus on more expensive vehicles.
Fain said the union has targeted GM and Stellantis parts warehouses in part because they generate a lot of profit for the companies. When he announced the new strike targets last week, he also appeared to acknowledge the delays some car owners may experience when they need repairs. The way to “fix the frustrating customer experience” is for companies to invest their “record profits in stable jobs and sustainable wages and benefits,” he said during a Facebook Live address on September 22.
Kelly McKinnon, a warehouse worker who maintained the picket line on Tuesday, said the disruption to parts deliveries meant “everyone was affected.” She said she hopes the public stays on the workers’ side. “We need their help — the public — to push back a little,” she said.
GM dealers are among the biggest concerns about the strike in Bucks County.
Joshua Jones, assistant parts manager at O’Neil Buick-GMC in Warminster, said he has ordered $20,000 worth of additional parts in recent weeks, including additional oil filters and air filters, to keep his dealership well-stocked for several months . During the last UAW strike against GM in 2019, the dealer ran out of key parts, forcing it to “reach out to other dealers for help,” he said.
Jones, who usually supports Democrats, said he has no particular sympathy for workers or businesses. “I don’t think either side is realistic,” he said. “I think it’s mostly just greed on both sides.”
Advertising agency editor Chris Kinsey wore an Eagles jersey to watch “Monday Night Football” at a local sports bar and described himself as “very pro-union” and a full supporter of the strike. When asked if he was worried about rising car prices, he dismissed those concerns.
“I don’t think we should worry about something like that,” he said. “I think we should be concerned that Americans … deserve a living wage.”