Consumer protection organizations have advice for the United Auto Workers (UAW) ahead of President Joe Biden’s speech Wednesday to the powerful labor union.
Consumer advocates told the Daily Caller they believe President Biden should stop pushing his electric vehicle (EV) policies on the UAW and American consumers. (RELATED: Inflation Soars As High Prices Continue To Squeeze Americans)
“The Biden administration has been touting one of the most openly anti-consumer economic agendas we’ve seen in decades, and his speech to the UAW will do nothing to change the facts on the ground. His administration’s monomaniacal focus on transitioning away from traditional automobiles to EVs is nothing short of destructive,” Executive Director of Consumers’ Research Will Hild told the Caller in a statement.
US President Joe Biden addresses a UAW picket line at a General Motors Service Parts Operations plant in Belleville, Michigan, on September 26, 2023. Some 5,600 members of the UAW walked out of 38 US parts and distribution centers at General Motors and Stellantis at noon September 22, 2023, adding to last week’s dramatic worker walkout. According to the White House, Biden is the first sitting president to join a picket line. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
“Higher prices at the gas pump, hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars wasted, and burdensome environmental regulations that kill small businesses and raise prices are all downstream of his anti-consumer, radical environmental agenda,” Hild added. “The UAW was right to protest the administration’s attempt to force an EV transition last year, and they would be making a serious mistake to put their trust in anything President Biden has to say today.”
Consumers’ Research protects consumers from left-wing companies by issuing “woke alerts” and notifying consumers when businesses put activism above consumer interests. The organization also focuses on opposing the environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) movement.
Alliance For Consumers is another consumer protection organization urging President Biden to end his push for EVs and allow workers to focus on gas-powered cars.
“The best thing President Biden could do for autoworkers is the same thing he could do for everyday consumers: stop with the social engineering and mandated Progressive Lifestyle Choices. President Biden should let autoworkers make the cars that consumers want, and stop pushing EVs that consumers are rejecting and that are costing American jobs,” AFC Executive Director O.H. Skinner said in a statement.
AFC is dedicated to ensuring consumer protection actions benefit consumers rather than trial lawyers and government bureaucrats, according to the organization’s website.
President Biden is speaking to UAW on Wednesday afternoon to wrap up the union’s three day political convention in the nation’s capital. He is expected to receive the union’s endorsement, CNN reported.
UAW President Shawn Fain told reporters Monday the union has not decided who it will endorse in the 2024 presidential election.
BELVIDERE, ILLINOIS – NOVEMBER 09: President Joe Biden speaks to autoworkers at the Community Complex Building on November 09, 2023 in Belvidere, Illinois. Biden was in Belvidere to celebrate the scheduled reopening of Stellantis’ Belvidere Assembly Plant and the settlement of the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike. Stellantis has agreed to build a new midsize pickup truck and open a new electric vehicle battery plant at the Belvidere facility which has been shuttered since February. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Biden previously supported the UAW’s strike against large automakers and joined workers on a picket line in Detroit, Michigan, during the strike against Ford, Stellanis and General Motors. He met with Fain and UAW members in November after the strike concluded and celebrated the new agreements.
Each of the Big Three automakers reached deals with the UAW to end the six-week strike over the terms of the workers’ contracts after negotiations between the two parties stalled. The Big Three’s expansion of electric vehicle operations was one factor in the UAW’s decision to strike.
The autoworkers received a 25 percent wage increase over the course of each contract, and their cost-of-living adjustment was restored. Labor costs were estimated to increase substantially for the Big Three automakers compared to their competitors as a result of the new contracts.