Patriotic Millionaires Support Striking UAW Workers

Today, after failing to reach an agreement over a new contract, the United Auto Workers union went on strike against the “Big Three” automakers (Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis).

In response, Morris Pearl, the Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and a former managing director at BlackRock, Inc., released the following statement:

"The Patriotic Millionaires offer their wholehearted support to the striking UAW workers. Over the last decade, the Big Three automakers have made record-shattering profits, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at workers’ paychecks. The Big Three have sent billions of dollars to investors through stock buyback schemes and given generous executive compensation packages, but have completely shafted the employees that made their profits possible. The strikers’ demands for better pay, benefits, and working conditions are entirely reasonable, deserved, and long overdue. As UAW President Shawn Fain rightly said: ‘Record profits mean record contracts.’

The Big Three and UAW were once synonymous with the strong, vibrant middle class in which I grew up. America’s automakers provided an example to the rest of the country that businesses don’t have to choose between sustained profits over the long run and treating employees with respect, dignity, and as stakeholders - they can have both. Unfortunately, that era is long gone. If the Big Three want to regain their status as stalwarts of the American middle class, all they have to do is meet the strikers’ reasonable demands."