UAW Strike Collides With Biden’s Manufacturing Agenda
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Administration is caught between support for unions and need to make U.S. auto industry more competitive.
The United Auto Workers strike at U.S. carmakers exposes a conflict at the heart of the Biden administration’s economic policy that could be difficult to resolve.
On the one hand, President Biden promotes new investment in clean technology and electric vehicles to bring manufacturing back to U.S. shores. On the other, he celebrates labor unions and supports their demands for higher wages.
Big wage increases will make it harder for the U.S. to build an electric-vehicle industry that can challenge China’s dominance, said Willy Shih, a management professor at Harvard Business School.
“This puts the administration really in a fix,” Shih said. “You can take the side of labor and say OK, let’s raise everybody’s costs. I get that, but then what’s the long-term competitiveness of the domestic
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