Auto Workers’ Strike Has GOP Pretending to Be ‘Pro-Worker’

As its workers remain on strike, the Big Three U.S. automakers can’t defend raising their multimillion dollar salaries by a higher percentage than offered to hourly workers. GM’s Mary Barra visibly squirmed when asked by a CNN correspondent how she could justify refusing the union’s demand for a 40 percent increase in wages over four years when the nearly $29 million dollar package she took home last year included a 34 percent increase since 2019.

Meanwhile, workers have been receiving six percent annual raises while the car companies have been making record profits. The disparity between the executive suite and the front-line workers is forcing a new Trumpian breed of populist Republicans to decide whose side they’re on—now that they’re the party that claims to represent the working class.

Mindful that his party has moved to the populist right where workers are heralded—and corporations derided as “woke” and elitist—Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) is among those dipping a toe in the fight on the side of the workers.

Read more at The Daily Beast.