Shawn Fain’s disdain for the “billionaire class” informs his showdown with Detroit’s automakers. Now he must prove that his hard-core tactics pay off.
  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Yet somehow Kokomo produced a union leader whose rhetoric is aimed at toppling the conservative and moneyed classes — a rebel who rejects the niceties of an earlier era in favor of a sharp-edged confrontation.

    “Billionaires in my opinion don’t have a right to exist,” says Shawn Fain, who is leading the United Automobile Workers in a multifront labor battle against the Big Three carmakers that has little precedent and is making a lot of noise.

    “I don’t think Kokomo was a breeding ground for radicals,” said Paul Nicodemus, another member of the class of 1987, adding that the city was “known for having the biggest tree trunk and the largest stuffed bull,” two longtime local tourist attractions.

    A closer look, however, reveals how Mr. Fain’s upbringing may have played a role in creating a confrontational figure who vilifies the automakers while alarming Wall Street.

    The police protested low wages by driving past the mayor’s house with sirens blaring and similar antics, according to a 2014 history of law enforcement in the county.

    He pledged not only to end corruption but also to jettison a go-along, get-along approach that he denounced as “company unionism.” One of his first public acts was to decline the traditional handshake with the automakers at the start of negotiations in July.

    The original article contains 2,325 words, the summary contains 216 words. Saved 91%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • unfreeradical@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    The article reports…

    “Billionaires in my opinion don’t have a right to exist,” says Shawn Fain, who is leading the United Automobile Workers…

    During a rally… Mr. Fain invoked President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s hallowed phrase… “Today, the enemy isn’t some foreign country miles away — it’s right here in our own area,” he said… “It’s corporate greed.”

    Later, the article argues…

    Whether Mr. Fain’s fiery words will lead to effective negotiations is an open question. Fiery words can inspire, but they can also anger. Stellantis said the union leaders seemed “more concerned about pursuing their own political agendas than negotiating.” G.M. denounced the union’s “rhetoric and theatrics,” and Ford said the U.A.W. should focus on talks and not “planning strikes and P.R. events.”

    Well, thank you, New York Times, for your honesty. As enlightened centrists, we all know you have no political agenda of your own.

    You just report facts.