On September 15, the United Auto Workers began a targeted strike against Ford, GM, and Stellantis (the conglomerate that includes Chrysler) in an effort to secure higher wages, a four-day work week, and other protections in the union’s next contract. The strike is a huge development for American workers, but it’s also a big deal for President Joe Biden—these car companies are central to his green-infrastructure agenda. The union wants assurances that the industry’s historic, heavily subsidized transition toward electric vehicles will work for them, too.
Biden, whose National Labor Relations Board has been an ally of labor organizers in fights against companies such as Amazon and Starbucks, has called himself “the most pro-union president in American history.” He has expressed support for the UAW’s cause (workers “deserve their fair share of the benefits they helped create,” he said last week) and has sent aides to Michigan to assist in the negotiations.
The sick leave is what lead directly to the strike vote, all the union sources from the time are clear on that. What else did you think they were planning to strike over?
If you listened to what the organizers were saying leading up to the potential strike, the sick days were used to sell the strike to the public since it was just the easiest to understand and most cartoonishly ghoulish points. The terrible Implementation of "precision scheduled railroading" and the reduction in staffing, ridiculous on call times, and weird attendance point systems that it brought was the actual impetus for the strike.
Any sources from that time?
I can't find the actual interview I'm remembering but the episode of "Work Stoppage" about PSR and the strike is good. Labornotes also had a bunch of good articles explaining the situation at the time:
https://labornotes.org/2022/02/rail-negotiations-are-about-good-job-made-miserable
https://www.labornotes.org/2022/09/rail-workers-reject-contract-recommendations-say-theyre-ready-strike
Precision Scheduled Railroading, a system that made them do safety checks much much faster, requiring less workers check more cars (among other things). Overwork and declining safety, potentially a factor in recent derailment number increases such as East Palestine.
Also he only got them a small fraction of the sick days they were asking for.