DETROIT, MICHIGAN—OCT. 6, 2023—Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. today joined the United Auto Workers picket line at the GM Processing Center in Swartz Creek, Michigan.

Kennedy called on America’s automakers at General Motors and Stellantis to come to terms and settle with the United Auto Workers, whose strike against two of the Big Three manufacturers is three weeks old. Negotiations with Ford, the other major player in the American automotive industry, have been much more productive.

Kennedy issued the following statement:

“The UAW is asking for economic justice. The workers have built great wealth for the corporations. They have a right to share in the fruits of their labor. Workers are asking for wage increases and the end of a two-tiered wage system that penalized workers hired after 2007. Workers hired before 2007 make about $33 dollars an hour. Those hired after 2007 make half as much — not enough to make a decent living.  This system is designed to enable employers to pay less for more work.

“Worse, those workers hired after 2007 do not receive defined pension benefits. Nor, when they retire, will they receive much in the way of health care benefits.

“GM’s revenues in 2022 were $156.7 billion. Stellantis reported 2022 revenue as $179.6 billion Euros, approximately $190 billion, U.S. Ford’s revenue in 2022 was $158 billion in 2022.

“I’m not visiting the picket line for a photo op. I am taking this opportunity to affirm the importance of organized labor to make American capitalism function fairly. I will stand four-square with working men and women in defense of their economic rights and intend to make the White House America’s Local Number 1.”

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