UAW President Fain denounces "billionaire class" on the big stage
Tuesday was definitely not the first time that United Auto Workers union President Shawn Fain has denounced billionaires and corporate greed. Those are standard parts of his remarks to members in the last two months.
But it has never gotten anywhere near the attention he got Tuesday, as he made the same remarks standing next to President Joe Biden.
Fain spoke for seven minutes, far longer than 87 seconds that Biden spoke during the President’s appearance on a picket line outside of the a General Motors facility in Wayne County, Michigan. Biden himself sounded a very pro-union, populist tone in his brief remarks.
“Folks, you’ve heard me say many times, Wall Street didn’t build this country, the middle class built this country, and unions built the middle class!” he said, to cheers. “That’s a fact, so let’s keep going. You deserve what you’ve earned, and you’ve earned a hell of a lot more than you’re getting paid.”
But Fain went even farther in his remarks. He referred to the UAW members’ past work building bombers used in World War II, and said, “Today, the enemy isn’t some foreign country miles away, it’s right here in our own area. It’s corporate greed!”
“We’re the people who make this world run. It’s not the billionaire class. It’s not the elite few,” Fain said as Biden looked on. “It’s not some executive who owns our future. It’s us…..That’s the economic reality that corporate executives don’t want us to recognize.”
“These CEOs sit in their offices. They sit in meetings. They make decisions. But we make the product,” Fain said sparking a cheer from the crowd of members on the picket line
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