Bray and Merrick on WNYC, now our climate story of the week, which we're doing every

Tuesday all this year on the show. Last week, both of the front runners in the 2024 presidential

race headed to Detroit to garner the support of striking United Auto Workers. The union

has been striking as you know against the big three automakers in the US for a 40% pay increase

and a four day work week and a return to traditional pensions among other things. President

Joe Biden joined the UAW Pickett line on Tuesday last week, making him the first ever sitting

president to join a pickett line. He backed their demands. Let's take a listen to a short

exit. Now the UAW was also asking for job security as the auto industry under President

Biden moves toward electric vehicles. There are concerns that EVs may need fewer workers.

Board CEO estimated that it may be as much as 40% fewer workers. So Republicans have picked

up on that point as an attack line and a line of attack on President Biden's inflation

reduction act, which has put billions into clean energy alternatives and provided incentives

for EV production and purchase. The day after Biden's visit, so that's Wednesday last

week. Trump held a rally in Detroit at a non-union manufacturing plant and he went after

EVs, like a lot of the other Republicans hoping to be President did on the debate stage.

Also last week, take a listen to Trump. Every time Joe Biden and the UAW's political

leadership talk about a fair transition to all electric cars, American labor will be

under siege. It's not going to work for you. It can't work.

So as the 2024 presidential race heats up, the UAW is the only union to not back Biden

according to CNN, only major union. The fears over the rise in EVs aren't helping, but they

certainly have an endorsed Trump either. And the head of the union, Sean Fein, frequently

says very negative things about Trump. Joining us now to break down what the rise of electric

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