The US now faces a potential logistics crisis

By Romegas

The largest strike of automobile factory workers in modern US history began in the United States. Trade unions representing the interests of 146 thousand workers simultaneously stopped production at the enterprises of all three American auto giants: GM, Ford and Stellantis/Chrysler.

They are demanding an immediate 36% increase in salaries due to high inflation. In addition, workers are afraid of the introduction of artificial intelligence, which they believe ultimately could replace them. They are also outraged by the White House’s multibillion-dollar subsidies for the production of electric vehicles – which they see as an attempt to finish off many factories producing cars with internal combustion engines.

As of today, unions have virtually paralyzed the entire North American automotive industry and this may be just the beginning – after all, postmen, as well as Amazon and FedEx couriers, have all threatened to join the strike, an event which could plunge the whole country into a logistics crisis.

The timing for the large-scale strikes turned out to be very advantageous since inflation in the US began to rise again – to a current 3.7% . This is mainly due to food inflation and rising fuel prices. Now, a sharp rise in car prices may also begin due to production disruptions.

The Biden team has frantically tried up to the last moment to somehow come to an agreement with the unions – but to no avail. In the meantime, Trump is actively seeking to exploit the discord – by supporting the striking workers, for whose votes he hopes to compete. This threatens to make the situation in the country more chaotic than it already is, as it moves closer to next year’s elections. Trump’s opportunism is to be expected but one can argue that the Biden government itself is quite successfully demolishing the Republic on its own – with inflation, the energy crisis, strikes, lost wars, and the increasingly obvious political paralysis in Washington.