3 white dudes with no labor organizing experience talk shit about the UAW strike: Acton Institute podcast and the celebration of greed

When workers organize to fight for a better living, that is when people will often take sides on economic issues. 

On Monday, the focus in their weekly podcast, Acton Unwind, the right wing think thank, the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, certainly showed us where they stand on the UAW strike.

Their weekly podcast had the headline, Has Organized Labor Overplayed Its Hand? Again? Of course, this was to be expected, since the Acton Institute, founded in the early 1990s by Roman Catholic Priest Fr. Robert Sirico, has always preached that Capitalism and Christianity are perfect bedfellows.

3 White Dudes with no experience with organized labor

I’ll provide a brief analysis of the content of the podcast, but before that I think it is important to mention something about who was on this week’s podcast. The show is produced by Eric Kohn, who is Director of Marketing & Communications at the Acton Institute. Kohn is also often the host of the show. Before coming to the Acton Institute, Kohn was at another right wing think tank, Illinois Policy, which promote Right to Work policies and took a hardline anti-union stance. Kohn was also on the board of Chicago group known as America’s Future. America’s Future was founded in 1995, with the goal of provide future generations an opportunity to learn about and practice Capitalism.

A second guest on the show was Dylan Pahman, who is a research fellow at the Acton Institute. Pahman claimed during the podcast that he always got a better deal as an employee, especially better wages when he worked in the manufacturing sector. However, according to Pahman’s Linkedin profile, he only worked in the manufacturing sector for one company, Medbio, LLC, for only 11 months. It seems that Pahman was stretching his claim about “always” finding a better deal when working in the manufacturing sector.

The other guest on the podcast was Dan Hugger. Hugger is a librarian and research associate at the Acton Institute, along with the author of two books on the pillars of free market Capitalism, specifically Lord Acton.

Talking Points from the 9/18 Acton Unwind podcast

• Someone listed the demands of the UAW, and one demand was read with a sarcastic tone stating that the UAW wanted to have their members paid for 40 hours, but only work 32. Later in the show someone referred to this demand as “ridiculous.” 
• Another person made the claim that if the Big 3 auto companies hire more people who are part of the UAW and demanding better wages, that they will be forced hire more temp workers. I think the podcast guys meant to say that the auto companies would chose to hire temp workers, as a way to avoid paying people a livable wage with benefits.
• A third claim was centered on the idea that the Big 3 auto companies needed to remain competitive, which meant a flexible workforce and more automation. If not, then they will repeat what happened in cities like Flint and Detroit. This was a curious and completely false claim, since the fact that Flint and Detroit lost auto manufacturing jobs over the years was always a policy decision by the Big 3 auto companies to find cheaper wages, non-unionized workers and move to state that had Right to Work policies, or countries that provided free trade zones to operate in. Free Trade Zones are  essentially gated communities for corporations that had legal protections and were often provided huge economic incentives to relocate.
• At one point the 3 white dudes began to talk about how they loathed public sector unions, even though it had nothing to do with the UAW strike. In addition, they all made the claim that public sector unions were nothing more than private political organizations.
• The 3 white dudes also praised Elon Musk and the Tesla Corporation, but derided UAW retirees.

Not asking the more appropriate questions

So much of how commercial media and pro-Capitalist media is determined by how they frame critical issues of the day, like the current UAW strike. Here are the questions they sought to answer in the 9/18 podcast:

• Are the demands from the UAW reasonable? 
• How should we think about trade unionization in America today? 
• Are there any risks to the new strategy that the UAW is engaging in?

Now, these questions are not necessarily unreasonable questions, but they always put the onus on workers and never on the corporations. What kind of a discussion do you think would happen if these questions were asked? 

• Ford, General Motors and Stellantis made a combined $21 billion in profits in just the first six months of this year. Should those profits we shared with auto workers? 
• There are multiple lower wage tiers, such as the workers in parts distribution centers and many of those making components for electric vehicles. Should these tiers be done away with?
• The CEO salaries at the Big 3 auto companies are $29 million for GM’s Mary Barra, $21 million for Ford’s Jim Farley and $24.8 million for Stellantis. Don’t the workers deserve a more equitable wage, considering how much the CEOs make?

It’s clear that the Acton Institute, with their institutionalized bias in favor of Capitalism, would do a podcast that essentially demonized labor unions and autoworkers. We wouldn’t expect anything different, but at the same time we believe it to be important to know where organizations and institutions stand on issues like worker rights, economic justice and the growing wealth gap between the Capitalist Class and the Working Class.