At the end of last week, I was inspired to do some digging into labor and industrial policy, spurred by the news that United Auto Workers (UAW) had reached tentative deals with Ford, then Stellantis, and finally General Motors.

Indeed, Shawn Fain, the head of the UAW, is now the single most important business leader in America, a generational figure who is, ironically, like the reverse image of transformational anti-union General Electric icon Jack Welch.

So today’s issue is about the significance of that shift, and how labor unions and antitrust are being used to wrest control over critical corporate investment decisions from financiers, to empower workers, and to teach Americans how to build again.

United Auto Workers (UAW) Vice President Rich Boyer characterized the Belvidere plant closure and accompanying “economic dislocation” as “a choice made by Stellantis to reap even higher profit.”

Welch railed against bureaucracy and “waste,” and claimed to be doing a favor for GE’s axed workers by letting them know early on in their careers that they didn’t belong, instead of waiting until they were too old to find other gainful employment.

By the end of the decade, he’d announced a record $10 billion in stock buybacks, stating that buying back the company’s own shares was “a far better way of generating returns than going out and taking a wild swing” on a new business line or acquisition.

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