Biden joins picket line to back wage increases
The fight centers on UAW benefits, representation
President Joe Biden endorsed the United Auto Workers' demand for a major wage increase during a visit to a picket line at a General Motors Co. plant in suburban Detroit — a historic show of solidarity with organized labor.
“You saved the automobile industry back in 2008 and before. Made a lot of sacrifices. Gave up a lot. And the companies were in trouble. But now they're doing incredibly well. And guess what? You should be doing incredibly well too,” Biden said Tuesday in Belleville, Michigan, encouraging autoworkers striking against GM, Ford Motor Co., and Stellantis NV.
“You deserve what you earned, and you earned a hell of a lot more than what you're getting paid now,” he added.
The fight centers on benefits, representation and the president's own clean-energy push. Biden, joined by UAW President Shawn Fain, donned a black union cap and shook hands with workers on the picket line. Workers wearing red UAW shirts and carrying signs chanted “no deals, no wheels,” as Biden arrived.
“Stick with it,” Biden told the striking workers. Asked if he agreed with the UAW push for a 40% wage increase, Biden said “yes.” The union has reduced its demands for pay raises in negotiations to 36%.
The visit comes a day before former President Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination, also heads to Michigan. The dueling events highlight how the strike and battle for union support have become political flashpoints in the 2024 campaign.
Both candidates are aggressively courting union rank-and-file, who make up a sizable portion of middleclass voters in key swing states, including Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Trump won Michigan in 2016 against Hillary Clinton, but Biden carried the state in 2020 by about 154,000 votes, thanks in part from 62% of the vote from those in a union household.
A Gallup poll conducted in August showed 75% of US adults say they side with the
United Auto Workers, 19% with the auto companies. Overall, organized labor enjoys strong support, with 67% approving of unions, down from 71% a year ago but up from an all-time low of 48% in 2009.
Still, the strike has put Biden in a political bind. Biden regularly touts policies he says make him the most pro-union president in US history, but he has faced skepticism — in particular over his push for electric vehicles.
Unions worry EVs, which require fewer workers to make, will cost them jobs and reduce wages.
Trump is slated to meet current and former autoworkers at a suburban Detroit auto-parts manufacturer Wednesday — the same day his rivals for the nomination take the stage at the second Republican presidential debate. The facility Trump is expected to visit is a non-union shop.
Trump, who announced his trip to Detroit before Biden's, has been hammering the president for his support of electric vehicles, claiming the transition will send UAW jobs to China.
The former president will argue that Biden has been on the wrong side of issues hurting workers and the middle class for three decades, dating back to support for the North American Free Trade Agreement, Trump adviser Jason Miller said.
“Joe Biden can't show up to shake someone's hand while at the same time kicking them in the backside,” Miller said.
Democrats say Trump's presidency hurt workers by prioritizing tax breaks for corporations, appointing anti-union officials to the National Labor Relations Board and failing to protect union jobs and assembly plants.
Fain invited Biden to Detroit in a bid to turn up pressure on automakers, with the two sides at loggerheads on key issues and the strike into its second week. While there has been tension between the White House and the UAW, the union leader greeted Biden warmly and lauded his decision to show up at the picket line.
“Our president has chosen to stand up with workers in our fight for economic and social justice,” Fain said.
The economic losses are already estimated at $1.6 billion, and a prolonged work stoppage threatens to tip states such as Michigan that are crucial to Biden's reelection into recession.
The union is expanding its actions against GM and Stellantis, which makes the Jeep and Chrysler brands, to 38 more facilities in 20 states. UAW is sparing Ford from additional walkouts after the the union said it obtained concessions.
Relations between Biden and the UAW have been strained, and the administration's response at times halting. Prominent labor groups have endorsed Biden in his 2024 campaign, but the UAW has held back, despite endorsing him in 2020. Fain has pushed Biden and Democrats to do more to back workers in their fight for higher wages. But some in the White House believe Fain was ungrateful for the president's gestures to help the union.
Union leaders have dismissed the idea they could endorse Trump and have said the former president was actively hostile to organized labor during his time in office.
“I'm not worried about that,” Biden told reporters when asked about an endorsement.