WASHINGTON - President Joe Biden will travel to Michigan on Tuesday to join United Auto Workers on the picket line in one of the most extraordinary displays of support a president has ever taken in the middle of a labor dispute.
Biden’s trip comes after United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain invited Biden to the picket line in remarks Friday as the UAW ratchets up its strike against the nation’s three largest automakers.
“Tuesday, I’ll go to Michigan to join the picket line and stand in solidarity with the men and women of UAW as they fight for a fair share of the value they helped create,” Biden said in a statement. “It’s time for a win-win agreement that keeps American auto manufacturing thriving with well-paid UAW jobs.”
Further details about Biden’s trip, including which striking site he will visit, remain unclear.
Former President Donald Trump, the frontrunner to capture the 2024 Republican nomination, has said he plans to meet with striking auto workers in the Detroit area Wednesday in a push to court rank-and-file union members and other blue-collar workers for his 2024 run.
Biden faced pressure from progressives to join UAW workers on the picket line after Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Sen. Bernie Sanders and others each traveled to striking sites this week.
For the first time Friday, Fain publicly invited Biden to the picket line.
“We invite and encourage everyone who supports our cause to join us on the picket line − from our friends and families, all the way up to the president of the United States,” Fain said.
Biden faces a political tightrope with the UAW strike. He has decades of close ties with organized labor and said he wants to be known as the “most pro-union president” in U.S history. But Biden also wants to avoid national economic repercussions that could result from a prolonged strike.
Biden has endorsed UAW’s demands for higher pay, saying last week that “record corporate profits, which they have, should be shared by record contracts for the UAW.” But at the request of the UAW, Biden has stayed out of negotiations with Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Stellantis.
Fain extended the invitation after announcing plans to expand UAW’s strike to 38 new sites across 20 states. He said the union has made good progress with Ford Motor Co. this week, but General Motors and Stellantis “will need some pushing.”
White House press secretary Jean-Pierre said the White House “will do everything that we possibly can to help in any way that the parties would like us to.”
A White House team led by Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and White House adviser Gene Sperling was originally scheduled to visit Detroit this week. But the trip was scrapped after UAW’s leadership made it clear they did not want help at the negotiating table.
The auto strike has a 75% approval rating. That’s way bigger than most things in US politics. Not supporting the auto strike is a losing issue.
As a Democrat who voted for Biden because he didn’t want to see fascism, but was very sore about doing so because Biden is a milquetoast moderate at best…
This is sick. Props.
He sold out the rail unions not even a year ago
He ended up getting them what they wanted just a couple months later. Check out the top comment threads here
No he didn’t, one of their largest complaints was safety. Democrats downplayed their strike as ‘sick days’ so it sounded like their demands were trivial.
He got them some sick days. A far cry from having their demands met. Particularly in the aspects concerning safety
He’s been a lot more progressive in his policies than I think people thought he’d be. He’s not flashy about it though, so people tend to only hear the complaining that comes from much louder people
Just remember, this isn’t Biden having a change of mind necessarily, this is more about Biden answering to pressure. The reason why Biden behaves like this is mostly because the UAW has witheld their endorsment for him, saying that “Biden has to pick a side, either the working class, or the billionaires”, that “he has to earn his endorsment” and that “they expect actions, not just words”.
I might actually vote for him if he does this
Otherwise what, you’re voting for Trump?
Nah not voting for Biden. It doesn’t matter anyway. Blue state and all that
What about the down ballot races? And honestly, your choice is trump or no trump. Not voting for Biden is pretty close to accepting fascism because you didn’t get your perfect candidate.
Remember rail strike?
You mean when he in the three months afterwards helped the workers and the union to make sure they got their demands, while also not causing an actual rail shutdown that would cause massive harm to multiple areas?
Maybe I’m uninformed, but how are rail strikes, which are common in my country, massive harm that a government of half a continent feels the need to step in?
They aren’t as common here and this was a rail strike that could prevent the transportation of any number of important things, enough to impact multiple states and millions of people.
Beat me to it! Fuck these fucking fucks.
I ain’t a Joe Biden fanboy, but I would like to say if Bernie got elected president and he did this then the streets would go wild. This is insanely (good) that a president is showing so much solidarity and support to striking workers. This gets eyes and ears about the UAW strike, people see this support, they become emboldened, and now start thinking, “Hey, maybe we should strike or unionize…”
This is such a huge win for America and leftism in general. Let’s Go Dark Brandon
Yeah. He sure showed solidarity when he broke up the train strike…
Bernie would have stood with the rail workers as well. This is makes his current stand seem less sincere and more like a photo op.
Take a look at some of the top voted comments, Biden ended up getting the rail works what they were asking for 2 weeks later
But they could have gotten a hell of a lot more if they did strike
Perfect is the enemy of good
Choose the lesser of two evils every time and you’ll end up with the most evil imaginable.
He broke the rail strike, then made a big song and dance about sick days as if that was the only thing rail workers needed to strike over.
Fucked over workers and pissed all over their broad set of grievances and demands.
I don’t think he should be welcomed.
The rail strike affected the supply chain, it wasn’t just a straight up workers vs. the company kind of thing. A lot of collateral damage to consider downstream. And he hardly fucked them over. He forced a deal that was likely how it would’ve worked out anyway.
Biden has done more for unions than any President in history. That just doesn’t fit with the doomer narrative though.
The damage is the fucking point.
Yes, that’s the doomer philosophy. But you understand there are people that aren’t doomers that like having groceries on the shelves at the store?
What should have happened here is that Biden should have pressured the companies to resolve the strike as quickly as possible.
Workers generally don’t like striking. Not getting paid sucks. It’s really the only lever of power they have in a lot of cases though.
Banning their ability to strike means that the only options they have left are to suck up whatever awful conditions they have or quit. Quitting en mass would do the same damage you’re talking about, but far more permanently.
He did. The companies were forced to accept Biden’s deal just as much as the union was forced to accept the deal. It’s just being characterized as Biden forcing the union to accept in the narratives you’re consuming.
