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.
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’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”.
Although also to be fair, there’s a long line of democratic politicians NOT bowing to progressive pressure (presumably over their donors). So this is a massive improvement.
This is a first step. No one should be satisfied with this alone.
No one ever said anything about “satisfied” Jesus Christ you people are exhausting.
1. You will never get everything you want immediately. It will take a series of steps over time. Probably lifetimes.
2. If you don’t reward politicians for each step they take, THEY WILL STOP TAKING STEPS AND YOU WILL GET NOTHING.
Sorry. Forgot we needed to grovel and worship every time someone does the sort of nothing centrists like. Characterizing a photo op as a massive improvement is hogwash.
Do you ever get tired of being a cynic?
Announcing everything as a huge improvement when it obviously isn’t breeds cynicism, especially when you expect everyone to accept the announcement itself as the improvement. That’s not progress; it’s a bill of goods.
If he’s willing to concede that very reasonable point and fight for the UAW, I think he’ll earn it.
Did we get buttery emailed with misinformation?
Nah, we just got Hunter Biden dick pics on the House floor.
Ditto
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.
Lol. I consider Biden the accelerationist choice.
That would be trump
Interesting I hadn’t considered that
Vote anyways, dude. If you’re in a blue state, it’s probably super easy, barely an inconvenience.
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
He got them some sick days. A far cry from having their demands met. Particularly in the aspects concerning safety
Copying my response to the other guy here too:
Safety is absolutely a serious concern, but can you show me some sources where safety was a sticking point leading up to the strike vote? The union literature from the time is very focused on sick leave
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.
Safety is absolutely a serious concern, but can you show me some sources where safety was a sticking point leading up to the strike vote? The union literature from the time is very focused on sick leave
As per usual, crickets.
the fact dumbasses here are splitting hairs around sick leave, safety, and insane schedules is absurd. All are serious problems that shouldn’t exist.
and it was viscerally demonstrated with multiple train crashes occurring during the period the unions were threatening to strike.
When someone says that sick days weren’t a major strike demand and falsely claim without any evidence that safety was the biggest issue, it isn’t splitting hairs to ask for proof. If the distinctions don’t matter, then makes no sense to complain about safety vs sick leave.
Which train crashes are you referring to?
No, their largest complaints were sick days and a brutal scheduling policy. That’s what I remember from looking into this at the time, and what I’m finding looking into it now too.
Can you show me where getting 7 sick days per year was what the unions were looking for?
The railroad guys got dealt a realllllllllly shitty hand with that one.
Nope, he got them their sick days. He kept the pressure on even after imposing the contract. Directly from the IBEW union:
https://www.ibew.org/media-center/Articles/23Daily/2306/230620_IBEWandPaid
Yeah…
Biden isn’t pro union. He’s pro-re-election.
I’m glad he’s going out there to support the workers. But let’s not look past the fact that Biden forced the rail union to get fucked in the ass.
I’m totally OK with pro-re-election as long as he sees the direction the winds are blowing. They aren’t blowing towards conservatism or neo-liberal economic policy, even if that’s where he stands. Meanwhile most of the republican candidates in the primary are saying how greedy the workers are… I’ll take Biden. He’s not my first choice, and I don’t even like his political position on almost anything, but he is doing far better than I expected.
The day after the general election the direction of those winds will change, they always do
I doubt it. Biden is nothing if not a party man. I’m certain he wants his legacy to be that he brought the democratic party into new strength. He’ll accomplish that by pushing for more progressive policy that actually helps people. Will he fully go against corporate interest over people? Of course not. He won’t be as bad as you’re implying though.
He’s doing the same thing Obama did in his third year, sounding progressive as hell with lots of populous talk, gets reelected and turns full on corporate owned neolib.
Biden was pushing for unions before the current pro-union zeitgeist bubbled up, which I think started with the first Starbucks successfully unionizing at the end of 2022. The CHIPS act and IRA both required recipients to employ unionized labor.
First Starbucks unionization in that movement was Dec 2021, not end of 2022.