US President Joe Biden (80) demonstratively joined the striking workers in the Auto industry joined and supported their demand for 36 percent more wages. “You are entitled to what you have earned,” he said on Tuesday in front of a distribution center General Motors in Belleville, Michigan. “And you deserve a hell of a lot more than you’re getting now.” Asked whether he supported the UAW union’s wage demand, Biden said “yes.” The Democrat stood on the picket lines in front of cameras. The gesture is the largest political support given to unionists by a US president in more than 100 years: In 1902, Theodore Roosevelt invited striking coal miners to the White House.
Before the presidential election at the beginning of November 2024, Biden’s Republican rival and predecessor in office is also vying, Donald Trump (77) to support workers in the industry. The businessman is expected to appear in front of employees of non-union auto supplier Drake Enterprises in a Detroit suburb today. The company initially had no comment on this. In a statement, Trump accused Biden of betraying auto workers. The Democrat’s electric car push will bring the industry into the USA destroy and cost thousands of jobs. In his speech, Trump will speak out against e-car funding and promise better job protection, said his advisor Jason Miller.
Biden hopes for support from the UAW in the swing state of Michigan
The UAW and its chairman Shawn Fain (52) are on strike at the same time in the three traditional companies for the first time in a week and a half ford, General Motors and the Stellantis subsidiary Chrysler – a first-of-its-kind step for the USA. Work stops at one of the car manufacturers’ assembly plants. The strike was recently expanded to include dozens of parts distribution centers at GM and Stellantis. Ford was left out because negotiations between the collective bargaining parties there had progressed. The UAW is demanding 36 percent more money over a four-year period, citing workers’ loss of purchasing power, companies’ high profits and CEOs’ pay increases. The original demand was 40 percent – because the income of the top management of the large car companies had grown by this amount. The employers offered around 20 percent over four and a half years.
Biden had called on employers to accommodate the United Auto Workers (UAW) union in the collective bargaining dispute. After the employees helped save the car companies during the crisis in 2009, they are now entitled to participate in the prosperous development. Biden is running for re-election next year and is vying for the support of the UAW and its members; he can especially use their support in the important swing states. However, the Biden administration is promoting the change to electric mobility with tax breaks and electric car loans. Fain, in turn, is critical of this; he fears that jobs will be cut in traditional factories.
Signals of support for Biden
The UAW is the only major union to have not declared support for Biden before the election. UAW President Fain invited Biden to visit the strikers and accompanied the president in Michigan. According to an insider, the UAW is not involved in the Trump appearance. Their representatives did not want to be seen there.
Support for unions and workers’ rights are among the cornerstones of Biden’s economic policy, which he has not yet benefited from in the election campaign for his second term in office. Trump, on the other hand, is “unconditionally anti-union,” said Robert Bruno, a labor market expert at the University of Illinois. Republicans are betting that the Biden administration’s strategy of promoting the switch from combustion to electric cars is unpopular among auto industry employees. They hope to be able to wrest the state of Michigan from the Democrats in the election.