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President Biden is coming under increasing pressure from some Democratic lawmakers to do something none of his predecessors in office appear to have done: join striking workers as they set up a picket line.
As the United Auto Workers strike against all three of the nation’s largest automakers, numerous Democrats in Michigan and across the country have expressed concern that Biden’s likely rival in next year’s election, former President Donald Trump, is trying to woo union voters and weakening a key Democratic constituency by his own visit to a strike site.
Trump is planning a rally in Detroit next week with union workers, including auto workers, during the next Republican primary debate, although it is unclear whether he will also visit the picket lines, according to a person familiar with campaign planning who spoke on condition of anonymity. to describe the plans.
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Democrats want Biden to highlight the parties’ differences on labor issues.
“It would send a very strong signal that Democrats stand for working people — I really think Biden should show up, and soon,” said Michigan state Rep. Mike McFall, a first-term Democrat , whose district includes part of Detroit. “I’m very worried about Trump emerging and what that would mean for our party in November.”
Biden welcomed the UAW’s targeted strike against Detroit’s big three manufacturers and on Friday called on General Motors, Ford and Stellantis to improve their wage proposals to the union. The president’s advisers believe he has already gone beyond supporting workers through numerous regulations and laws aimed at improving labor outcomes. And yet the labor action presents a political conundrum for the president, who must figure out how far to go to side with UAW workers.
The White House declined to comment when asked whether Biden was considering visiting the picket lines. But in interviews with The Washington Post, more than half a dozen Democrats in Congress and the Michigan state legislature said he should go. UAW leadership has also told the White House that a visit from the president would be welcome, although it has not sent out a formal invitation, according to two people with knowledge of internal discussions and a UAW official, all three of whom spoke on condition of anonymity describe private conversations.
“I know the UAW family would love it if the most powerful person in the world – the President of the United States – came by and held a sign of solidarity with them. But I hope that he does it in a way that he actually sits down and has a roundtable with some key people and really listens to how hard it was,” said Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.). “Of course the president’s coming would be extremely important. But people want someone who will stand up for them and demand some form of economic justice for them and their families – who will show solidarity.”
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Several members of Congress, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (DN.Y.) and Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and John Fetterman (D-Pa.), have joined a UAW since the strike began at midnight Friday morning. Strike demonstration joined.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California), who co-wrote an editorial about the strike with UAW President Shawn Fain and joined striking workers in Michigan and Ohio on Monday, said in a statement: “This would be great for the president.” Biden will also go, having been the most pro-union president in decades.”
Asked about calls for Biden to join the picket line, White House spokeswoman Robyn Patterson pointed to the president’s previous statements supporting the union. Biden said Friday that automakers should “go further to ensure that record corporate profits also mean record contracts,” echoing the UAW’s comments. Biden has appointed staunch union allies to the National Labor Relations Board and the federal judiciary, and provisions in a 2021 law backed by Biden gave workers more bargaining power and intensified unionization efforts across the country.
“There is no question that the president stands with UAW workers,” Patterson said by email. “His statement on Friday made that crystal clear.”
Still, Trump’s visit to woo workers could complicate the White House’s political calculations. The former president has eroded support for Democrats from Rust Belt unions and may seek to make further progress before the 2024 elections. The New York Times first reported on Trump’s planned trip to Detroit on Monday.
Experts agree that from a policy perspective, there is no doubt that Biden has done much more to support unions. Trump enacted numerous policies detested by organized labor, weakened the NLRB, and passed legislation focused on lower corporate taxes. And Trump has publicly feuded with Fain, ridiculing the union leader and asking union members not to pay dues. In an interview with NBC News that aired Sunday on “Meet the Press,” Trump said that auto workers are “being sold out by their leadership and that their leadership should support Trump,” an opinion he expressed in a post on Truth Social reaffirmed social media network he owns.
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Some Michigan Democrats expressed concern about the idea that Trump might go to a picket line before Biden.
“It would bring a lot of coverage and free media for Trump. We don’t need this,” said Rep. Donavan McKinney, who called the prospect “terrible.”
“President Biden can take over the narrative and show that the administration and Democrats as a whole support their largest base, which is unions and the working class,” McKinney said. “That would speak volumes… What can we do to make that happen? Biden here?”
State Rep. Jason Morgan added: “I would like to see Biden on the picket line here in Michigan… Our unions are receiving tremendous support today, and there is no reason not to join our workers in demanding higher wages and better working conditions .” ”
Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster who worked for Biden, said polls suggest that young people and particularly Black voters support the UAW and that Biden needs both to win in Michigan in 2024.
“Voters are very supportive of the strike and the ongoing organizing — they really agree with the basic premise that CEOs are hoarding the money and that wealth should be spared,” Lake said. “I think it’s a great idea for him to go.”
However, not all Democrats believe Biden should hurry up.
James Blanchard, who was the Democratic governor of Michigan from 1983 to 1991, said Biden had made his position on the UAW strike “very clear” and that walking the picket lines could set a precedent that the president is expected to do much more will take part.
“I’m not sure the president should put up a picket line — you start with one and have to do the others. He is a very strong advocate for UAW workers,” Blanchard said.
With a UAW strike looming, Biden faces a ‘win-win’ situation.
Some conservatives also bristled at the prospect of the president taking sides so obviously. Traditionally, presidents try to act as a neutral mediator when possible. (Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at Cornell University, said Biden would likely be the first president in a century to join a picket line.)
“You put all the weight of the federal government on one side of a private dispute, and that doesn’t usually happen because we have a vision of justice in the country and you don’t put your thumb on the scale,” said Doug Holtz-Eakin, a Republican political analyst . “It is so far over the border that people have lost sight of the borders. I think it’s really wrong.”
Still, some workers said they would welcome Biden.
Sharifia Fambro, 52, a striking worker at the Ford plant in Wayne, Michigan, who earns $19.10 an hour, said she hopes Biden shows up on the picket line to “show solidarity with the UAW.” Fambro, who installs dashboards on Bronco vehicles, added that she believes it would help strengthen workers’ cause if the president “showed he knows what we’re going through.”
Lauren Kaori Gurley contributed to this report.