U.S. President Joe Biden (center) with Shawn Fain (left), President of the United Auto Workers (UAW), in Belleville, Michigan, September 26, 2023. EVELYN HOCKSTEIN / Portal
According to the White House, it is a “historic” gesture. Joe Biden visited an auto industry workers picket line in Michigan on Tuesday, September 26th. He is the first sitting American president to take part in a picket line.
The Democrat, a candidate to replace himself in 2024, wore a cap with the logo of the Automobile Workers Union (UAW) and addressed the strikers with a megaphone. He highlighted the “sacrifices” made to save the industry during the 2008 crisis and believed they deserved a “significant pay rise”.
Such support for the president in a social conflict that pits labor organization against the industry’s three giants – General Motors, Ford and Stellantis – is a reminder of the closeness Mr. Biden has maintained with workers’ unions throughout his career. It also underscores the importance of Michigan as the Democrat could face his predecessor Donald Trump again in next year’s presidential election.
Desire for a “win-win” agreement
By traveling there on Tuesday, Joe Biden is stealing the spotlight from his Republican rival, who plans to travel to the same state on Wednesday to court workers on whom he plans to base his recapture of the White House. Enough to turn this already historic strike into a subject of political dispute.
Donald Trump, who announced his trip before Joe Biden’s, also accused the Democratic president of imitating him. And his adviser Jason Miller called Joe Biden’s visit “nothing more than a bad photo op.”
For Joe Biden, the challenge is to prove that, on the contrary, he is the president of the working class, the defender of unions and the architect of the industrial renewal of the United States. But the octogenarian, who is doing poorly in the polls and is now being checked for his physical condition on every trip, is walking on eggshells: the current social conflict could prove very damaging to the American economy.
And the strike spread to automakers General Motors and Stellantis due to a lack of progress in union negotiations, unlike Ford where “real progress” was made. Joe Biden has publicly called on several occasions for manufacturers to pass on their “record profits” to employees.
When asked whether the president was taking sides in the social conflict, the White House spokesman preferred to avoid the questions and emphasized that Joe Biden wants, above all, a “win-win” agreement. “We do not participate in negotiations,” she added.
Donald Trump is also expected in Michigan
Joe Biden has made his support for unions a hallmark of his time in office, and the UAW’s support for his candidacy in 2020 helped him swing Michigan in his favor when the state voted for Donald Trump in 2016.
However, the Democratic administration is one of the driving forces behind the historic shift that the automotive industry is experiencing towards more environmentally friendly vehicles. “When he walks slowly and acts like he’s on a ‘picket line,’ remember he wants to take your jobs and send you to China,” Donald Trump accused on Truth Social. The electric vehicle subsidies included in President Biden’s Major Climate Plan (IRA) apply only to cars manufactured in North America.
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The Republican’s hopes of returning to the White House rest largely on the same blue-collar votes he won in key states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in 2016.
On Wednesday, Donald Trump will speak at a factory that makes spare parts in Clinton Township, Michigan, just over 37 miles (60 kilometers) from where Joe Biden visited on Tuesday, according to his campaign team.