JIM WATSON / AFP
Joe Biden speaks to striking members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union in front of the General Motors S factory in Belleville, Michigan on September 26, 2023.
INTERNATIONAL – An unprecedented picture, “historic” even in the opinion of the White House. By joining auto workers on a picket line in the key state of Michigan this Tuesday, September 26, he wanted to show his support for the unprecedented social movement that is shaking the sector. He became the first sitting American president to take part in a picket line.
Joe Biden addressed the members of the Auto Workers Union (UAW) via megaphone, whose union roof was screwed on their heads, and recalled the “sacrifices” they made during the 2008 crisis to “save the industry.” They now deserve a “significant raise,” he said.
A strike that became a political struggle
Such support for the president in a social conflict pitting the union organization against the industry’s three giants, General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, is a reminder of the closeness Biden has maintained with workers’ unions throughout his career.
It also underscores the importance that Michigan represents as the Democrat fighting for re-election in 2024 could once again face his predecessor, Donald Trump.
And Joe Biden was eagerly awaited a little earlier in the day, at the gates of the Wayne factory, where around ten strikers are on picket line, between signs calling for “Save the American Dream” and a bonfire near a tent.
“This is huge, it is an important support because he believes in what we are fighting for, that makes me very proud,” one of the strikers, Patrick Smaller, told AFP.
Donald Trump visits Michigan tomorrow
By traveling there on Tuesday, he 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.
A “win-win” agreement
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.
Subsidy for more environmentally friendly vehicles
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, more environmentally friendly vehicles.
“When he walks slowly and acts like he’s on a picket line, remember that 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.
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 km) from where Joe Biden visited on Tuesday, according to his campaign team.
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