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DETROIT — Strikes by the United Auto Staff union against General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis will get the presidential treatment this week in Michigan. Twice, in fact.
President Joe Biden visited a picket line Tuesday at a GM parts facility in Belleville following a public invitation Friday from UAW President Shawn Fain, who joined Biden for the visit. Former President Donald Trump, the front-runner amongst Republicans in the 2024 presidential race, is scheduled to carry a rally Wednesday night at an auto supplier in Clinton Township, Michigan.
Biden and Trump are effectively tied in the polls over a yr out from the election. Each 2024 presidential candidate is attempting to win over blue-collar voters comparable to Darius Collier, considered one of about 18,300 autoworkers currently on strike, who says he’s “indifferent” in regards to the candidates.
President Joe Biden speaks next to Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Staff, as he joins striking members of the union on the picket line outside GM’s Willow Run Distribution Center in Bellville, Michigan, Sept. 26, 2023.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
“It will be good in the event that they actually show the support that we want to get through this,” said Collier, whose Mopar facility in Centerline, Michigan, is considered one of 10 parts and distribution centers set for potential closure under a recent contract proposal by Stellantis to consolidate facilities.
Michigan voters helped each Biden and Trump in winning the White House in the course of the past two presidential elections, in 2020 and 2016, respectively. They’ve each gained union support, but in other ways.
Biden endorsement withheld
While the UAW has historically supported Democrats, including Biden in 2020, Fain is withholding the union’s reendorsement of the president, who has touted himself because the “most pro-union president in American history.” Trump has won support of many rank-and-file union members.
“Each President Trump and President Biden understand the importance that Michigan has electorally and there is a realization that elections might be very close, in order that they need to be seen continuously,” said Mark Burton, a partner at Honigan law firm and a former chief strategist of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat. “The UAW strike is a superb, high-publicity moment to deploy their message and be seen once more.”
UAW members Niko Shinn, front, and Darius Collier, back, walk a picket line outside a Mopar facility owned by automaker Stellantis in Centerline, Michigan, Sept. 25, 2023.
Michael Wayland / CNBC
Michigan Democrats comparable to Whitmer and U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell have attended UAW rallies because the UAW’s Sept. 15 strikes began. Nonetheless, Fain’s politician of alternative has been Sen. Bernie Sanders, who ran against Biden in 2020.
Fain has appeared with the independent senator from Vermont in Washington, D.C., and through a recent UAW rally in Detroit. He also has echoed Sanders’ messages of fighting “corporate greed” and has positioned the UAW’s collective bargaining with the Detroit automakers as a “war” between the billionaire and blue-collar classes.
Fain invited Biden to hitch the UAW picket lines days after Trump announced he would skip the second GOP debate to carry a rally in Macomb County, Michigan, where a big contingent of blue-collar autoworkers live.
“We invite and encourage everyone who supports our cause to hitch us on the picket line, from our friends and families all the way in which as much as the president of the US,” Fain said Friday during a Facebook Live stream.
Fain has not expressed much support for Biden, persistently saying he needs to raised prove his claim of being the “most pro-union president.” Nonetheless, Fain’s made clear his position on Trump.
![UAW President Shawn Fain: GM, Stellantis made the decision for us to strike](https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/107305299-16954010911695401088-31301309580-1080pnbcnews.jpg?v=1695401594&w=750&h=422&vtcrop=y)
“Every fiber of our union is being poured into fighting the billionaire class and an economy that enriches people like Donald Trump on the expense of staff,” Fain said last week in a press release. “We will not keep electing billionaires and millionaires that haven’t any understanding what it’s wish to live paycheck to paycheck and struggle to get by and expecting them to unravel the issues of the working class.”
The UAW on Tuesday issued a largely generic press release ahead of Biden’s visit, saying it’s going to “mark the primary time a sitting U.S. President has joined striking staff on a picket line,” followed by several paragraphs in regards to the union’s strike and no statement from Fain.
Fain, on the picket line with Biden on the Willow Run Redistribution Center, called the president joining the picket line a “historic moment.” But he didn’t officially endorse the commander-in-chief for next yr’s presidential election.
President Joe Biden addresses striking members of the United Auto Staff union at a picket line outside a General Motors Service Parts Operations plant in Belleville, Michigan, on Sept. 26, 2023.
Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images
“Today, I just need to take a moment to face with all of you with our president and say thanks to the president. Thanks, Mr. President, for coming,” Fain said Tuesday. “We all know the president will do right by the working class. And after we do right by the working class, you’ll be able to leave the remaining to us because we’ll handle this business.”
UAW just isn’t affiliated with Trump’s Wednesday rally at Drake Enterprises, which is reportedly a non-union supplier of engine, transmission and other components for heavy truck, agriculture and automotive markets. But UAW members have previously attended and took part in Trump’s events in Michigan.
Trump stokes EV anxieties
Fain has previously said a second Trump term in the White House can be a “disaster.” Nonetheless, Trump, as he has in the past, is gaining blue-collar support.
“I like Trump,” said Niko Shinn, one other autoworker who’s currently on strike on the Mopar plant. “He’s a superb businessman and looks like he knows more about, not politics, but negotiating and stuff like that.”
Trump’s support amongst union members has increased as Biden’s has fallen in recent months, in line with Michigan polling company EPIC·MRA. Trump led Biden 46% to 43% amongst union members in an August survey, after Biden led Trump 51% to 42% in June, in line with Bernie Porn, president of EPIC·MRA.
“With union members, he has been so supportive of nearly all the things that union members want. The one thing that they are concerned about is the push towards electric vehicles because they’re concerned in regards to the fewer numbers of employees it takes to construct an electrical vehicle,” Porn said.
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Electric vehicles, or EVs, are expected to require less labor and parts than the normal vehicles equipped with internal combustion engines. They’re expected to be considered one of several talking points Trump discusses during his Wednesday rally.
“President Trump’s rhetoric in his position stances, I believe, stands clearly with the overwhelming majority of the rank-and-file of the UAW who’re concerned about their jobs being eliminated by this Biden administration forced transition to electric vehicles,” said Jamie Roe, a Republican strategist based in Macomb County, where Trump’s rally is being held.
UAW staff picket outside Ford’s Wayne Assembly Plant in Wayne, Michigan, Sept. 26, 2023.
Scott Olson | Getty Images
Fain has said the union is withholding a reelection endorsement for Biden until the union’s concerns in regards to the auto industry’s transition to all-electric vehicles are addressed.
Biden’s visit could also be an olive branch to help in the UAW’s eventual endorsement in addition to potential leverage for the union in its ongoing negotiations with the Detroit automakers.
“I believe the president’s visit, particularly if Shawn Fain is joining [Biden] on a picket line, I believe it’s one other stroke of strategy that increases the pressure and increases the general strength of the union in terms of the actual negotiations with the autos,” Burton said.