Biden makes 'unprecedented' presidential visit to autoworkers' picket line
The Associated Press | Posted: September 26, 2023 1:16 PM | Last Updated: September 27, 2023
U.S. President tells striking workers to 'stick with it,' signals support for 40 per cent raise
U.S. President Joe Biden joined United Auto Workers strikers on their picket line Tuesday as their work stoppage against major automakers hit day 12, a demonstration of support for organized labour apparently unparalleled in presidential history.
"You deserve the significant raise you need," Biden said through a bullhorn while wearing a union baseball cap after arriving at a General Motors parts distribution warehouse located in a suburb west of Detroit.
He walked along the picket line, exchanging fist bumps with grinning workers.
He encouraged them to continue fighting for better wages despite concerns that a prolonged strike could damage the economy, saying "stick with it."
He said "yes" when asked if UAW members deserved a 40 per cent raise, one of the demands that the union has made.
"No deal, no wheels!" workers chanted as Biden arrived. "No pay, no parts!"
WATCH | Biden shows support for striking autoworkers in Detroit:
Biden was joined by UAW President Shawn Fain, who rode with him in the presidential limousine to the picket line.
"Thank you, Mr. President, for coming to stand up with us in our generation-defining moment," said Fain, who described the union as engaged in a "kind of war" against "corporate greed."
"We do the heavy lifting. We do the real work," Fein said. "Not the CEOs."
Unprecedented presidential support
Labour historians say they cannot recall an instance when a sitting president has joined an ongoing strike, even during the tenures of the more ardent pro-union presidents such as Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman.
Theodore Roosevelt invited labour leaders alongside mine operators to the White House amid a historic coal strike in 1902, a decision that was seen at the time as a rare embrace of unions as Roosevelt tried to resolve the dispute.
Biden arrived one day before former president Donald Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination, goes to Detroit to hold his own event at a non-union parts supplier.
Lawmakers often appear at strikes to show solidarity with unions, and Biden joined picket lines with casino workers in Las Vegas and auto workers in Kansas City while seeking the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
But sitting presidents, who have to balance the rights of workers with disruptions to the economy, supply chains and other facets of everyday life, have long wanted to stay out of the strike fray — until Biden.
"This is absolutely unprecedented. No president has ever walked a picket line before," said Erik Loomis, a professor at the University of Rhode Island and an expert on U.S. labour history.
He says presidents have historically "avoided direct participation in strikes. They saw themselves more as mediators. They did not see it as their place to directly intervene in a strike or in labour action."
Time to pay back workers, Biden says
Biden has previously vocalized support for unionization efforts at Amazon facilities and in 2021 passed an executive order that promoted worker organizing.
Biden is also leaning in on his union support at a time when labour enjoys broad support from the public, with 67 per cent of Americans approving of labour unions in an August Gallup poll.
But private sector union membership rates have plummeted since the 1980s because of deregulation and anti-union legislation at the federal and state level — just six per cent of U.S. workers belong to a private sector union, compared to 33 per cent of public sector workers.
WATCH l Temporary job losses could result from strike: analyst:
During the ongoing UAW strike, Biden has argued that the auto companies have not yet gone far enough to satisfy the union, although White House officials have repeatedly declined to say whether the president endorses specific UAW demands such as a 40 per cent hike in wages and full-time pay for a 32-hour work week.
"I think the UAW gave up an incredible amount back when the automobile industry was going under. They gave everything from their pensions on, and they saved the automobile industry," Biden said Monday from the White House. He said workers should benefit "now that the industry is roaring back."
White House officials dismissed the notion that Trump's visit, announced earlier, forced their hand. They noted that Biden was headed to Michigan at the request of UAW president Shawn Fain, who last week invited the president.
EV transition concerns
The UAW strike, which expanded into 20 states last week, is not without challenges for a Biden administration that has pushed for domestic clean energy jobs, since a part of the workers' grievances include concerns about a broader transition to electric vehicles.
The shift away from gas-powered vehicles has worried some autoworkers because electric versions require fewer people to manufacture and there is no guarantee that factories that produce them will be unionized.
Carolyn Nippa, who was walking the picket line Monday at the GM parts warehouse in Van Buren Township, Mich., was ambivalent about the president's advocacy for electric vehicles, even as she said Biden was a better president than Trump for workers. She said it was "great that we have a president who wants to support local unions and the working class."
"I know it's the future. It's the future of the car industry," Nippa said. "I'm hoping it doesn't affect our jobs."
Dave Ellis, who stocks parts at the distribution centre, said he's happy Biden wants to show people he's behind the middle class. But he said the visit is just about getting more votes.
"I don't necessarily believe that it's really about us," said Ellis.
In Canada, Unifor and General Motors begin contract talks on Tuesday.
Ford Motor Co. of Canada workers represented by Unifor approved a new contract over the weekend. Unifor talks with Stellantis will follow the General Motors of Canada negotiations.