VAN BUREN TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) 鈥� President joined United Auto Workers strikers on a picket line Tuesday as their work stoppage hit day 12, a demonstration of support for organized labor apparently unparalleled in presidential history.
鈥淪tick with it,鈥� he told them, exchanging fist bumps with grinning picketers as he walked along the line. 鈥淵ou 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 west of Detroit.
He encouraged them to continue fighting for better wages despite concerns that a prolonged strike could slow the economy. He said 鈥測es鈥� when asked if UAW members deserved a 40% raise, one of the demands that the union has made.
鈥淣o deal, no wheels!鈥� workers chanted as Biden arrived. 鈥淣o pay, no parts!鈥�
He was joined by UAW President Shawn Fain, who rode with him in the presidential limousine to the picket line.
鈥淭hank 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 鈥渒ind of war鈥� against 鈥渃orporate greed.鈥�
鈥淲e do the heavy lifting. We do the real work," Fein said. "Not the CEOs.鈥�
Labor 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 labor 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 in even though union leaders say he's no ally.
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 鈥� until Biden.
鈥淭his is absolutely unprecedented. No president has ever walked a picket line before,鈥� said Erik Loomis, a professor at the University of Rhode Island and an expert on U.S. labor history. Presidents historically 鈥渁voided 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 labor action.鈥�
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Michigan that 鈥淏iden is fighting to ensure that the cars of the future will be built in America by unionized American workers in good-paying jobs, instead of being built in China.鈥�
Biden's trip to join a picket line in the suburbs of Detroit is the most significant demonstration of his pro-union bona fides, a record that includes vocal support for unionization efforts at Amazon.com facilities and executive actions that promoted worker organizing. He also earlier this year and amid the writers' and actors' strikes in Hollywood.
During the ongoing UAW strike, Biden has argued that the auto companies have not gone far enough, although White House officials have repeatedly declined to say whether the president endorses specific UAW demands such as a 40% hike in wages and full-time pay for a 32-hour work week.
鈥淚 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,鈥� Biden said Monday from the White House. He said workers should benefit from carmakers' riches 鈥渘ow that the industry is roaring back.鈥�
Biden and other Democrats are more at a time when Trump is trying to make inroads in critical swing states where unions remain influential, including Michigan and Pennsylvania. Biden is leaning on his union support at a time when labor enjoys broad support from the public, with 67% of Americans approving of labor unions in an August Gallup poll.
The United Farm Workers announced their endorsement of Biden on Tuesday, calling him 鈥渁n authentic champion for workers and their families, regardless of their race or national origin.鈥� Biden's campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, is the granddaughter of Cesar Chavez, the union's co-founder.
The UAW has not endorsed Biden. Asked about that after landing in Michigan, Biden told reporters that 鈥淚鈥檓 not worried about that."
Trump is skipping the second Republican primary debate on Wednesday and will meet with striking autoworkers in Michigan, seeking to capitalize on discontent over the state of the economy and anger over the Biden administration's push for more electric vehicles 鈥� a key component of its clean-energy agenda.
鈥淚f it wasn鈥檛 for President Trump, Joe Biden would be giving autoworkers the East Palestine treatment and saying that his schedule was too busy," said Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller, referring to the with the aftermath of a February train derailment. Biden said he would visit the community but so far has not.
White House officials dismissed the notion that Trump forced their hand and noted that Biden was headed to Michigan at the request of UAW President Shawn Fain, who last week invited the sitting president to join the strikers.
鈥淗e is pro-UAW, he is pro-workers, that is this president,鈥� White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday. 鈥淗e stands by union workers, and he is going to stand with the men and women of the UAW.鈥�
Yet the UAW strike, , remains a 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, Michigan, was ambivalent about the president鈥檚 advocacy for electric vehicles, even as she said Biden was a better president than Trump for workers. She said it was 鈥済reat that we have a president who wants to support local unions and the working class.鈥�
鈥淚 know it鈥檚 the future. It鈥檚 the future of the car industry,鈥� Nippa said of electric vehicles. 鈥淚鈥檓 hoping it doesn鈥檛 affect our jobs.鈥�
Still, other pickets remained more skeptical about Biden's visit Tuesday.
Dave Ellis, who stocks parts at the distribution center, said he鈥檚 happy Biden wants to show people he鈥檚 behind the middle class. But he said the visit is just about getting more votes.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 necessarily believe that it鈥檚 really about us," said Ellis, who argued that Trump would be a better president for the middle class than Biden because Trump is a businessman.
The Biden administration has no formal role in the negotiations, and the White House pulled back a decision from the president earlier this month to send two key deputies to Michigan after determining it would be more productive for the advisers, Gene Sperling and acting Labor Secretary Julie Su, to monitor talks from Washington.
___
Krisher reported from Van Buren Township, Michigan. Associated Press writer Jill Colvin in Summerville, South Carolina, contributed to this report.
Seung Min Kim, Tom Krisher And Chris Megerian, The Associated Press
