President Joe Biden is set to join the UAW picket line in Michigan one day before former President Donald Trump visits the Detroit area.

WASHINGTON - President Joe Biden will travel to Michigan on Tuesday to join United Auto Workers on the picket line in one of the most extraordinary displays of support a president has ever taken in the middle of a labor dispute.

Biden’s trip comes after United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain invited Biden to the picket line in remarks Friday as the UAW ratchets up its strike against the nation’s three largest automakers.

“Tuesday, I’ll go to Michigan to join the picket line and stand in solidarity with the men and women of UAW as they fight for a fair share of the value they helped create,” Biden said in a statement. “It’s time for a win-win agreement that keeps American auto manufacturing thriving with well-paid UAW jobs.”

Further details about Biden’s trip, including which striking site he will visit, remain unclear.

Former President Donald Trump, the frontrunner to capture the 2024 Republican nomination, has said he plans to meet with striking auto workers in the Detroit area Wednesday in a push to court rank-and-file union members and other blue-collar workers for his 2024 run.

Biden faced pressure from progressives to join UAW workers on the picket line after Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Sen. Bernie Sanders and others each traveled to striking sites this week.

For the first time Friday, Fain publicly invited Biden to the picket line.

“We invite and encourage everyone who supports our cause to join us on the picket line − from our friends and families, all the way up to the president of the United States,” Fain said.

Biden faces a political tightrope with the UAW strike. He has decades of close ties with organized labor and said he wants to be known as the “most pro-union president” in U.S history. But Biden also wants to avoid national economic repercussions that could result from a prolonged strike.

Biden has endorsed UAW’s demands for higher pay, saying last week that “record corporate profits, which they have, should be shared by record contracts for the UAW.” But at the request of the UAW, Biden has stayed out of negotiations with Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Stellantis.

Fain extended the invitation after announcing plans to expand UAW’s strike to 38 new sites across 20 states. He said the union has made good progress with Ford Motor Co. this week, but General Motors and Stellantis “will need some pushing.”

White House press secretary Jean-Pierre said the White House “will do everything that we possibly can to help in any way that the parties would like us to.”

A White House team led by Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and White House adviser Gene Sperling was originally scheduled to visit Detroit this week. But the trip was scrapped after UAW’s leadership made it clear they did not want help at the negotiating table.

  • TheSaneWriter@lemmy.thesanewriter.comEnglish
    295·
    1 year ago

    President Joe Biden has genuinely been one of the more pro-labor presidents in American history. While I strongly disagree with how he handled the rail strikes, the policy coming from his NLRB and the way he’s been handling the auto strikes I think are a strong indicator of the policy that he stands for. The United States presidency has an extremely poor track record when it comes to working with labor, and I’ll take whatever progress I can get.

      • Jonna@lemmy.world
        115·
        1 year ago

        The ibew is one of the more conservative of the 13 separate rail unions, whose strategy involves lobbying Democrats instead of organizing. So of course they’re going to praise Biden. My own union isn’t as bad, but also throws praise at Biden even tho his administration was a negative influence on our negotiations. For a better view of rail labor, I’d listen to Railworkers United, a caucus of rail workers across all 13 separate unions to pressure the unions to work together and demand more for members. https://myemail.constantcontact.com/RWU-Issues-Official-Statement-on-PEB--250.html?soid=1116509035139&aid=Bt3zn_HU0ik

        • protist@mander.xyzEnglish
          154·
          1 year ago

          That was RWU’s statement on the prevention of the strike immediately after it happened, but collective bargaining continued with the support of the White House, and they later won sick leave

          From RWU:

          Despite the government’s breaking of the strike (not unexpected, as the government has done so one way or another for more than 150 years), enormous pressure was brought to bear on Congress to legislate a solution to the staffing crisis. It is in this context that the Class Ones did a 180 about face and have engaged the trade unions in bargaining property-by-property for paid sick leave, bearing fruit in a matter of a few months. What had not been possible for more than two-and-a-half years in national handling (not a single day of paid sick leave) was achieved in short order now, the carriers conceding 4 or 5 paid sick days with options to convert additional “personal leave days” as well.

          • VentraSqwal@links.dartboard.socialEnglish
            63·
            1 year ago

            This is pretty scathing of him actually. Basically no credit was given to Biden and he was blamed for how difficult it was and for screwing them over, along with union officials who wanted to accept weak deals from the railroads and the White House. Their statement seems to be that only through popular pressure and media attention was there then the pressure on Congress to try to pass another law, and the threat of that is how they succeeded.

            It’s not saying government breaking strikes is good, they’re saying it’s a common tactic that has bee done throughout history that they need to be prepared for and overcome.

            From your link (emphasis mine) :

            Going forward into the next round of national bargaining in 2024, what lessons can we draw from this fight?
            1 – National handling must be brought out into the light of day, so all union members know what is going on week-to- week, session-to-session.
            2 – The membership must be polled, consulted, and in- volved at every step of the bargaining process.
            3 – The union officials must lead and organize member ac- tions throughout the course of bargaining.
            4 – Never again do we put faith in a PEB, regardless of who is President..
            5 – Do not trust any politicians from any political party to come to our aid and assistance.
            6 – Do not accept the union officials’ claim that “this is the best we can get.” If you believe you deserve more, vote no, and raise hell.
            7 – All unions must come together and bargain as a single, united, and indivisible, ironclad bargaining coalition from Day One.            .
            8 – No union/craft breaks rank. None settles until ALL un- ions/crafts settle.
            9 – Join Railroad Workers United, help build unity of all rail labor, and get involved in the fight for a good contract in the next round of national bargaining

    • Jonna@lemmy.world
      133·
      1 year ago

      Biden was a bad influence on West Coast longshore negotiations. As our negotions started, he had both the ILWU president and the employer’s representative onto the battleship Iowa to pledge to not prepare for a strike. The union did not prepare for a strike, but the shippers diverted a huge amount of cargo away from the West Coast thru the Panama Canal. Granted, a West coast longshore strike stops 40% of US imports. But removing the threat means the employers have zero incentive to budge.