5 takeaways as the UAW strike captures the political stage

Walter Reuther wouldn't have believed it.

That famed UAW head held sway within the Democratic Party and with President John F. Kennedy. But he never saw a week like this one has been.

A sitting Democratic president, Joe Biden, on Tuesday became the first in history − as far as anyone remembers − to join striking workers on a Wayne County picket line. Then, on Wednesday night, a former Republican president, Donald Trump, came to metro Detroit, not to extol striking UAW members to reach a deal and get back to work but to demand that auto companies − and the Biden administration − back off a transition to electric vehicles as being too disruptive to workers' lives.

Taken together, those events say a lot about where the country is and pose a lot of questions about where it is headed. Here's a handful:

Workers' rights are hot and politicians know it

There is already plenty of data out there showing the support among Americans for unions and workers' rights is at a high point − higher, recent national Gallup polls have shown, than at any time since 1965.

It's easy to assume why that would be the case. Labor shortages in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic drove up wages and gave workers standing to demand more. There is also reason to believe that long-stagnant wages and the sacrifices made by workers − especially autoworkers in the UAW's case − in the 2008-9 recession caught up with employers. We've seen strikes or threatened job actions by Hollywood writers, railroad workers, West Coast port personnel and Teamsters against UPS, in only the last several months.

But there is more to it than that. Trump, for one, is excoriated by Democrats for undermining workers' rights and passing tax breaks that were more beneficial to the wealthy, but he has changed the Republican Party into one that is deeply divided over economic globalism, portraying himself as an America-first populist.

And being pro-worker is not a mantle Biden, or the Democrats, intend to cede to him or the GOP.

If it's Biden vs. Trump again, Michigan is going to be contested

As the Free Press has reported before, the race between Biden and Trump, if they are the nominees as currently seems likely, appears to be a tossup in Michigan. That could certainly change but no one should expect either one to take it for granted.

If nothing else, the UAW's decision so far to hold off on endorsing Biden, unlike other major unions, is a good indication of that. Union President Shawn Fain says he wants the president to first earn that endorsement.

And that hasn't changed even after he walked a picket line, at least not yet.

Trump, meanwhile, spent almost the entire rally on Wednesday night − at a nonunion plant − urging Fain and the union to endorse him. The UAW endorsing Trump while Fain's at the helm seems like a longshot. Last week Fain said the UAW needs to strive against electing members of the billionaire class, ahead of Trump's visit. UAW Vice President for General Motors Mike Booth went even further, telling the Free Press "Trump is coming off as a pompous (expletive)."

And it's unlikely Trump really thinks an endorsement going to happen, too, but it's a signal to the union's leaders that he thinks his pitch to the rank-and-file − that a transition to electric vehicles is going to cost them their jobs and their way of life − is a powerful one. Whether it plays to the crowd remains to be seen, but it suggests the former president thinks he's got a path to make inroads in Michigan, which he won in 2016, once again.

Biden's visit broke precedent, it won't be the last time

Trump was supposed to be the one who broke with tradition. Well, this time, it was Joe Biden.

And he set a precedent that is going to stick around for a while.

As mentioned before, no sitting president has ever walked on a picket line. Not Kennedy, not Johnson, not Jimmy Carter, or Bill Clinton, or Barack Obama. That's not to say they didn't support labor unions − those organizations were key to their campaigns; in many cases, they couldn't have won without them.

But the connotations were too great. Walking a picket line might make it seem like a president was taking sides − which, well, he would be − between labor and management. And when you're president, you're expected to at least appear to be a neutral observer, letting the parties − in a capitalist system − work these things out on their own. There was also that worry that some people − some voters − might link support of a labor movement with socialism, a no-no generally speaking in American politics, at least in the past.

"This just wasn't done," said Harley Shaiken, a labor expert and professor emeritus at the University of California-Berkeley. But that was then: It's hard to see how, after Biden's short-but-historic visit to General Motors' Willow Run parts plant, labor won't clamor, when appropriate, to have Democratic presidents follow suit. How will it play with the rest of the public? Stay tuned.

Is anybody speaking up for business anymore?

Two presidents, two parties, one strike − and it's the automakers in everyone's sights.

Biden says the automakers should give more, they've made record profits. Trump says the workers should demand the automakers abandon any wholesale transition to EVs and he'll effectively make sure they do if reelected.

Who is speaking on behalf of the automakers (beyond, of course, the automakers themselves)? Well, they're not entirely without allies. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce president, for one, blasted Biden for prompting the strike by his full-throated support of labor while in office. U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., who is running for president, suggested striking workers might be fired, like former President Ronald Reagan did to the air traffic controllers when they went on strike in the 1980s.

But there is a particular dearth of voices that seem to be taking the automakers' side, beyond those who have ventured vague criticism about the autoworkers' demands for 40% increases in pay and shorter workweeks. Will that continue? It will probably depend on how long the strike continues and how widely it affects local economies.

But the automakers appear largely on their own now.

Is the 2024 election really going to be about my car?

No, it may be about your truck, too.

Seriously, there had already been signs − clear ones − that the electrification of the auto industry was going to become a political wedge issue. Most EVs are sold in urban areas, where there are more charging stations and the vehicles may have less distance to go, playing into their strength.

In rural areas, however, there may be less infrastructure, and EVs may be seen − with Democrats embracing them − as a cultural status symbol, indicative of concerns about climate change that some people simply don't believe. And then you have auto workers in Michigan, who could play an outsize role in an election, who are, as Wayne State University management professor Marick Masters said, "apprehensive about losing their jobs."

The opposite is true, too.

While there may be some apprehension toward EVs among some, environmentalists − a motivated and significant bloc in the Democratic Party − are insistent that steps must be taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And Elon Musk has already shown (although with nonunion labor) that you can make an extremely valuable car company producing only EVs.

Are EVs going to be part of the debate in the next election? You bet.

Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@tsspangler.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 5 takeaways as the UAW strike captures the political stage