In historic first, Biden walks picket line with striking autoworkers in Michigan

Wearing a UAW cap and holding a bullhorn, President Joe Biden on Tuesday told striking autoworkers they have every right to demand more of automakers, marking what was believed to be the first time that a sitting American president joined workers on a picket line.

It came during a brief in-person show of solidarity by Biden, who spent about 10 minutes with striking UAW workers at General Motors' Willow Run Redistribution Center in Van Buren Township, where the automaker stores and distributes parts. But it still marked a bit of history as the president — who has always been quick to voice his support for unions — walked the line and stood beside UAW President Shawn Fain.

Reminding workers that they helped save the auto industry with their sacrifices more than a decade ago, Biden said workers should ask for more now. "They (the automakers) are doing incredibly well and, guess what, you should be doing incredibly well, too," he said.

"Wall Street didn't build the country. The middle class built the country. And unions built the middle class; that's a fact," said Biden in a comment he has made many times before. Autoworkers took reductions in 2009 when the federal government intervened to help save General Motors and Chrysler, now part of Stellantis. Biden was President Barack Obama's vice president at the time.

Fain, who up until last week has urged the president to keep his distance from negotiations, also spoke to striking workers, thanking the president for showing his overt support. "Thank you, Mr. President, for coming ... to stand up with us in our generation's defining moment," he said. "Thank you for being part of this fight."

Biden rested his left arm around a woman on the picket line as he listened to Fain rally workers.

Fain characterized Biden's visit as historic and invoked the union's own past in describing the location of the president's visit. It's where the B-24 Liberator Bombers were built to help the U.S. win World War II, Fain said. "So today, 80 years later, we find ourselves here again with the arsenal of democracy," he said. "It's a different kind of arsenal of democracy and it's a different kind of war we're fighting. Today, the enemy isn't some foreign country miles away. It's right here in our own area. It’s corporate greed."

Biden closed out the event with a final word of encouragement for those on strike. "You deserve what you've earned and you've earned a hell of a lot more than you’re getting paid now," he said before making his way around the picket line to fist bump workers as John Mellencamp's song "Small Town" blared.

Asked whether striking workers should receive a 40% increase in pay, Biden said, "Yes, I think they should be able to bargain for that," according to an official White House transcript of the exchange.

GM, in a statement following Biden's visit, said it had presented five record contracts and "nobody wins" when it comes to the impact of a strike. "Our focus is not on politics but continues to be on bargaining in good faith with the UAW leadership to reach an agreement as quickly as possible that rewards our workforce and allows GM to succeed and thrive into the future," the company said in a statement.

Biden's visit came a day before Trump set to speak in Michigan

Willow Run is one of the parts distribution centers workers struck last Friday as Fain and the UAW expanded their job action against the Detroit Three automakers. Following the short event, Biden was driven back to Detroit Metro Airport, where he was expected to fly to events in California and Arizona.

Biden addressed workers as the UAW strike approaches its third week. And his trip to Michigan — an anchor in the industrial Midwest and a key electoral battleground state — came a day before former President Donald Trump is expected to appear in the state. Trump, who is running for reelection, is expected to speak at a nonunion plant in Macomb County on Wednesday night at the same time as a Republican presidential debate in California.

Fain last week encouraged Biden to show solidarity with striking workers in an address to union members, saying those who support their demands "from friends and families all the way up to the president of the United States" can join the picket line.

Within several hours of Fain's invitation, Biden announced he would travel to Michigan to do just that.

Siding with organized labor, Biden bucked a tradition of sitting presidents staying out of contract fights between companies and unions. It was a decision that comes with some risk, especially if voters become unsympathetic to the union's demands or the strike or its economic effects widen.

Still, the president clearly saw a path forward for both sides to emerge from negotiations with terms worth celebrating. "It's time for a win-win agreement that keeps American auto manufacturing thriving with well-paid UAW jobs," Biden wrote on the social media platform X, formerly called Twitter, last week.

Biden has said he's the most pro-union president in U.S. history and his appearance Tuesday gave the president an opportunity to demonstrate in action — not just words — those pro-union credentials.

"Presidents have attended labor rallies and for generations candidates began their campaigns in Cadillac Square in Detroit but that's very different than standing in front of plant on a picket line," said Harley Shaiken, a labor expert and professor emeritus at the University of California-Berkeley. "This just wasn't done. ... There is something symbolic and substantive about Joe Biden's appearance."

Marlese Davenport, 59, of Canton, said her word for the day, with President Biden visiting as her group was picketing, was “amazing.”

“He spoke to us, and it was awesome,” she said, noting that Biden is the second president after Obama that she’s seen in person. “To have him here supporting us ... he was on the front line.”

Davenport said Biden talked about the things that the workers had lost over the years and that it was time to get that back.

“Biden came to my house ... my front porch,” she said of the facility where she works as a union benefits representative. “That’s how you let people know you have their back ... we know we’re not being overlooked.”

Being on the picket line means dealing with the elements, like the 18 mosquito bites she recently counted, but people come together, she said, noting that union members had cut the grass in the area because it had gotten so tall.

Kristy Zometsky, 44, of Detroit, said the president’s visit was a historic moment. She got to shake Biden's hand during his visit. It was a great honor, Zometsky said, of Biden's decision to come to this GM facility near Willow Run airport. She noted that parts facilities don't get the same amount of attention as places like assembly plants.

"It shows that he's supporting the union and us getting the contracts we deserve," she said. "For him to come out here shows he appreciates the work we do," said Zometsky, who works as a reach driver.

Auto strike, presidential politics collide heading into 2024

Autoworkers launched their strike against the Detroit Three earlier this month when they walked off the job at assembly plants in Michigan, Ohio and Missouri, demanding better pay and benefits, shorter work hours and more job security as the auto industry makes a transition toward making more electric vehicles.

Last week, the UAW expanded its strike, from what had been three plants to targeting 38 parts distribution centers at General Motors and Stellantis. Ford Motor Co., however, was not targeted in the strike expansion as Fain cited progress with the automaker.

Ford issued a statement after Biden's visit, reaffirming its focus on reaching a deal.

"Ford and the UAW are going to be the ones to solve this by finding creative solutions to tough issues together at the bargaining table. We have a shared interest in the long-term viability of the domestic auto industry, the industrial Midwest and good-paying manufacturing jobs in the U.S.," the company said.

Biden, meanwhile, hopes to repeat his electoral success in Michigan next year to keep him in the White House. He defeated Trump in 2020 in the state by nearly 3 percentage points, after Trump had won it in 2016 over Hillary Clinton. So it's no surprise that both candidates are making overtures to autoworkers, an important voting bloc and one that can signal support to other unions.

In Trump's last visit to Michigan, the former president bashed efforts, including Biden's, to support the auto industry's transition to electric vehicles, or EVs.

"This maniacal push to all-electric cars is killing the United States, killing Michigan," Trump said in a speech at an Oakland Country Republican Party dinner in June. On Tuesday, before Biden's landing in Michigan, the former president, who is running for reelection, put out another statement saying, "The only thing Biden could say today that would help the striking autoworkers is to announce the immediate termination of his ridiculous (electric vehicles) mandate. Anything else is just a feeble and insulting attempt to distract American labor from this vicious Biden betrayal."

Biden has staked out a difficult position with the union, given his administration and the Democratic Party have made the transition to EVs a priority and that those vehicles typically require fewer workers. But Biden — unlike Trump — has said he thinks union workers should make those vehicles, even if his administration can't mandate that. And Trump has been silent on autoworkers' demands for better pay and benefits; in his first run for president, he also suggested that auto jobs should be moved to states where workers would be paid less to put downward pressure on wages elsewhere.

That said, Trump did take some actions while in office, such as threatening tariffs on imported autos and renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, that were intended to be beneficial to U.S. autoworkers.

While Fain invited Biden to come to Michigan, he didn't roll out the welcome mat for Trump. "Every fiber of our union is being poured into fighting the billionaire class and an economy that enriches people like Donald Trump at the expense of workers," Fain said in a statement last week.

The UAW has not yet endorsed a candidate for the 2024 presidential race, saying that Biden needed to earn the union's backing. Fain's remarks on Tuesday, however, certainly suggested he was grateful to the president for taking such a historic step.

Speaking to reporters after the president left the GM parts facility, Fain said the union and the automakers are still talking but that progress has been difficult, including with Ford.

"We’re moving with all three companies still. It’s slower, but it’s bargaining," he said. "Some days you feel like you make two steps forward, the next day you take a step back. Things are moving, but we just have to see. We analyze every day. We’ll just see how things proceed and we’ll keep going."

"We’ll get there one way or another. We may have to amp up the pressure. I mean that’s up to them," he said.

Asked about when a decision on possibly further expanding the strike could come, Fain indicated that it could come at any time.

“We just have to reflect where we are every day. We basically take an assessment as we have talks and see where we are. We could take action tonight. We could wait until the end of the week. That’s the beauty of the situation we’re in right now. We have a lot of options, and we’ll use those options when we feel like we need to,” he said.

On the subject of Trump’s visit, Fain said “I find it odd he’s going to go to a nonunion business to talk to union workers. I don’t think he gets it.”

Contact Clara Hendrickson: chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743. Follow her on X, previously called Twitter, @clarajanehen.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: President Biden visits picket line at GM's Willow Run amid UAW strike