U.S. President Joe Biden speaks to United Auto Employees members on the UAW’s Group Motion Program (CAP) legislative convention in Washington, U.S., January 24, 2024.
Leah Millis | Reuters
The United Auto Employees union is endorsing President Joe Biden for reelection this 12 months, UAW President Shawn Fain introduced Wednesday at a union convention in Washington, D.C.
“At this time, I am proud to face up right here together with your Worldwide Govt Board and announce that the UAW is endorsing Joe Biden for President of america,” Fain mentioned. “We’ll reelect Joe Biden.”
The union’s endorsement of a Democratic presidential candidate should not be stunning; nevertheless, it comes after months of obvious resistance by Fain, who mentioned politicians, including Biden, must earn UAW endorsements.
“Look, I saved my dedication to be essentially the most pro-union president ever,” Biden mentioned following the endorsement announcement. “Let me simply say I am honored to have your again and you’ve got mine. That is the deal.”
It additionally comes on the heels of the New Hampshire primary, wherein Trump defeated former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
“This November, we will arise and elect somebody who stands with us and helps our trigger, or we will elect somebody who will divide us and battle us each step of the best way,” Fain mentioned earlier than the endorsement. “That is what this selection is about.”
The endorsement is essential for any candidate trying to safe the battleground state of Michigan, due to the UAW’s potential affect there. The Detroit-based union has greater than 400,000 lively members and greater than 580,000 retired members, a lot of which reside within the state.
In endorsing Biden, Fain had some sturdy criticism for his seemingly Republican opponent, at one level establishing a slide of “what Trump mentioned and what actions he took to assist the American auto staff” throughout his first time period. The slide was clean.
“He did nothing, not a rattling factor as a result of he does not care concerning the American employee,” Fain mentioned. “Donald Trump stands towards every part we stand for as a union as a society.”
Biden threw his personal punches at Trump, who he expects to face in a basic election rematch in November.
“In the course of the Trump administration, lots of administrations earlier than that, what’d they’d do? So many, so many individuals round America, misplaced their sense of delight,” he mentioned. “Company America discovered the most affordable labor on the earth and so they despatched the roles to these laborers and despatched the product again to us. However not anymore.”
The Trump marketing campaign didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
From the entrance traces
Fain in Could mentioned the union would withhold a reelection endorsement for Biden till the UAW’s considerations concerning the auto business’s transition to all-electric automobiles had been addressed.
That message was heard loud and clear. In September Biden turned the primary sitting U.S. president to affix an lively UAW picket line, rallying alongside staff exterior a General Motors components facility. The go to got here per week after Fain invited supporters — “from our pals and households all the best way as much as the president of america” — to affix union picket traces towards GM, Ford Motor and Chrysler dad or mum Stellantis.
Fain, on the picket line with Biden at GM’s Willow Run Redistribution Middle, referred to as the second “historic.”
The official reelection endorsement comes months after roughly six weeks of focused strikes by the union towards the Detroit automakers after the edges failed to succeed in new contracts masking roughly 150,000 autoworkers.
The strikes ended after every of the businesses reached tentative agreements with the union in late October.
Fain has touted the agreements as aiding within the union’s “simply transition” to electrical automobiles, noting that staff at many battery cell vegetation could be included underneath the UAW’s nationwide negotiations.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks throughout an autoworker-focused marketing campaign rally at auto provider Drake Enterprises, on Sept. 27, 2023 in Clinton Township, Michigan.
Michael Wayland / CNBC
Prior UAW leaders endorsed Biden for election towards President Donald Trump in 2020. Nevertheless, Trump notably gained the help of many blue-collar autoworkers throughout his presidential campaigns.
Michigan voters helped each Biden and Trump to win the White Home through the previous two presidential elections.
Trump, the front-runner amongst Republicans within the 2024 presidential race, hosted a rally at a Michigan plant of a non-union supplier the week of Biden’s picket-line go to.
Trump’s go to and rally, which largely targeted on the auto business, was criticized by the union and Fain, who has repeatedly mentioned he believes one other Trump presidency could be a “catastrophe.”
In the course of the occasion, Trump a number of instances requested UAW members to encourage union leaders to endorse him.
