President Joe Biden is expected to visit a United Auto Workers picket line on Tuesday In Michigan, with former President Donald Trump on his heels.
Following a public invite from UAW President Shawn Fain on Friday, Biden will become the first sitting president to visit a picket line. The UAW began simultaneous strikes at one assembly plant belonging to each of the Detroit Three carmakers — General Motors Company (NYSE:GM), General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) and Stellantis NV (NYSE:STLA, EPA:STLA) — on September 15.
“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 Friday during a Facebook Live stream.
A day later, Trump plans to hold a rally Wednesday night at an auto supplier in the state — instead of attending the second GOP presidential primary debate.
The back-to-back visits underscore the value each candidate places on Michigan, a state that flipped from Trump’s column in 2016 to Biden in 2020.
The UAW, which endorsed Biden in 2020, has withheld its endorsement thus far in 2024 over concerns the union has over the industry’s transition to electric vehicles.
Fain hosted a rally after the strike began with Bernie Sanders, who ran against Biden in the 2020 Democratic primary.
He’s also made his feelings clear on 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 last week in a statement. “We can’t keep electing billionaires and millionaires that don’t have any understanding what it is like to live paycheck to paycheck and struggle to get by and expecting them to solve the problems of the working class.”
The union is not officially linked to Trump’s Wednesday rally, which will be held at a non-union auto parts supplier, Drake Enterprises. That isn’t to say there aren’t union members who support Trump, many of whom have echoed Fain’s concern on EVs.
Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com
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