US President Joe Biden joined the United Auto Workers (UAW) picket line this Tuesday, as the strike reaches its twelfth day, in a show of support for unions that is virtually unprecedented in presidential history.
“You deserve the significant raise you need,” Biden said through a megaphone while wearing a union cap, after arriving at a General Motors parts distribution warehouse located in a western suburb of Detroit, Michigan.
The Head of State walked alongside the picket line, exchanging greetings with the smiling workers.
Biden encouraged them to continue fighting for better wages despite concerns that a prolonged strike could harm the economy, saying, “Stay strong.”
The Democratic leader answered “yes” when asked if UAW members deserved a 40% raise, one of the union’s demands.
“No agreement, no wheels!” workers shouted when Biden arrived. “No payment, no spare parts!” they added.
Biden was accompanied to the picket line by UAW President Shawn Fain.
“Thank you, Mr. President, for coming to support us in this defining moment of our generation,” Fain said, noting that the union is engaged in a “kind of war” against “corporate greed.”
“We do the heavy lifting. We do the real work,” Fein said. “Not CEOs,” she stressed.
Labor historians say there is no memory of a sitting president joining an ongoing strike, even during the terms of the most pro-union heads of state, such as Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman.
Roosevelt invited union leaders to the White House along with mine operators in the midst of the historic coal strike of 1902, a decision that was seen at the time as rare support for unions in the midst of a labor dispute.
Biden arrived in metro Detroit a day before former President Donald Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, held his own event there in support of auto workers, although union leaders refuse to allow the Republican candidate be an ally.
Lawmakers frequently engage in walkouts to show solidarity with unions, and while seeking the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, Biden joined picket lines with casino workers in Las Vegas and auto workers in Kansas City.
But sitting presidents, who have to balance workers’ rights with economic disruptions to supply chains and other facets of daily life, have long tried to stay out of the strike fight, so Biden has become an exception.
“This is unprecedented. No president has spoken out before,” said Erik Loomis, a professor at the University of Rhode Island and an expert on American labor history.
Historically, presidents “avoided direct participation in strikes. They saw themselves more as mediators. They did not see their role as intervening directly in a strike or labor action,” he explained.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One heading to Michigan that “Biden is fighting to ensure the cars of the future are built in America by unionized American workers.” in China.”
Source: TSF
