WASHINGTON– President Joe Biden will be the keynote speaker Wednesday at a United Auto Workers political convention as he works to win over blue-collar workers in critical auto manufacturing states such as Michigan and Wisconsin.
Biden will speak as the union closes a three-day meeting in Washington to outline its policy priorities, but leaders were silent beforehand about whether they would seize the moment to endorse the Democrat’s bid for a second term, or wait longer to try to get it done. . increase the influence of the UAW.
It will be Biden’s first political event since Tuesday’s primary election in New Hampshire, where former President Donald Trump cemented his hold on core Republican voters with a victory and Biden earned a write-in victory.
Biden frequently portrays himself as the most pro-labor leader in American history, even appearing on a picket line with union workers at a GM parts warehouse in the Detroit area during a strike this fall. past.
But as recently as Monday, UAW President Shawn Fain was restrained in his comments, saying as the conference opened: “We have to get our political leaders to support us. Support our cause, or they won’t get our support.”
At this week’s conference, support for Biden among union members has ranged from enthusiasm to uncertainty about whether to even vote on Election Day.
Caroline Loveless, a resident of Waterloo, Iowa, and retired UAW member, said she would enthusiastically vote for Biden, recalling her appearance on a picket line during last fall’s strike. She said her appearance should remind union members that Biden is on her side.
“I hope they don’t get amnesia,” Loveless said, “when Election Day comes.”
William Louis of Groton, Connecticut, another member, said that while he is “fed up with politicians,” he will reluctantly vote for Biden, although he said the president had not fully won the members’ vote given the current state of the economy. .
Louis said Biden would get his vote because Trump, the likely Republican nominee, “was a terrible president.”
Kansas City member Leo Carrillo said Biden’s appearance at the picket line showed “he was there for us” and helped him decide to vote for Biden in November.
“It meant a lot to me” that a sitting president showed that level of solidarity with auto workers, Carrillo said. “But there is more work to do,” he said, pointing to the PRO Act, proposed legislation that would make it easier to unionize at the federal level. The legislation advanced to the US Senate, but does not have enough support to survive in the event of a filibuster.
However, Biden could encounter disagreements over his support for Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza. For that reason, some younger members of the union were less enthusiastic about the president.
Johannah King-Slutzky, a graduate student at Columbia University and a member of the student workers union within the UAW, was one of several attendees who chanted “cease fire now” during Fain’s speech Monday afternoon. The union called for a ceasefire in Gaza in December.
“At this point he has done nothing to earn my vote,” King-Slutzky said, because “he has not acted with urgency to stop the genocide in Gaza.”
The union has a lengthy process for determining its endorsements that involves the rank and file, but it is unclear how far along it is.
Fain, the first UAW president directly elected by members, took office after a massive bribery and embezzlement scandal that ended with two union presidents serving prison terms. That’s why it’s making sure to follow union procedures on the endorsement and show that members made the decision, even though there’s no way the UAW would endorse Trump, said Brian Rothenberg, a former union spokesman.
The UAW, with about 380,000 members, is typically one of the last unions to endorse presidential candidates, Rothenberg said. For example, the union did not endorse Biden in 2020 until April 21.
In a November interview with The Associated Press, Fain made clear that he personally supports Biden, while criticizing Trump.
Fain highlighted Biden’s trip to the GM parts warehouse, believed to be the first time a sitting president has appeared with union picketers.
Around the same time, Trump held a rally at a non-union auto parts manufacturer near Detroit, which Fain found strange. The Biden administration also supported the union’s attempt to persuade Stellantis to reopen a shuttered plant in Belvidere, Illinois, and joined Fain in the city 70 miles (113 kilometers) northwest of Chicago to celebrate its reopening, he said. Fain.
Trump, Fain said, did not come to Detroit when the UAW was on strike while he was president in 2019, and he talked about moving auto jobs to southern states where wages are lower.
“Actions speak louder than words,” Fain said. “But this process belongs to the members and we will make those decisions when the time comes.”
Art Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University, said he would be surprised to see the union endorse Biden at this point in the campaign. The UAW, he said, would have more influence over legislation and other elements if it waits until closer to the election to announce who it supports.
“There’s not much of a rush in terms of the UAW and its schedule,” he said.
Rothenberg said the union’s endorsement is important because polls show many UAW members are often undecided in the spring before the presidential election.
Internal UAW polling generally shows that in the spring and early summer, 30% of members support the Republican Party, 30% support Democrats and the remaining 40% swing between parties, he said. By Election Day, UAW members and retirees typically vote 60% Democratic, said Rothenberg, now a public relations consultant in Columbus, Ohio.
The endorsement could also sway non-union blue-collar white men, who have been voting more Republican than in the past, Rothenberg said.
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Krisher reported from Detroit.