UAW President Shawn Fain and President Biden take shots at the Republican front-runner.
The United Auto Workers (UAW) union officially endorsed President Joe Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign months after he visited a Michigan picket line in September in support of striking workers.
UAW President Shawn Fain had resisted endorsing President Biden and other politicians, arguing they would need to earn the labor union’s endorsement. But Mr. Fain told the union conference crowd in Washington on Wednesday that President Biden “stood with us in our fights.”
“This choice is clear,” Mr. Fain said in his announcement. “We need to know who’s gonna sit in the most powerful seat in the world and help us win as the united working class.”
“Today, I’m proud to stand up here with your International Executive Board and announce that the UAW is endorsing Joe Biden for President of the United States,“ he added. ”We will reelect Joe Biden.”
President Biden told the union event that he had kept his commitment to being “the most pro-union president ever.”
“I’ve always believed Wall Street didn’t build America. Americans built the middle class,” he said. “Let me just say I’m honored to have your back, and you have mine. That’s the deal.”
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“You are the heroes in the story,” President Biden said.
The union leader and the president both took shots at former President Donald Trump.
The UAW chief accused the Republican front-runner of standing “against everything we stand for as a union, as a society.”
“Joe Biden bet on the American worker, while Donald Trump blamed the American worker,” Mr. Fain stated.
President Biden asserted that “many people around America lost their sense of pride” during the Trump administration.
“Corporate America found the cheapest labor in the world, and they sent the jobs to those laborers and sent the product back to us,” President Biden said. “But not anymore.”
The endorsement comes months after the Big Three automakers —Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis—agreed to new contracts with approximately 150,000 auto workers that included significant pay raises, cost-of-living adjustments, the right to strike over future plant closures, and bolstered terms for temporary employees.
In November, 64 percent of UAW members voted in favor of the tentative agreements.
Biden and Trump Court Auto Workers
This past fall, President Biden traveled to General Motors’ Willow Run Distribution Center in Wayne County, Michigan, telling the dozens of picketing auto workers they deserved a “significant raise.”
“You deserve what you’ve earned, and you’ve earned a hell of a lot more than you get paid now,” President Biden said alongside Mr. Fain.
“Your leadership should endorse me, and I will not say a bad thing about them again,” he said.
“Just get your union guys, your leaders, to endorse me, and I will take care of the rest,” former President Trump added. “Under a Trump presidency, gasoline engines will be allowed, and sex changes for children will be banned. Is that OK?”
“If that disastrous Biden policy is allowed to stand, the U.S. auto industry will cease to exist, and all your jobs will be sent to China,” President Trump said. “That’s why there’s no such thing as a ‘fair transition’ to all-electric cars. For the American auto worker, that’s a transition to Hell. Nothing is more important than terminating this job-crushing mandate.”
The UAW repeatedly confirmed that it would not support his 2024 presidential campaign.
While labor analysts note that the latest arrangements with the Big Three include protections for workers who manufacture gas-powered cars and electric vehicles, the future is a bit more uncertain.
Michigan: Biden Versus Trump
It remains to be seen if the UAW’s endorsement of President Biden will translate to an improvement in the Michigan polls.
In 2020, then-candidate Biden carried Michigan, defeating his opponent by nearly 3 percent.
Original News Source Link – Epoch Times
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