The United Automobile Workers union endorsed President Biden on Wednesday, giving him an influential boost as he faces a battle against former President Donald J. Trump to win the support of labor groups.
Biden, who calls himself “the most pro-union president in history,” delighted striking UAW workers but angered auto industry executives when he appeared on a picket line with workers last fall. On Wednesday he appeared in front of a national conference of auto workers to tell them he was proud to do it.
“Let me tell you something I learned a long time ago,” Biden said. “If I’m going to be in a fight, I want to be in the fight with you, the UAW.”
In earlier remarks, Shawn Fain, president of the UAW, told the crowd that Biden had a record of helping the working class organize for higher wages, better retirement benefits and health care.
“This election is about who will support us and who will stand in our way,” Fain said after a long speech comparing Biden’s past pro-union speeches to Trump’s lack of support and his appearances at non-union facilities. He called Trump a “scab,” short for someone who undermines the power of a union, such as replacing a striking worker.
“If our support needs to be earned, Joe Biden has earned it,” Fain said.
The value of the endorsement, which the UAW postponed last year over concerns about Biden’s commitment to promoting union jobs in electric vehicle manufacturing, may have less to do with persuading members to back Biden than with motivating them to vote. the union has My dear that only about 30 percent of its members supported Trump in 2016. But without the union’s formal endorsement and turnout investments, Biden could see a decline in members showing up to vote in critical swing states like Michigan .
“Elections are not just about electing your best friend for office or the candidate who makes you feel good,” Fain said. “Elections are about power.”
With Trump all but clinching the nomination after his performance in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, Biden campaign officials said the race between the two candidates was almost on.
While on stage, Biden focused on highlighting the economy’s positive points, including a strong labor market, lower gas prices and increased consumer optimism. He also compared his record with that of his predecessor, saying Mr. Trump He is “the only president besides Herbert Hoover to lose his job while president.”
Fain, a vocal critic of Trump, did not mince his words. He recalled the 2008 financial crisis, highlighting Trump’s anti-union rhetoric then and as a presidential candidate in 2015. He then recalled Biden’s comments, as vice president, that “the nation bet on American auto workers and won.”
At this, attendees shouted obscenities about Trump. “I love the energy,” Mr. Fain responded.
After the event, Fain told reporters that the UAW board of directors had unanimously approved the endorsement. He said Biden’s economic message was reaching rank-and-file members, but added that the union would “have to do better” to combat what he said was misinformation about Biden’s accomplishments.
Still, Fain had made the president work to gain support.
Biden appeared at several UAW events to demonstrate his good faith with the group’s leadership and rank and file. In September, Biden grabbed a megaphone and joined striking auto workers in Michigan, becoming the first sitting president to join a picket line in an extraordinary show of support for workers demanding better wages. When he won the contract, Biden wore a red T-shirt and appeared before celebrating workers in Illinois.
Union officials often say that Biden has been more vocal than any president in decades in his support for unions. He appeared in a video As Amazon workers in Alabama sought to unionize, they warned that “there should be no intimidation, coercion, threats or anti-union propaganda.” He also criticized Kellogg for its plans to permanently replace striking workers. (The strike was resolved before the company took that step.)
The UAW was early to support Biden’s green energy policies, but was frustrated by the lack of support for unionized auto industry jobs in the Inflation Reduction Act, the major climate bill the president signed. in 2022.
Mr. Fain had also expressed frustration that the Biden administration had given Ford a $9 billion government loan to build three electric vehicle battery plants in Tennessee and Kentucky without any commitment from the company to create high-paying union jobs there.
It takes fewer workers to assemble an electric vehicle than to build one with an internal combustion engine. To make up for those lost assembly jobs, the UAW wants to organize plants that make batteries and other electric vehicle parts that are being built to take advantage of tax incentives included in Biden’s climate legislation. They are also pushing to expand union organizing to electric vehicle makers who have long resisted.
Biden’s decision to appear on the Michigan picket line drew the ire of auto industry executives, according to his administration officials, who said the president was nevertheless determined to make clear where he stood on the conflict. labor.
Seeing an opening with the UAW’s rank and file, if not its leadership, Trump made a play for support, campaigning against Biden’s “ridiculous Green New Deal crusade.” A day after Biden joined the UAW picket line, Trump rallied at a non-union auto parts factory in Michigan, vying for the support of blue-collar workers.
Fain had long made clear that his leadership would never endorse the former president, but backing Biden was still politically complicated. In addition to the substantial portion of its members who are likely to favor Trump, the UAW also includes a liberal bloc that is skeptical of Biden. Many of the liberal members are graduate students and university researchers who have criticized the president for his support of Israel during its war in Gaza. The union itself has called for a ceasefire.
During the event, several protesters waving Palestinian flags were dragged away by security officials as the president continued speaking, the second time in as many days that a Biden campaign event was interrupted by people protesting Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Loop. The workers chanted “UAW” to drown out their screams.
