24/01/24, 23:51 United Auto Workers union endorses Joe Biden for president | Joe Biden | The Guardian

Joe Biden
United Auto Workers union endorses Joe Biden for
president
UAW formally backs president’s re-election campaign after both
Biden and Donald Trump courted the powerful group

Michael Sainato
@msainat1
Wed 24 Jan 2024 20.28 CET

The powerful United Auto Workers (UAW) formally endorsed Joe Biden’s re-election
campaign on Wednesday at the union’s national community action program
conference in Washington DC.

Both the US president and rival Donald Trump have courted the union and
supported its successful strike action against the US’s big three automakers last year.
Biden became the first president to walk a picket line in support of the union.

“Joe Biden bet on the American worker while Donald Trump blamed the American
worker,” UAW president, Shawn Fain told the conference. “If our endorsement must
be earned, Joe Biden has earned it.

“Donald Trump is a scab. Donald Trump is a billionaire and that’s who he

represents,” Fain said. “This election is about who will stand up with us and who
will stand in our way.”

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24/01/24, 23:51 United Auto Workers union endorses Joe Biden for president | Joe Biden | The Guardian

The conference is where the UAW’s delegates and leaders develop and shape the
40,000-strong union’s political and legislative priorities. It is the union’s first
conference with Fain at the helm since he was elected president of the union on a
reform slate in March 2023.

Addressing the conference, Biden said: “I honest to God have always believed the
union movement in America is important because it produces the best skilled
workers in the world. It’s good for everybody.”

“Our plan is delivering for the American people, building an economy from the
middle out and the bottom up, not the top down,” he continued. “When Donald
Trump was in office, six auto factories closed around the country. Tens of thousands
of auto jobs were lost nationwide during Trump’s presidency. During my presidency,
we opened 20 auto factories and more than 250,000 auto jobs all across the
country.”

Fain has been strongly critical of Trump. This week he said Trump was “pretty much
contrary to everything we stand for”. But the UAW has many Trump-supporting
members and the union had held off on endorsing Biden.

Biden has repeatedly touted himself as the most pro-labor president in history and
joined the picket line of striking UAW members during the “standup” strikes at the
big three automakers in September, becoming the first sitting president to join a
picket line.

Last week Sean O’Brien, the president of the Teamsters union, announced he had
met privately with Trump in a move that progressive members called “a slap in the
face”.

Biden has also received the endorsements from the AFL-CIO, the largest federation
of unions in the US, and the National Education Association, which represents about
3 million educators, the largest union in the US.

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24/01/24, 23:51 United Auto Workers union endorses Joe Biden for president | Joe Biden | The Guardian

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