On Tuesday afternoon, President Joe Biden arrived on the streets of suburban Detroit to support the United Auto Workers strike that has lasted 12 days. Biden encouraged auto workers to “stick with it” as they marched for their demands.
With a bullhorn in hand, Biden told the strikers to continue pushing their demands for a 40% wage increase, especially with the rise in profits that car companies have seen in recent years.
He argued that auto companies have yet to meet union demands, especially after UAW supported the automobile industry through the 2008 financial crisis by making huge wage cuts.
“The fact of the matter is that you guys, the UAW, you saved the automobile industry back in 2008… you made a lot of sacrifices,” Biden said. “You gave up a lot. And the companies were in trouble. Now they’re doing incredibly well, and guess what? You should be doing incredibly well.”
Biden was the first sitting president to visit to a picket line. He is eager to secure union support for his reelection and his administration has enacted many pro-union policies.
This isn’t Biden’s first appearance in the picket line. Before his 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, Biden appeared in Las Vegas with casino workers and yet again in Kansas City.
Former President Donald Trump called the president’s visit “nothing more than a PR stunt from crooked Joe Biden to distract and gaslight the American people from his disastrous Bidenomics policies that have led to so much economic misery across the country.”
Biden’s appearance lasted roughly half an hour at the Willow Run parts distribution warehouse where he was joined by UAW’s President, Shawn Fain.
“Thank you, Mr. President, for coming to stand up with us in our generation-defining moment,” Fain said. “We do the heavy lifting. We do the real work. Not the CEOs.”
