President Joe Biden celebrates with United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain after Fain and the UAW endorsed Biden for president at a Community Action Program legislative conference in Washington, January 24, 2024.
Leah Millis | Reuters
The United Auto Workers union is endorsing President Joe Biden for re-election this year, UAW President Shawn Fain announced Wednesday at a union conference in Washington, DC.
“Today, I am proud to stand here with your International Executive Board and announce that the UAW endorses Joe Biden for President of the United States,” Fain said. “We will re-elect Joe Biden.”
The union's endorsement of a Democratic presidential candidate should come as no surprise; However, it comes after months of apparent resistance from Fain, who said politicians, including Biden, would have to get the UAW's endorsement.
“Look, I kept my commitment to being the most pro-union president of all time,” Biden said following the announcement of his endorsement. “Let me tell you, it's an honor to have you and you to mine. That's the deal.”
It also comes on the heels of the New Hampshire primary, in which former President Donald Trump defeated former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.
“This November, we can stand up and elect someone who will stand with us and support our cause, or we can elect someone who will divide us and fight us every step of the way,” Fain said before the endorsement. “That's what this election is about.”
The endorsement is crucial for any candidate seeking to secure the battleground state of Michigan because of the UAW's potential influence there. The Detroit-based union has more than 400,000 active members and more than 580,000 retired members, many of whom reside in the state.
In endorsing Biden, Fain sharply criticized his likely Republican opponent, at one point presenting a slide of “what Trump said and actions he took to help American auto workers” during his first term. The slide was blank.
“He did nothing, absolutely nothing, because he doesn't care about American workers,” Fain said. “Donald Trump opposes everything we stand for as a union, as a society.”
Biden took his own jabs at Trump, whom he hopes to face in a general election rematch in November.
“During the Trump administration, many previous administrations, what did they do? So many, so many people across America lost their sense of pride,” he said. “American companies found the cheapest labor in the world and sent the jobs to those workers and sent the product back to us. But not anymore.”
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
From the first lines
Fain said in May that the union would withhold support for Biden's reelection bid until the UAW's concerns about the auto industry's transition to all-electric vehicles were addressed.
That message was heard loud and clear. In September, Biden became the first sitting US president to join an active UAW picket line, demonstrating alongside workers in front of a General Motors installation of spare parts. The visit came a week after Fain invited his supporters—”from our friends and family to the president of the United States”—to join union picket lines against GM. Ford engine and parent company of Chrysler stellantis.
Fain, on the picket line with Biden at GM's Willow Run Redistribution Center, called the moment “historic.”
The official endorsement of the re-election comes months after the union led strikes against Detroit automakers after the sides failed to reach new contracts covering about 150,000 auto workers.
The strikes, which lasted approximately six weeks, ended after each of the companies reached provisional agreements with the union in late October.
Fain has touted the agreements as helping the union's “just transition” to electric vehicles, noting that workers at many battery cell plants would be included in national UAW negotiations.
Former US President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally focused on auto workers at auto supplier Drake Enterprises, September 27, 2023 in Clinton Township, Michigan.
Michael Wayland/CNBC
Previous UAW leaders endorsed Biden for the election against President Donald Trump in 2020. However, Trump notably won the support of many auto workers during his presidential campaigns.
Michigan voters helped both Biden and Trump win the White House during the last two presidential elections.
Trump, the favorite among Republicans in the 2024 presidential race, organized a rally at a Michigan plant of a non-union supplier the week of Biden's visit.
Trump's visit and rally, which focused heavily on the auto industry, were criticized by the union and by Fain, who has repeatedly said he believes another Trump presidency would be a “disaster.”
During the event, Trump repeatedly asked UAW members to encourage union leaders to support him.
