Biden Faces Opportunity – And Risk – In Historic Auto Workers Strike 

Joe Biden has backed unions throughout his decades-long political career. But the latest fight between union workers and big business – this time with Biden as president – could prove politically tricky for Biden.

United Auto Workers announced a strike Friday against General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler-producer Stellantis plants in Michigan, Ohio, and Missouri, the first time in history that workers have walked out on all three of the country’s so-called Big Three automakers. Biden, who other unions have touted as the most pro-union president in memory, sided with the workers – saying “auto workers helped create America's middle class," “they deserve a contract that sustains them and the middle class" and called on both sides to reach a "fair agreement."

But Biden’s calculations here are more complicated than solely coming down on the side of the auto union, one of the few unions that has yet to unilaterally endorse his presidential campaign.

People close to the strike negotiations said Monday that the line the president has to walk is a fine one: He has to express enough solidarity with the union to keep them happy, but not too much that he alienates the automakers and makes a deal more difficult. He also has to show he is engaged in addressing the strike, but not get too involved as to tie himself to whatever deal is struck.

There are some complications between Biden and the union, too. Although the UAW is a member of the AFL-CIO, a federation that endorsed Biden in June, the union itself has not backed Biden on its own, and Shawn Fain, the head of the union, said this weekend that the endorsement needed to be “earned” by Biden.

Fain and others involved in the strike have also made clear that they don’t see – nor do they want – Biden to be the dealmaker here. Instead, they want Biden to show his solidarity with the cause, something he has done.

In the words of one source familiar with the ongoing strike negotiations, though: Biden “is stuck between a rock and a hard place.”

“The administration is never going to be purists enough [for the UAW], they are never going to be rabble-rousers enough. So then they could become a pretty good cudgel” if things don’t work out, said the source. “This is why it’s a no-win situation. If workers end up having to settle for a contract and Biden weighed in and wasn’t successful enough in moving the needle, he loses. If weighs in and gets into the weeds on this and it doesn’t move enough, people are going to wonder why he is spending his time on this.”

Then, more broadly, there is the possibility of a less-than-ideal deal angering progressives, who have firmly come down on the side of the UAW. Liberal champion Sen. Bernie Sanders addressed striking workers on Friday, the first day of their walkout, telling them the fight was about more than just their working conditions but a battle to “take on corporate greed and tell the people on top this country belongs to all of us, not just a few.”

Adam Green, the co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, touted Biden’s initial response but hinted at this risk on Monday.

“Biden's opening salvo that record corporate profits need to be shared with workers was a good way to express to the public that he and Democrats are on the side of working people,” said Green. “If the final deal is good for workers, he will likely get credit for setting that tone for negotiations. If not, he will likely be dinged for not doing more.”

The final dynamic is the dominant setting for this fight: Michigan. 

The state has become a perennial battleground in presidential elections. Former President Donald Trump, the frontrunner to challenge Biden in 2024, won the state in 2016, in part because of his ability to win over union households that soured on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Biden – a more pro-union figure than Clinton – won the state four years later by dramatically increasing his support among union households, but both Democrats and Republicans see Michigan as key to victory next year.

“Workers aren't thinking about this from a political lens at all. But there were questions from workers about where elected officials lie on this issue and are people going to fight for them,” said Michigan State Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who visited a picket line on Sunday.

She acknowledged, however, that there are political dynamics to the strike, especially with Trump once again running for President and seeking to win over the same union households that helped him win in 2016. But 2024 will not be 2016 and Biden has significantly more credibility with unions than Clinton ever did.

“Biden comes across, it’s the same reason some people really liked Trump, like he is a little scrappier and a little less polished. …When you see him get scrappy and willing to fight, that is appealing to a lot of people,” said McMorrow, adding Biden “didn’t take Michigan for granted in 2020” and “he has been here a lot since.”

Trump announced on Monday that he was headed to Michigan next week to meet with striking UAW workers. The trip, which will come on the same night other Republicans running for president will debate, represents the former president's latest attempt to coutner program the event.

The UAW slammed Trump's planned visit, given the former president's record on manufacturing jobs is mixed.

“Every fiber of our union is being poured into fighting the billionaire class and an economy that enriches people like Donald Trump at the expense of workers,” Fain said. “We can’t keep electing billionaires and millionaires that don’t have any understanding what it is like to live paycheck to paycheck and struggle to get by and expecting them to solve the problems of the working class.”

Chuck Rocha, a Democratic strategist who served as a senior adviser to Sanders, said the outcome will inevitably be a “big deal” to the party. 

“We have allowed Republicans to use messaging that moves union members in the midwest. These guys have been trending away from us for years,” Rocha said. “Enter Joe Biden who has a long, long labor record.  He’s got an opportunity to start making inroads and bringing some of these guys back. And it gives us an opportunity as a national party to bring back some of our narratives like ‘made in America, ‘trade that rewards American workers,’ ‘CEO gluttony’ and ‘drain the swamp.”

“We have to start pivoting back to the economic populist messaging that caused these folks to be Democrats in the first place,” Rocha added.  

It won’t be an easy fix though, other observers said. 

“Auto workers, like most American workers, are a tough sell because they’ve been devastated by both Republicans and Democrats alike,” said Larry Cohen, the former president of the Communications Workers of America and chair of Our Revolution, the Sanders-founded progressive organization. “Politically, it's going to be, ‘I'll watch your feet, not your mouth.’ Everyone knows how to talk here. That's where we're losing them with bad outcomes.”

Biden allies say the strike presents a stark – and welcome – contrast with Trump on the issue. One Biden aide stressed that Trump is actively seeking to destroy the union, pointing to his remarks last week when the former president urged union workers to drop out of the union and start a new one that’s going to “protect your interests right.” 

Another noted that the success Trump found with union households in 2016 was partially revered by Biden in 2020, one of the reasons he won states like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.

But even a Biden advisor acknowledged that Biden’s message needs to be nuanced: “The president getting involved is not a silver bullet, so cast yourself as being in solidarity but not that he can just come in and fix it.”

An administration official stressed Monday that Gene Sperling and Acting Secretary Julie Su are on the ground in Michigan not to intervene or serve as a mediator but to “help support the negotiations in any way the parties feel is constructive. “The President continues to believe that the new contract should ensure that auto jobs going forward are good middle-class jobs and that the UAW stays central to America’s auto leadership for the years and decades ahead.”