By Maria Ortiz
09 Nov 2023, 11:14 PM EST
President Joe Biden highlighted his support for unions on Thursday during a trip to Illinois and celebrated the reopening of a Stellantis plant after tentative agreements were recently reached between the United Auto Workers (UAW) and three major automakers following a workers’ strike.
Biden addressed Donald Trump to auto workers and cited his historic support for unions, including his participation in a UAW picket in September, contrasting his record with Trump’s.
The president offered a scathing criticism of Trump, who, a day after Biden’s visit to the picket line, held a rally at a non-union store in Michigan, a decision that drew the ire of UAW President Shawn Fain.
“Here’s the difference: When you were in the middle of a fight, I and others were with you, shoulder to shoulder on that picket line,” Biden said Thursday. “My predecessor went to a non-union store and attacked you. I hope you have memory. Where I process from, that matters.”
Biden also met with United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain as well as union members during his visit to the city of Belvidere, northwest of Chicago.
“I want to thank you for your commitment to solidarity, for exercising your right to bargain collectively,” Biden said in remarks delivered to an audience of union members. “You made this happen.”
The president told the crowd of workers that with their efforts they are changing “the face of the country economically.”
“I want to thank you for your commitment to solidarity, for exercising your right to bargain collectively,” Biden said in remarks delivered to an audience of union members. “You made this happen.”
The president told the crowd that with their efforts they are changing “the face of the country economically.”
Biden has long been a supporter of the union movement, and describes himself as the most “pro-union” president of all time, highlighting an issue that looms large in his 2024 re-election effort.
Biden’s comments in Illinois came just a day after a tentative agreement was also reached between the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, potentially ending an actors’ strike that along with a writers’ strike, paralyzed Hollywood.
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