President Biden joins United Auto Workers picket line in Michigan

Shawn Fain addresses picketing UAW members at a General Motors Service Parts Operations plant in Belleville, Michigan, on September 26.

The president of the auto workers union said he would not meet with former President Donald Trump, the GOP front-runner, while he is in Michigan this week.

It comes after United Auto Workers union President Shawn Fain and US President Joe Biden joined union members on the picket line in Michigan on Tuesday. Trump is scheduled to give a?speech to auto workers in Detroit on Wednesday.

“I find the pathetic irony that?the former president is going to?a rally for union members at a?non-union business,” Fain told CNN.

Fain pointed to Trump’s previous actions, saying that the former president blamed UAW members during the 2008 recession. During his 2016 campaign, Fain said Trump discussed moving jobs to the south where people are paid less.

Fain also criticized then-President Trump’s lack of support for union members at GM when they were on strike in 2019.

A back-and-forth between the White House and reporters traveling with President Joe Biden about his stance on one of the United Auto Workers’ chief demands on Tuesday underscores the delicate balance the administration is seeking amid the strike as Biden makes clear he is on the side of the workers.?

After Biden answered “yes” when asked if he thought union auto workers should get a 40% raise, the White House initially said he didn’t hear the question before conceding he did.

Biden’s comment came as he joined workers on a picket line in Michigan. His answer in the affirmative was notable because White House officials had previously avoided weighing in on the specific demands in the negotiations, saying they were for the two sides to resolve.

As Biden was flying from Michigan to California, a White House official told reporters aboard Air Force One that Biden did not hear the specific question that was asked, according to a pool report filed from the plane.

Reporters traveling with the president challenged that, and the official went on to review audio of the exchange.

The official conceded Biden did respond to the question about whether the workers deserved the 40% wage increase.?

“Yes. I think they should be able to bargain for that,” Biden said.?

The White House has been toeing a careful line during the strike, voicing support for the workers and a pay increase but declining to specifically endorse the union demands.?

Even so, Biden’s decision to join the workers on the picket line — a first for a sitting president — reflected a break from presidential tradition of neutrality during labor disputes.?

UAW President Shawn Fain appears on "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer" on Tuesday.

President Joe Biden’s trip to the picket line in Detroit on Tuesday was historic and “a great day for our members” — but there is still a lot of work left to do, the president of the union said.

United Auto Workers union president Shawn Fain invited Biden to join Tuesday’s picket lines after announcing an escalation of the union’s strike last week. The UAW has yet to offer an endorsement of Biden’s reelection bid.

Fain said that endorsements for president will come “at the appropriate time,” but right now, “there is still work left to be done.”

Earlier this year, Fain was vocal in his criticism of Biden, especially for his administration’s financial support of a transition by the auto industry from traditional gasoline-powered cars to electric vehicles, which the UAW sees as a threat to its members’ jobs.

“This transition is important.?We believe in a green economy,?but it’s got to be a just?transition,” he told CNN, emphasizing that he believes a move toward electric vehicles does not hurt his union if “companies do the right thing.”

He blamed automakers for using tax dollars to “finance this transition,?but when it comes to taking care?of the workers, the companies?keep trying to take us?backwards.?It’s unacceptable.”

“This is a fight for the future of the working class,” he added.

President Joe Biden greets people as he joins a UAW picket line in Belleville, Michigan, on Tuesday.

It was a historic moment when President Joe Biden became the first sitting president to join a picket line. He spoke to members of the United Auto Workers on strike in Michigan on Tuesday.

But there’s a reason presidents don’t usually walk picket lines, according to Timothy Naftali, former director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library.

“Presidents have basically positioned themselves as mediators between both labor and management,” Naftali said Tuesday on CNN, although he noted that Democrats generally lean in their sympathies toward labor while?Republicans lean?toward management.

Naftali argued Biden is willing to break the norm of the president being viewed as a mediator and instead take public sides.

Trump also wants to claim some support among union members. He will appear in Michigan on Wednesday, although at a non-union facility and without any official sanction by the United Auto Workers.

Trump and Republicans argue that Biden’s push for electric vehicles with taxpayer credits puts union auto jobs at risk and is “stabbing” autoworkers in the back.

That’s going to be key to Biden winning a?second term — the president will need to find an answer to Trump’s argument about EVs and bring the labor movement he has long supported into alignment with the environmental movement.

The role of unions in US politics: Biden won the White House by rebuilding Democrats’ blue wall of support in heavily unionized Rust Belt states. But it’s important to note that Republicans don’t need to win union households in order to win elections.

When Trump won the blue wall state of?Michigan in 2016, he got the support of 40% of union households, compared with Hillary Clinton’s 53%. But when Biden won?Michigan in 2020, he got the support of 62% of union households and Trump was under 40%. The shift was similar in?Wisconsin.

U.S. President Joe?Biden?joined striking members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) on the picket line today outside the GM's Willow Run Distribution Center, in Bellville, Wayne County, Michigan.

When President Joe Biden?joined a picket line?of autoworkers in Michigan on Tuesday, the historic moment offered a preview of next year’s election and underscored the president’s longtime?commitment to a worker-centric economy.

Biden was visiting a day ahead of the 2024 Republican frontrunner, former President Donald Trump, who is hoping to cut into Biden’s support among blue-collar voters.

Wearing a UAW ball cap and speaking through a bullhorn, Biden’s overt support for the striking workers was a break from his predecessors’ attempts at neutrality. It offered the most explicit example yet of his bottom-up economic message — one focused on workers and not corporations.

Biden was the first sitting president to walk a picket line, at least in many presidential historians’ recollections. The White House sought to play up the fact, framing it as history in the making.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

A political battleground: For the first time this campaign season,?Biden and Trump are competing directly?for the same voters, each trying to appeal to union workers on the picket lines in Michigan.

The dueling visits underscore one similarity in otherwise widely divergent political identities: staking out a claim as a champion for the working class. The powerful voting bloc could help decide next year’s election. Biden won Michigan narrowly in 2020, and Trump took the state in 2016.

Biden walks a fine line: Biden bills himself the “most pro-union president in history,” but he is still toeing a line when it comes to his support for the autoworkers.

Until Tuesday, he had not voiced explicit support for the union’s demands on major wage increases — though he has said record profits should translate to record contracts.

When a reporter asked Tuesday whether auto workers deserved a 40% pay raise — as they have demanded — workers standing around the president shouted yes. Biden also responded, “Yes.”

But the White House has reiterated that the administration is not involved in negotiations. Biden has maintained contact with auto executives, including in a phone call in the days before the strike began.

Seeking an endorsement: The UAW has withheld its endorsement so far, expressing concern about some of the ramifications of Biden’s efforts to transition the US auto fleet to electric vehicles.

Given the union’s current contract negotiations, it is perhaps unsurprising the UAW is holding off endorsing any candidate, hoping to extract the most robust support it can.

Speaking at the picket line on Tuesday, UAW President Shawn Fain praised Biden for being the first president to join a picket line. And he spoke out harshly against corporate executives.

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President Joe Biden and UAW President Shawn Fain road together in the Beast, as the presidential limousine is called, from the Detroit airport to the picket line in Wayne County, Michigan.?

The two had a good conversation, talked about workers issues and talked about a “just transition” to electric vehicles, according to a source familiar with the conversation.

Former President Trump plans on visiting Drake Enterprises, a supplier of engine parts, tomorrow in Clinton Township, Michigan. Drake is a non-union shop and the UAW does not consider Trump to be standing in solidarity with unionized workers, the UAW source told CNN.

Drake Enterprises is not involved with the strike in any way, the union source added.?

United Auto Workers (UAW) President, Shawn Fain addresses picketing UAW members at a General Motors Service Parts Operations plant in Belleville, Michigan, on September 26, 2023, as US President Joe Biden joined the workers.?

Tuesday was definitely not the first time that United Auto Workers union President Shawn Fain has denounced billionaires and corporate greed. Those are standard parts of his remarks to members in the last two months.

But it has never gotten anywhere near the attention he got Tuesday, as he made the same remarks standing next to President Joe Biden.

Fain spoke for seven minutes, far longer than 87 seconds that Biden spoke during the President’s appearance on a picket line outside of the a General Motors facility in Wayne County, Michigan. Biden himself sounded a very pro-union, populist tone in his brief remarks.

“Folks, you’ve heard me say many times, Wall Street didn’t build this country, the middle class built this country, and unions built the middle class!” he said, to cheers. “That’s a fact, so let’s keep going. You deserve what you’ve earned, and you’ve earned a hell of a lot more than you’re getting paid.”

But Fain went even farther in his remarks. He referred to the UAW members’ past work building bombers used in World War II, and said, “Today, the enemy isn’t some foreign country miles away, it’s right here in our own area. It’s corporate greed!”

“We’re the people who make this world run. It’s not the billionaire class. It’s not the elite few,” Fain said as Biden looked on. “It’s not some executive who owns our future. It’s us…..That’s the economic reality that corporate executives don’t want us to recognize.”

“These CEOs sit in their offices. They sit in meetings. They make decisions. But we make the product,” Fain said sparking a cheer from the crowd of members on the picket line.

U.S. Senator?Joe?Manchin?(D-WV) rides an elevator after leaving the Senate floor amid ongoing talks over government funding, as the threat of an October government shutdown looms on Capitol Hill, in Washington, on September 6.

Last year, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin forced Senate leadership to scrap a measure in Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act that would have given cars built by unionized autoworkers a massive boost in the market.

When the House passed its version of the legislation in 2021, it included an extra $4,500 tax credit for consumers who purchase union-made American EVs, which are, as of this moment, only built by the unionized workers at the Big Three of Ford, GM, and Stellantis. The provision had drawn criticism from Tesla, Toyota, and Volkswagen, which build EVs in non-union factories.

To win Manchin’s support for the IRA the Senate, Democrats deleted the extra incentives for union-made cars.

The IRA passed with Manchin’s vote and was signed into law by President Joe Biden. It included a $7,500 credit for consumers purchasing EVs, whether they were union-built or not.

But the transition to EVs has been a sticking point in talks between UAW and Detroit’s Big Three automakers. The UAW has withheld its endorsement of Biden for his re-election bid in part to pressure his administration to ensure a “just transition” for workers in the shift to EVs.

As Americans buy more and more EVs, automakers have been rushing to build enormous battery factories, largely in the more anti-union South.

At the same time, the union fears what will happen to the thousands of unionized workers employed at engine and transmission plants, which only build components for cars with internal combustion engines.

From the union’s perspective, the automakers are using the EV transition as an excuse to replace union labor at the engine plants with non-union labor at the battery plants, and an extra incentive for consumers to buy union-made cars would have helped the workers’ cause and help put more money in more workers’ pockets, instead of going to corporate executives.

This shift to EVs would have been easier for union workers with the extra incentives that Manchin torpedoed.

US President Joe Biden addresses striking members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union at a picket line outside a General Motors Service Parts Operations plant in Belleville, Michigan, on September 26.

President Joe Biden spent only 87 seconds encouraging workers on the UAW picket line. In contrast, UAW President Shawn Fain spoke for almost 7 minutes in support of the labor movement.

“Folks, you’ve heard me say many times, Wall Street didn’t build this country, the middle class built this country, and unions built the middle class!” Biden said, to cheers. “That’s a fact, so let’s keep going. You deserve what you’ve earned, and you’ve earned a hell of a lot more than you’re getting paid.”

While President Joe Biden’s appearance was the center of attention, Fain used his speech as a way to champion the working class in front of the country’s leader.

?“The CEOs think the future belongs to them,” Fain said.”Today belongs to the auto workers in the working class.”

“Thank you, Mr. President, for coming. We know the President will do right by the working class.”

President Joe Biden joined striking United Auto Workers on the picket line, in Van Buren Township, Michigan, today.

President Joe Biden is now the first sitting president to join a picket line as he joined UAW members on strike in Michigan.

“I’ve marched a lot of UAW Picket lines when I was a senator, since 1973, but I’ll tell you what, this is the first time I’ve ever done it as the President,” Biden said.

Presidents, including Biden himself, previously have declined to wade into union disputes to avoid the perception of taking sides.

While Biden has repeatedly touted his status as “the most pro-labor president,” the White House worked to toe a thin line on Monday ahead of the president’s visit. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated that Biden is “standing with the workers” and that the administration is “not involved in negotiations.”

CNN’s Betsy Klein?and?Nikki Carvajal contributed reporting to this post.

Shawn Fain, President of the United Auto Workers (UAW) speaks as U.S. President Joe Biden joins striking members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) on the picket line outside the GM's Willow Run Distribution Center, in Bellville, Wayne County, Michigan, today.

In front of President Biden standing amongst picketers and embracing a striking autoworker, UAW president Shawn Fain advocated heavily for the working class and the autoworkers on strike.

As Biden watched on and with applause from the picketers, Fain said, “our president has chosen to stand up for economic and social justice.”

“These CEOs sitting in their office, they make the decisions, but we make the product,” he added.

He mentioned workers in Hollywood, Starbucks, teachers and nurses who are also joining in the labor movement.

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks next to Shawn Fain, President of the United Auto Workers (UAW), as he joins striking members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) on the picket line outside the GM's Willow Run Distribution Center, in Bellville, Wayne County, Michigan today.

President Joe Biden told UAW members that they deserved a “significant raise” as he visited a picket line in Michigan on Tuesday.

Speaking to the crowd with a bullhorn, Biden said the workers “saved the automobile industry back in 2008 and before” and made a lot of sacrifices when the “companies were in trouble,” adding:

Biden noted he’s said many times that the middle class built America, and he proclaimed Tuesday that “unions build the middle class – that’s a fact.”

The UAW union announced last week it is expanding its strike against GM and Stellantis in response to what it called a lack of movement from the two companies. Ford, the third company in the Big Three, was largely spared a strike expansion thanks to what the UAW said was progress in the company’s offers.

President Joe Biden has joined the picket line at GM’s Willow Run?Redistribution Center in Wayne County, Michigan.

This center is near where the B-24 Liberator bomber was built for use during WW2.

“Today, the enemy isn’t some foreign country miles away, it’s right here in our own area. It’s corporate greed,” UAW President Shawn Fain said.

In a statement Tuesday, GM did not criticize the president’s union support.

“Our focus is not on politics but continues to be on bargaining in good faith with the UAW leadership to reach an agreement as quickly as possible that rewards our workforce and allows GM to succeed and thrive into the future,” the company’s statement said.

President Joe Biden arrived at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport to join striking United Auto Workers on the picket line today in Romulus, Michigan.

Along with UAW President Shawn Fain, a group of politicians from Michigan greeted President Biden when he touched down in the key swing state.

Michigan Democratic US Representatives Shri Thanedar, Debbie Dingell and Rashida Tlaib?met the president. Michigan Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist, II, also was also on the tarmac.

UAW president Shawn Fain and members and workers at the Mopar Parts Center Line, a Stellantis Parts Distribution Center in Center Line, Michigan, picket outside the facility after walking off their jobs at noon on September 22.

UAW President Shawn Fain released a statement on X — formerly known as Twitter — Monday regarding Ford’s decision to pause work on a $3.5 billion Michigan electric vehicle battery plant.

Ford is pausing work on the new plant in Michigan, even as the transition to electric vehicles has become a major sticking point in a United Auto Workers strike against automakers Ford, GM and Stellantis.

No final decision has been made on whether the plant will, ultimately, become operational, said Ford spokesman T.R. Reid.

U.S. President Joe Biden is greeted by Shawn Fain, President of the United Auto Workers (UAW), Rep. Shri Thanedar (MI-13), Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist, Rep. Debbie Dingell (MI-06) and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (MI-12) as he arrives at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in Romulus, Michigan, today.

President Joe Biden has landed in Michigan and is expected to join United Auto Workers union members on the picket line at around 12:45 p.m. ET.

When he arrived, a reporter yelled, “What will it take to get to UAW endorsement?”

“I’m not worried about that,” the president responded.

UAW President Shawn Fain, who invited Biden to the picket line, is also there. Earlier this year, Fain was vocal in his criticism of Biden, especially for his administration’s financial support of a transition by the auto industry from traditional gasoline powered cars to electric vehicles, which the UAW sees as a threat to its members’ jobs.

Left: President Joe Biden speaking about the auto workers strike from the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington on Sept. 15. Right: UAW President?Shawn?Fain?at the 2023 Special Elections Collective Bargaining Convention in Detroit, Michigan, on March 27.

When President Joe Biden becomes the first sitting president to visit a picket line Tuesday, United Auto Workers union President Shawn Fain will be there with him. It’s quite a change in the relationship between the two.

Six months ago, it was doubtful Biden or almost anyone else at the White House knew who Fain was. He was an upstart challenger seeking to topple the caucus that ran the UAW for decades in its first popular election. He ended up winning by less than 500 votes.

But soon after the election, he started making life difficult for the White House, attacking it for federal loans going to automakers to build EV battery plants that are expected to pay a fraction of union wages.

“Why is Joe Biden’s administration facilitating this corporate greed with taxpayer money?” Fain said in a June statement attacking a $9.2 billion loan to Ford and South Korean battery manufacturing partner SK.

And in July, Fain was at the White House meeting with staff about the administration’s support for EVs, and he met face-to-face with Biden. Since then he’s been far more limited in his public criticism of Biden.

And Biden has voiced support for many of the union’s talking points in its negotiations with the automakers.

The first day of the strike Biden said that while the automakers had made “some significant offers,” that he believed “they should go further to ensure record corporate profits mean record contracts for the UAW.”

And on Friday, only hours after Fain invited Biden to join members on picket lines, the White House announced plans for Tuesday’s visit, with Biden saying he would “stand in solidarity with the men and women of UAW as they fight for a fair share of the value they helped create.”

But while the UAW has yet to endorse Biden for reelection, as other unions have done, Fain has been very critical of former President Donald Trump, who is due to speak to union members in Michigan on Wednesday. “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 last week after Trump’s trip was announced. The union has not been in touch with the Trump campaign about its plans for Wednesday, according to a source familiar with the matter.

U.S. President Joe Biden boards Air Force One as he departs Joint Base Andrews for Michigan where he will join striking members of the United Auto Workers on the picket line, in Maryland, on September 26.

Jeremi Suri, a presidential historian and professor at the University of Texas at Austin, said he doesn’t believe any president has ever visited a picket line during a strike.

Earlier this year, United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain was vocal in his criticism of President Joe Biden, especially for his administration’s financial support of a transition by the auto industry from traditional gasoline powered cars to electric vehicles, which the UAW sees as a threat to its members’ jobs.

But after Fain and Biden met face-to-face at the White House in July, the union boss has been far less critical of the president in public comments. And Biden has echoed many of the union’s talking points during its ongoing negotiations with the automakers.

United Auto Workers (UAW) members strike outside the General Motors Lansing Redistribution facility on September 23 in Lansing, Michigan.

Guidelines for a Biden administration program that will disburse more than $15 billion for clean energy transition projects were crafted with input from the United Auto Workers, two sources familiar with the matter tell CNN. The move was aimed at restoring support from the union after it slammed earlier loan awards as a “giveaway” to the auto industry.

In June, newly elected UAW president Shawn Fain rebuked the Department of Energy for providing a $9.2 billion loan to a joint venture between Ford and South Korea’s SK to build three battery plants with “no consideration for wages, workers rights, or retirement security.”

Two months later, the?Energy Department announced?it would prioritize facilities that retain high-paying union jobs when it awarded $2 billion in grants and $10 billion in loans to companies transitioning to electric vehicle manufacturing.

In between those two developments, Fain visited the White House to discuss the union’s negotiating strategy with top White House aides, including NEC Director Lael Brainard, senior adviser Gene Sperling, senior counselor Steve Ricchetti and deputy chief of staff Jen O’Malley Dillon.?

Fain had a personal audience with Biden before that meeting, officials say.

In those meetings and the communication that followed, Fain told White House officials the UAW does not want the Biden administration to get involved in the details of contractual terms, “but they do want to see increased signs of broader policy development” that aligns with their goals, one source familiar with the matter said. Part of Sperling’s role as a go-between, two sources familiar with discussions said, is in identifying areas where the White House can craft policy that helps the union achieve its goals.

The package of loan parameters, the first source said, is a direct result of those conversations, and is seen by the administration as an act of good faith to show the President understands the worries of the union’s workers and would go a long way in helping to secure the union’s endorsement of Biden.

A UAW source says the union’s reaction to the new loan program was this:

Another former adviser to Pres. Biden on labor issues said that, while there’s “zero chance” UAW endorses Donald Trump, Fain will hold off on endorsing Biden until the union ratifies a contract on the best terms possible.

“He wants to maintain the pressure on Biden so the president will help the UAW as much as possible,” says Seth Harris, a professor at Northeastern University who until July 2022 was Deputy Assistant to the President for Labor and the Economy.?

United Auto Workers members and supporters picket outside a General Motors facility on Friday, Sept. 22 in Charlotte, N.C. The United Auto Workers expanded its strike against major automakers Friday, walking out of 38 General Motors and Stellantis parts distribution centers in 20 states.

When the UAW announced last Friday that its members were walking out of Stellantis and General Motors’ parts distribution centers, that move represented a potentially serious issue for auto dealerships and their customers. You might have thought shutting down car factories, which the UAW had already done, would be a big problem for dealers because, well, auto dealerships sell cars. Actually, shutting off the supply of parts is a bigger challenge.

For one thing, servicing vehicles, which is what dealers need those parts for, is a much bigger chunk of an auto dealership’s profits than selling cars.

“Of the four profit centers in a dealership – new vehicle sales, used vehicle sales, [finance and insurance], and service and parts – service and parts is the largest,” said Allen Levenson, a senior partner at the consulting firm Motormindz and a former General Motors executive.

Second, if a specific vehicle model is in short supply, dealerships can just charge more for it. Dealerships are independent businesses not owned owned or operated by car companies and, when selling a car, the MSRP – Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price –?really is just a suggestion. Car dealerships, in general, made record profits when overall new vehicle production was disrupted due to covid-related issues in recent .

It doesn’t work that way with service. No one negotiates the cost of a new alternator or a headlight replacement. That work costs what it costs and, if the parts aren’t available, it just has to be delayed, presenting potential issues for customers, too.

Some dealerships CNN spoke with said they’d been getting ready weeks before strikes were announced.

“We did stockpile some parts and vehicles, for example, but now that window for additional prep has passed,” said Scott Kunes, chief operating officer of Kunes Auto Group, said in an email.?

Jeff Ramsey, head of sales and marketing for Ourisman Automotive Group, said his dealership had also been stocking up on parts for about two months in anticipation of a strike.

“We’re in a better shape than most, I think,” he said.

In the meantime, Ramsey expressed confidence that this will all get worked out before it becomes a major crisis.

“I have full trust they’re going to come to a solution before our customer is not able to drive their vehicle,” he said.

The UAW said Tuesday that President Joe Biden’s decision to join the picket line today shows everyone is welcome to join the union’s cause.

The union encouraged “allies and supporters” to join a picket line “to mark the historic occasion and provide support and solidarity to striking UAW members.”

As Joe Biden is set to join members of the?United Auto Workers union Tuesday in Wayne County, Michigan — ahead of a visit?from former President Donald Trump — the president faces consistently low polling numbers on his handling of economic issues and the looming?threat of a government shutdown?this week.

Both a prolonged strike and a shutdown could have economic consequences – something the White House is seeking to avoid as Biden tries to convince voters his economic policies are working. He’s also appearing in the battleground state of Michigan just one day before his chief political rival – whom he defeated in the 2020 presidential election – comes to the crucial swing state to make his own appeal to union workers.

Trump, the frontrunner in the GOP presidential primary race, is scheduled to skip the second Republican debate to?deliver a prime-time speech?to an audience of current and former union members, including from the UAW, in Detroit on Wednesday. Trump has slammed the president for the visit, claiming Biden “had no intention” of walking the picket line until Trump said he would make a speech in Michigan.

When he does arrive in Michigan, Biden will attempt to use the trip to support autoworkers without getting involved in the specifics of the negotiations. Amid mounting political pressure to ramp up his public support, Biden is expressing solidarity with the union members, who are striking against the Big Three automakers –?General Motors, Ford and Stellantis?– for a second week.

The administration lacks any legal or legislative authority to act as a participant in the negotiations, but top officials, including Biden, have met with UAW leadership to discuss broader policy changes that would be seen as favorable, even as the union has criticized the administration’s support of a transition to electric vehicle manufacturing.

Union members, once a reliable Democratic voting bloc, have gradually gravitated to Republican candidates, according to CNN polls and the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation. The historic presidential picket line appearance seeks to reaffirm his commitment to the critical voting and organizing group ahead of the 2024 election.

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain pushed back on the news of Trump’s upcoming speech.

Read more.

United Auto Workers (UAW) members and supporters on a picket line outside the Ford Motor Co. Michigan Assembly plant in Wayne, Michigan, on Wednesday, Sept. 20.

General Motors, Ford and Stellantis can’t be pleased that President Joe Biden is joining the autoworkers’ picket line Tuesday. But in statements Tuesday, none criticized the president’s support for the union. Instead, they focused on defending their latest offers at the bargaining table.

GM:

Ford:

Stellantis:

As President Joe Biden heads to Wayne County, Michigan, Tuesday, he’ll seek to compare his administration’s ties to union workers with predecessor Donald Trump during a visit to a United Autoworkers Union picket line, just one day before the former president is set to descend on the state himself.?

Biden, who visited a number of picket lines as a candidate, is set to become the first sitting president to visit a picket line in modern history as he looks to contrast his work with that of “decades of politicians trying to crush” unions, a White House official said.?

In a fact sheet shared with CNN ahead of Biden’s visit to the state, the White House sought to cast the Biden administration as championing the cause of labor— in stark contrast with Trump, whom the official said “talked big and delivered little.”

“President Biden’s economic plan is investing in the American auto industry and creating good jobs for American auto workers. This includes providing incentives for companies to locate auto and other manufacturing in the United States,” the fact sheet read. “By contrast, the prior Administration passed a giant tax cut for large, profitable corporations – a windfall that even went to companies that were shipping jobs overseas. The benefits of that tax cut?never?trickled down to hard-working Americans and America’s auto workers.”

Biden expressed support for the striking UAW union in comments Tuesday, telling reporters in Washington, DC, “Yes, I support—I’ve always supported the UAW.”

But presidents, including Biden himself, previously have declined to wade into union disputes to avoid the perception of taking sides on issues where the negotiating parties are often engaged in litigation. The National Labor Relations Board, whose members are appointed by the president but expected to function as an independent entity, currently has?28 cases pending?that were filed by the United Auto Workers.

For his part, Trump has been critical of UAW leadership, telling NBC earlier this month, UAW president Shawn Fain was “not doing a good job in representing his union.”

Shortly after Trump announced his visit to Michigan, Fain blasted the former president in a statement, writing, “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.”

Confusion reigned on the eve of?Joe Biden’s Tuesday trip to Michigan, as the White House scrambled to finalize the president’s plans for visiting striking autoworkers and lawmakers were left guessing about his itinerary.

On Monday afternoon, members of the United Auto Workers at the site of one picket line were told that Biden would be coming to their location, only to hear later that that tentative plan was scrapped. In the absence of an announced plan from the White House, speculation spread through the UAW ranks that Biden would go to whatever picket line was closest to the airport. There was even a rumor on Monday that Biden’s trip may have been canceled altogether – a possibility that one White House official flatly denied.

It is highly atypical for a presidential visit to be so shrouded in uncertainty at such a late hour.

Meanwhile, members of the White House press corps looking to cover the president’s visit were also unsure even as of late Monday where exactly in Wayne County to go. Multiple Michigan Democrats said they were given no advance details by the White House.

The complicated logistics surrounding the president’s hastily announced visit were described to CNN by people familiar with the planning. One person on the ground described the process as “chaotic” and “a mess.”

In many ways, the planning mirrored the thorny politics of the White House’s?unusual decision to send Biden?to stand in solidarity with union workers in the middle of an active strike. Biden had previously declined to do so to avoid the perception that he was taking sides in an ongoing labor dispute.

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United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain speaks to UAW members striking at Ford's Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Mich., early Friday, Sept. 15.

United Auto Workers union President Shawn Fain will join President?Joe?Biden on the picket line Tuesday in Wayne County, Michigan, according to a source familiar with the situation on Monday. The source provided no specifics about the exact location.

The UAW, however, is not involved with former President?Donald?Trump’s planned visit on Wednesday, nor have they been in contact with his team, the source said, and there has been no official invitation to Trump.

Trump will skip the second Republican presidential primary debate in California Wednesday and is expected to also head to Michigan to address union workers.

President Joe Biden spoke about the auto workers strike from the Roosevelt Room of the White House on September 15.

Ahead of President Joe Biden’s upcoming trip to “stand with” striking auto workers in Detroit, the White House walked a fine line, struggling to answer questions about the visit while avoiding weighing in on the specifics of negotiations themselves.?

Jean-Pierre said that Biden had accepted an invitation to visit the picket lines from United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain. Asked if the visit and declarations of support for the workers meant that Biden was taking their side in negotiations, the press secretary said she was “not going to get into negotiations from here.”?

“We’re not going to speak to what’s being put at the table. What we have said over and over again is that we believe there’s an opportunity here for a win-win agreement,” she said.

She said the administration believed that with corporations making record profits unions should get record deals, a sentiment which Biden has publicly shared over the last few weeks leading up to the strike.?

“Yes I support—I always supported the UAW,” Biden told reporters on Monday. It’s unclear whether the president specifically meant he supports the union’s demands or the union’s strike in general.

Some context: Presidents, including Biden himself, previously have declined to wade into union disputes to avoid the perception of?taking?sides?on issues where the negotiating parties are often engaged in litigation, as CNN’s Kayla Tausche reported last week.

The National Labor Relations Board, whose members are appointed by the president but expected to function as an independent entity, currently has?28 cases pending?that were filed by the United Auto Workers.

CNN’s Jasmine Wright contributed reporting to this post.

President Joe Biden smiles as he responds to a reporter's question about whether he will visit striking auto workers on the UAW picket line, as he walks back to the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Friday.

President Joe Biden?will travel to Michigan on Tuesday and walk the picket line with members of the?United Auto Workers union. The trip comes after the president faced political pressure to ramp up his public support for the union members.

Biden’s trip, and the historic presidential appearance on a picket line, underscores the political opportunity as the strike against the nation’s three largest automakers — General Motors, Ford and Stellantis — enters its second week.

CNN’s Vanessa Yurkevich contributed reporting to this post.