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UAW President Fain and President Biden (Screenshot from NYT video)
President Joe Biden, clad in a zip-up sweater and a UAW baseball cap, and holding a bullhorn, told hundreds of striking autoworkers Tuesday at the General Motors' Willow Run Redistribution Center in Belleville, that they deserve to do well when it comes to compensation.
"You made a lot of sacrifice. You gave up a lot when the companies were in trouble. Now, they're doing incredibly well. And guess what? You should be doing incredibly well, too," Biden said in a brief speech to the receptive crowd that included UAW President Shawn Fain. "You deserve a significant raise you need and other benefits. Let's get back what we lost, okay?
He told the group on the 12th day of the strike:
“Unions built the middle class. It’s a fact!”
The Trump campaign has publicly suggested that Biden visited the picket line only after learning that Trump planned to on Wednesday.
But the UAW invited Biden on Friday. Also, several Democrats have previously visited picket lines in support, which may have put some pressure on him to do the same.
During the Detroit Newspaper Strike in the mid-1990s, the Clinton White House declined to give interviews to reporters from the striking papers.
President Biden on the picket line (Screenshot from Yahoo! video)
