United Auto Workers Union Endorses Biden after Eight-Month Delay

The United Auto Workers union announced, after a significant delay, that it would be endorsing Joe Biden for the 2024 presidency, UAW president Shawn Fain announced Wednesday.

“Today, I’m proud to stand up here with your International Executive Board and announce that the UAW is endorsing Joe Biden for President of the United States,” Fain said at a union conference in Washington, D.C. “We will reelect Joe Biden.”

The major union had been holding off on endorsing the incumbent president for months, even during its historic labor strike in Detroit, Mich., last fall. Fain previously indicated that Biden, like other politicians, would have to earn his UAW endorsement, despite receiving the union’s full support during the 2020 election. “Joe Biden has earned it,” the UAW leader said of the current election cycle.

In May, Fain said the UAW would withhold its reelection endorsement until Biden addressed the union’s concerns over the automobile industry’s transition to electric vehicles. In September, during the 46-day strike, Biden joined the auto workers’ picket lines to allay such concerns. The nationwide transition, once fully implemented, could lead to factory layoffs or lower wages, given that electric vehicles don’t require as much assembly compared to gas-powered vehicles.

Before making the endorsement, Fain called Donald Trump a “scam” and a billionaire who is out of touch with the union’s rank-and-file members.

“He did nothing, not a damn thing because he doesn’t care about the American worker,” Fain said. “Donald Trump stands against everything we stand for as a union, as a society.”

“This November, we can stand up and elect someone who stands with us and supports our cause, or we can elect someone who will divide us and fight us every step of the way,” he added, seemingly referring to a likely Trump-Biden rematch. “That’s what this choice is about.”