‘You Deserve a Hell of a Lot More’ Biden Says as He Panders to Striking UAW Workers

Workers from the United Auto Workers union, one of the largest organized labor institutions in North America, went on strike earlier this month in plants in Michigan, Ohio and Missouri amid a dispute with the Big Three automakers related to wages, a tiered retirement system, a lack of worker protections against plant closures, and other matters.

President Joe Biden did a little pre-2024 election campaigning at a General Motors plant in Van Buren Township, Michigan on Tuesday morning, briefly joining the picket line to sing praises to striking autoworkers with remarks about the importance of the American middle class.

“You’ve heard me say many times. Wall Street didn’t build the country. The middle class built the country. Unions built the middle class,” Biden said, addressing a crowd through a bullhorn and donning a UAW cap, repeating almost verbatim a speech on the economy he gave back in April.

“You guys, UAW, you saved the automobile industry back in 2008 and before. You made a lot of sacrifices, gave up a lot and the companies were in trouble. Now they’re doing incredibly well. And guess what? You should be doing incredibly well too!” the president added.

“Let’s keep going; you deserve what you’ve earned, and you deserve a hell of a lot more than what you’re getting paid now,” Biden emphasized. “Stick with it because you deserve the significant raise you need and other benefits. Let’s get back what we lost, okay?”

Biden spoke for about 30 seconds, and spent about 15 minutes at the picket line fist bumping and mingling with workers before hopping on an Air Force One jet and heading off to California for a two-day campaign event.

The president beat Donald Trump to the punch in wooing the UAW, with Trump, who announced plans to skip the upcoming second GOP debate to join the striking autoworkers last week, regularly slamming his predecessors for aggressively pursuing globalization and shipping American jobs overseas, and targeting Biden over the cost of living crisis hitting many Americans.

Republican Michigan Congressman John James slammed Biden’s visit to Van Buren Township, accusing him of being “terrified of being upstaged” by Trump, and of pushing a federal EV transition program that James said would mean fewer jobs for American autoworkers in the long run.

Trump took to social media on Monday to attack Biden, urging supporters to remember “when he slowly walks to pretend he is a ‘picket’” the president “wants to take your jobs away and give them to China.” “Crooked Joe Biden had no intention of going to visit the United Auto Workers, until I announced that I would be headed to Michigan to be with them [and] help them out,” Trump added.

An ABC News/Washington Post poll released Sunday showed Trump ahead of Biden 51-42 percent in a head-to-head match-up, with 44 percent of respondents saying they’ve become economically worse off under Biden, 37 percent approving his overall job performance, 30 percent okaying his handling of the economy, and 23 percent approving his handling of the situation along the southern border.

UAW workers at the Michigan Assembly Plant, the Toledo Complex and the Wentzville Assembly plant are on strike, demanding better working conditions and pay, including more money to offset inflation, better overtime and retirement benefits, and, prospectively, a 32-hour workweek, with their demands addressed to the Big Three American automakers – Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.