U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday walked a picket line with members of the United Auto Workers union in the suburbs of Detroit as the strike against major American automakers stretches into a second week.
It is the first time that a sitting U.S. president has joined a picket line in modern times, according to the White House, which said Biden's visit is aimed at underscoring his solidarity with unionized American workers and ensuring their jobs are safe as U.S. manufacturing of cars continues.
Biden, who has cast himself as the most pro-union president in U.S. history, appeared on the 12th day of the UAW strike against the country's three biggest automakers -- General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis NV -- in Wayne County, Michigan.
His appearance came one day before former President Donald Trump, so far the incumbent's most likely rival in the 2024 presidential election, also plans to be in a Detroit suburb to talk to auto workers in his own event.
The back-to-back visits to Michigan, one of the hottest political battlegrounds, by Biden, a Democrat, and Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, are widely seen as attempts to entice working-class voters.
Taking up a megaphone, Biden threw his support behind the striking workers, saying they deserve a "significant" pay increase and other benefits.
"Folks, you've heard me say it many times -- Wall Street didn't build the country, the middle class built the country, and unions built the middle class," Biden said in his speech, which was nationally televised live. "That's a fact, so let's keep going."
The UAW's demands include a 40 percent wage raise over four years, which its officials have said equals the increases many top executives at the three automakers have earned over the past four years, and a four-day workweek.
On Tuesday, Trump denounced Biden for "stabbing" auto workers in the back, claiming that his administration's policy to speed up the shift to electric vehicles has cost countless workers their jobs.
"With Biden, it doesn't matter what hourly wages they get, in three years there will be no autoworker jobs as they will all come out of China and other countries," Trump said in a statement. "With me, there will be jobs and wages like you've never seen before. Our economy will grow!"
