Since the United Auto Workers (UAW) went on strike against the country’s top automakers on Sept. 15, the key battleground state of Michigan has become a focus for President Joe Biden and his leading Republican rival, former President Donald Trump. Last month, both visited the epicenter of the U.S. car industry to win blue-collar support for the 2024 presidential race.
The Epoch Times spoke with more than a dozen UAW members to find out who they believed was the best president to protect the rights of the working class. Although union members seem to be united in their fight for better pay and benefits, they find themselves divided on the political side.
President Biden has repeatedly called himself the “most pro-union president” in U.S. history, but Kim Fenner, a UAW member for 28 years, disagrees.
“Biden is not for the unions. He proved that, literally, in his first day in office,” she told The Epoch Times.
The president killed thousands of union jobs on his first day, she noted, by signing an executive order to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline.
Ms. Fenner works at Stellantis’s Sterling Stamping factory in Michigan, which employs 1,732 people and is the world’s largest stamping plant, according to the company’s website. Even though her plant isn’t on strike right now, she stands with autoworkers on picket lines at dozens of General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis factories, as does every UAW member.
Autoworkers haven’t received much of a raise in the past 13 years and are now feeling the pinch of rising prices, Ms. Fenner said. “Bidenomics,” in her opinion, is failing blue-collar workers.
“In the 28 years that I’ve been with the UAW, the four years that Trump was in office were by far the best four years for my 401(k), for the working environment, and for the economy in general. I don’t know of anyone who had a bad lifestyle when Trump was in office,” Ms. Fenner said.
She also raised concerns about the aggressive rules proposed by the Biden administration in its push for a nationwide shift away from fossil fuels to electric vehicles (EVs).
“I honestly am scared to say it, but I think it’s going to kill our industry,” she said.
President Trump spoke to blue-collar workers in Detroit on Sept. 27, including dozens of current and former members of the UAW. Ms. Fenner was among those who watched the former president’s speech at Drake Enterprises, located in Clinton Township, a northern suburb of Detroit.
In his speech, President Trump told UAW members that no amount of extra pay would make a difference “because in two years, you’re all going to be out of business.”
Biden on Picket Line
A day before the former president’s speech, President Biden was also in Detroit to show solidarity with auto union members who have been on strike against the Big Three automakers. It was a “historic” move, according to the White House, as he was the first sitting president to join a picket line in modern history.However, Ms. Fenner said she was unimpressed with President Biden’s speech and support for the union workers.
“He showed up for 12 minutes on the picket line. It was a photo op, and he only did it because he heard that Trump was coming first,” Ms. Fenner said.
On the picket line, President Biden grabbed a bullhorn, urging striking auto workers to “stick with it” and telling them that they deserved a “significant raise.”
Bill Crews, 74, was among the nearly two dozen striking UAW members who watched President Biden’s speech in front of the Willow Run parts distribution center of General Motors in Michigan.
He’s a former employee of GM and a retired member of the UAW. He left his job in 2016, but he is still active in the union, overseeing retirees.
He said he sees the president as a friend of the working class and refers to him as “Joe.”
“It was a great day to have Joe here on the picket line. Like he always has been. He comes to picket lines. He’s a union guy,” he told The Epoch Times. “Joe tries to strike a balance between management, labor, business, and consumers. That’s what we need.”
Mr. Crews didn’t share the same enthusiasm for President Trump’s visit to Detroit.
“He’s a billionaire. He’s never supported labor,” Mr. Crews said.
Nikola Gjonaj, a UAW member picketing at the Stellantis Mopar factory in Center Line, Michigan, said that President Trump has always used the UAW and the working class as “pawns.”
“We’re not even following the politics,” Mr. Gjonaj told The Epoch Times.
“All we want is to go back to work and make a fair living wage,” he said, noting that workers at the Mopar facility didn’t get a raise for 12 years.
He said that most UAW members, including himself, back Democrats. But he also said he thinks President Biden’s picket-line speech could have been much better.
“We wanted him to come out here and say, ‘Hey, we got the full power of the White House behind you.’ We didn’t get that. ‘Oh, you guys should make more money.’ That’s it. That’s all you say?”
EVs Worry Union Members
Although Mr. Gjonaj said he doesn’t support the former president, he agrees that there is cause for alarm over the EV transition push.“Trump was right about one thing. All the cars might be made in China. And we don’t want the jobs to leave here,” Mr. Gjonaj said. “If you turn everything to EV, 30 percent of these people are gone.”
The UAW, which has historically supported Democrats and endorsed President Biden in 2020, has so far withheld its endorsement for the 2024 presidential election, citing concerns about a forced EV transition, which is estimated to cut the jobs of thousands of traditional auto workers.
Isaiah Goddard, a UAW member who works at Ford Motor Co.’s Rawsonville Components Plant in Michigan, said that a total switch to electric vehicles isn’t a good idea. He was one of the auto union members who attended the former president’s rally in Michigan on Sept. 27.
However, Mr. Goddard, a third-generation autoworker, said he faced a lot of “backlash” from his family and co-workers for attending the rally. Even so, he said he believes that President Trump is the best candidate to protect union jobs.
“I believe in Donald Trump. I believe him. I think he’s a smart businessman,” he told The Epoch Times.
“If we reelect President Trump, he is going to make amazing deals, keep our auto industry booming, and keep union jobs, and I believe he’s our best shot at that.”
Mr. Goddard also praised the 45th president for repealing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which was replaced by the USMCA. He said that NAFTA was responsible for the loss of U.S. jobs.
He said the UAW should endorse the former president instead of President Biden.
“It wouldn’t necessarily be such a bad thing if our UAW president met with Donald Trump, talked to him, and tried to endorse him,” Mr. Goddard said.
Patrick Smalley, who has worked at Ford Motor Company for 35 years, said he has similar concerns about the EV push.
“It’s not affecting my job now, but what I’m concerned about is that it could possibly cut jobs. And I don’t like seeing anyone lose their jobs,” he told The Epoch Times.
Mr. Smalley has been on strike since Sept. 15 at the Ford plant in Wayne, Michigan, where he worked as a quality inspector.
Even though President Biden didn’t show up at the Ford picket line, Mr. Smalley said he thinks the president’s joining other UAW members at the GM facility is important.
“He could be doing so many other things. But he’s here and supporting us, which is a wonderful thing.”
But Justin Green, another striking Ford worker, said he wasn’t overly excited about President Biden’s visit because he has been disappointed with the administration’s track record.
“I feel that Biden hasn’t shown an immense track record of supporting the union,” Mr. Green told The Epoch Times. “We would like to see him support us a good bit more before we do actually endorse him.”
