Wearing a UAW hat and a sweatshirt with the presidential seal, Biden triggered broad applause when he told the crowd of about 200 people that they “deserve a significant raise.”

“Let’s keep going,” he said later, before walking among the picketers to give out fist bumps and pose for selfies. “You deserve what you’ve earned. And you deserve a whole hell of a lot more than you’re getting paid now.”

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  • AutoTL;DRBEnglish
    5•1 year ago

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    It marked the first time a sitting president has joined a picket line, and on a dreary afternoon Biden stood on a wooden platform and spoke through a bullhorn with an American flag on it to a group of United Auto Workers members clad in red shirts.

    Biden is also walking a delicate line as auto manufacturers assert that the strike and any contract concessions could impact production of electric vehicles, which are an important plank of the president’s clean energy policies.

    In a sign of the heightened political importance of the UAW strike, and a potential preview of the 2024 presidential race, former president Donald Trump is planning to make his own visit to the area on Wednesday in a similar attempt to tap into the angst among industrial workers in the heartland.

    One factor complicating Biden’s trip to Michigan is that his climate policy is in part dependent on auto manufacturers building more electric vehicles — a bigger challenge if workers are striking.

    In a statement ahead of Biden’s trip, Trump focused on the president’s push for more electric vehicles, saying it would “annihilate the U.S. auto industry and cost countless thousands of autoworkers their jobs.”

    Although the Trump campaign initially booked his prime-time appearance in Michigan to counterprogram against the second Republican primary debate Wednesday night — one that he is not joining — the former president’s aides were equally enthusiastic to see the speech shaping up to be an opening salvo in the general election rematch with Biden.

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    • TehPersEnglish
      9•1 year ago

      Trump focused on the president’s push for more electric vehicles, saying it would “annihilate the U.S. auto industry and cost countless thousands of autoworkers their jobs.”

      What leap of logic led to this statement? How does building EVs instead of gas-powered vehicles have any impact on their jobs in any way except positive? I understand how a strike can impact jobs, but not how switching to EVs can.