President Joe Biden on Monday threw numerous verbal jabs at his predecessor in a Labor Day speech, aiming to use his administration\u2019s record as a way to undermine the inroads Donald Trump has made into a core part of Biden\u2019s political coalition.
In a speech to the Sheet Metal Workers\u2019 Local 19 in Philadelphia, Biden put a sharp edge on his economic message, repeatedly referring to Trump as \u201cthe last guy\u201d and \u201cthe guy who held this job before me.\u201d
\u201cWe\u2019re turning things around because of you,\u201d Biden said. \u201cWhen the last guy was here, you were shipping jobs to China. Now we\u2019re bringing jobs home from China. When the last guy was here \u2026 your pensions were at risk. We helped save millions of pensions with your help. When the last guy was here, he looked at the world from Park Avenue. I look at it from Scranton, Pennsylvania. I look at it from Claymont, Delaware.\u201d
Later, he called Trump a \u201ca great real estate builder, the last guy \u2013 who really didn\u2019t build a damn thing.\u201d
Biden\u2019s trip to the City of Brotherly Love, one of his most frequent stops for presidential travel, marked his latest attempt to woo the union members who have made up the backbone of his base for decades. But, while the president is firmly supported by top union leaders and quickly received endorsements from some of the biggest unions upon announcing his reelection run \u2013 including the AFL-CIO, the Service Employees International Union and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers \u2013 his standing among rank-and-file members has weakened in recent years and some of those members have been wooed by the former president.
Notably, the United Auto Workers has yet to endorse him in his 2024 run as that union faces its own standoff with the Big Three automakers. A damaging strike looms in less than two weeks and the White House has found itself navigating treacherous waters in encouraging both sides to come to a deal.
Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su told CNN\u2019s Phil Mattingly earlier Monday that the UAW and the nation\u2019s three unionized automakers \u2013 Ford, General Motors and Stellantis \u2013 may be closer to an agreement than it looks at the moment.
\u201cWith UAW, the parties are talking to each other,\u201d Su said, adding, \u201cit always looks like parties are far apart until they are not.\u201d
Biden sought to downplay the likelihood of a strike, saying ahead of the event he was \u201cnot worried about a strike until it happens.\u201d
\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to happen,\u201d Biden said Monday.
In an interview with CNN affiliate WXYZ Monday, UAW president Shawn Fain said he was \u201cshocked\u201d by Biden\u2019s comments.
\u201cI\u2019m shocked by that reaction,\u201d Fain, asked to respond to Biden\u2019s comments, told reporters in Michigan. \u201cYou know, he must know something we don\u2019t know.\u201d
He later told CNN\u2019s Bianna Golodryga on \u201cThe Lead\u201d Monday that \u201cwe have a long way to go and short time to get there.\u201d
\u201cWhile I appreciate President Biden\u2019s optimism, I hope the Big Three get serious and start bargaining in good faith. We\u2019re ready to do whatever is necessary to get our share of economic and social justice for our members,\u201d Fain said.
He also added that the UAW \u2013 which backed Biden in 2020 \u2013 was holding off on endorsing a candidate in 2024 for the time being, at least in part because of concerns over the administration\u2019s policies on electric vehicles. Fain said endorsements are \u201cgoing to be earned\u201d and will be issued \u201cwhen the time is right, and we feel like that the candidates have shown and delivered for our members\u2019 needs and for the working class needs.\u201d
While Biden has strong support among organized labor, union members across different sectors were angered by the president\u2019s decision to help intervene to avoid a potential rail strike at the end of 2022.\u00a0CNN reported in July\u00a0that there is a lingering mistrust among union members over concerns the president would intervene to stop other strikes, a perception that senior administration officials told CNN was misguided.
Despite those lingering misgivings, Biden has positioned himself as the \u201cmost pro-union president ever\u201d and touts his labor credentials in almost every economic speech he gives. Since taking office, Biden has made repeated and concerted efforts to burnish his labor credentials.
The president on Monday said his administration was \u201creplacing trickle-down economics with what everyone on Wall Street is referring to these days as Bidenomics, and guess what? It\u2019s working. It\u2019s about building the economy from the middle out and the bottom up not the top down.\u201d
\u201cThis is not a political statement, it\u2019s an economic statement,\u201d Biden said. \u201cWhen the middle class does well, everyone does well.\u201d
He added: \u201cBidenomics is a blue-collar blueprint for America. It\u2019s for you.\u201d
On Inauguration Day, one of his first acts as president was to fire the Trump-appointed National Labor Relations Board general counsel Peter Robb, an important signal to unions. A month later, he posted a video on social media expressing support for Amazon workers seeking to unionize in Alabama. He\u2019s made union support a key priority in multiple State of the Union addresses, and after announcing his 2024 reelection bid, Biden\u2019s first political stop was to a legislative conference for North America\u2019s Building Trades Unions.
And he\u2019s held meetings with organizers, including representatives from Starbucks and Amazon unions in May 2022 and a meeting with young organizers last week at the White House.
Biden has \u201cgiven a signal to workers that he\u2019s on their side and they should have a real piece of the pie and they should have obtained the American Dream that has been so elusive over the last few decades,\u201d said D. Taylor, International President of UNITE HERE, which represents 300,000 workers across the hospitality, manufacturing, transportation, gaming, transportation and other industries.
That support comes at the end of what some have termed \u201chot labor summer\u201d that has galvanized organized labor across many different industries. The Teamsters union\u00a0ratified a deal with UPS,\u00a0securing its key negotiating goals and averting a potentially crippling strike for the US economy.\u00a0The Hollywood writers and actors\u2019 strikes\u00a0also continue as they battle with the studios over how streaming services have upended the business and with AI threatening further destabilization. UAW continues to stand firm in its demands with the major automakers.
According to Gallup\u2019s 2022 Work and Education\u00a0survey, 71% of Americans approve of labor unions \u2013 up from 64% before the pandemic, and the highest since 1965.
On Monday, Biden walked\u2002familiar ground by visiting\u00a0the state of Pennsylvania. As president he has made more than two dozen visits to the Keystone State, a crucial battleground in the presidential race and the state that pushed him over the 270 electoral vote threshold\u00a0in 2020, sealing his White House win.
Since coming into the White House, the frequent trips to Pennsylvania \u2013 an easy travel from the nation\u2019s capital \u2013 have shown just how critical he and his advisers view the state to his reelection run in 2024. It has emerged as central to Biden\u2019s strategy of selling his accomplishments to the types of voters he\u2019ll need in order to earn a second term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n