2023-09-23 13:12:00
Written by Rabab Fathi Saturday, September 23, 2023 04:12 PM
US President Joe Biden announced that he will travel to Michigan on Tuesday to “join the picket line” with members of the United Auto Workers striking once morest the country’s leading automakers, in one of the most significant displays of presidential support for striking workers in decades.
“On Tuesday, I will be going to Michigan to join the picket line and stand in solidarity with the men and women of the UAW. They are fighting to get a fair share of the value they helped create,” Biden wrote Friday on X, the site formerly known as Twitter.
The trip is scheduled to come a day before Biden’s main rival in the 2024 campaign, Donald J. Trump, plans to deliver his speech in Michigan, and was announced hours following union president Sean Fine stepped up pressure on the White House with a public invitation to Biden.
“We invite and encourage everyone who supports our cause to join us on the picket lines, from our friends and family to the President of the United States,” Fine said in a speech Friday morning that was streamed online.
It was not immediately clear where Biden would go in Michigan, and the White House had already announced plans for Biden to head to California on Tuesday as part of a three-day trip to the West Coast. Biden made the decision on Friday, following a public invitation from Fine, according to two people familiar with White House deliberations.
Michigan, home of the US auto industry, is home to the bulk of striking facilities and workers. There is little precedent for a sitting president joining striking workers on a picket line.
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