The United Auto Employees union is endorsing President Joe Biden for reelection this 12 months, UAW President Shawn Fain introduced Wednesday at a union convention in Washington, D.C.

“At this time, I am proud to face up right here along with your Worldwide Govt Board and announce that the UAW is endorsing Joe Biden for President of america,” Fain mentioned. “We are going to reelect Joe Biden.”

The union’s endorsement of a Democratic presidential candidate should not be shocking; nevertheless, it comes after months of obvious resistance by Fain, who mentioned politicians, together with Biden, must earn UAW endorsements.

“Look, I stored my dedication to be probably the most pro-union president ever,” Biden mentioned following the endorsement announcement. “Let me simply say I am honored to have your again and you’ve got mine. That is the deal.”

It additionally comes on the heels of the New Hampshire main, during which former President Donald Trump defeated former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

“This November, we are able to arise and elect somebody who stands with us and helps our trigger, or we are able to elect somebody who will divide us and combat us each step of the way in which,” Fain mentioned earlier than the endorsement. “That is what this alternative is about.”

The endorsement is essential for any candidate seeking to safe the battleground state of Michigan, due to the UAW’s potential affect there. The Detroit-based union has greater than 400,000 energetic members and greater than 580,000 retired members, lots of which reside within the state.

In endorsing Biden, Fain had some robust criticism for his probably Republican opponent, at one level organising a slide of “what Trump mentioned and what actions he took to assist the American auto employees” throughout his first time period. The slide was clean.

“He did nothing, not a rattling factor as a result of he would not care in regards to the American employee,” Fain mentioned. “Donald Trump stands in opposition to all the pieces we stand for as a union, as a society.”

Biden threw his personal punches at Trump, whom he expects to face in a basic election rematch in November.

“Through the Trump administration, plenty of administrations earlier than that, what did they do? So many, so many individuals round America, misplaced their sense of satisfaction,” he mentioned. “Company America discovered the most affordable labor on the planet and so they despatched the roles to these laborers and despatched the product again to us. However not anymore.”

The Trump marketing campaign didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

Fain in Might mentioned the union would withhold a reelection endorsement for Biden till the UAW’s considerations in regards to the auto business’s transition to all-electric autos have been addressed.

That message was heard loud and clear. In September Biden turned the primary sitting U.S. president to affix an energetic UAW picket line, rallying alongside employees exterior a Common Motors elements facility. The go to got here per week after Fain invited supporters — “from our associates and households all the way in which as much as the president of america” — to affix union picket traces in opposition to GM, Ford Motor and Chrysler mum or dad Stellantis.

Fain, on the picket line with Biden at GM’s Willow Run Redistribution Middle, known as the second “historic.”

The official reelection endorsement comes months after the union led strikes in opposition to the Detroit automakers after the perimeters failed to succeed in new contracts masking about 150,000 autoworkers.

The strikes, which lasted roughly six weeks, ended after every of the businesses reached tentative agreements with the union in late October.

Fain has touted the agreements as helping within the union’s “simply transition” to electrical autos, noting that employees at many battery cell vegetation could be included underneath the UAW’s nationwide negotiations.

Prior UAW leaders endorsed Biden for election in opposition to President Donald Trump in 2020. Nevertheless, Trump notably gained the help of many blue-collar autoworkers throughout his presidential campaigns.

Michigan voters helped each Biden and Trump to win the White Home throughout the previous two presidential elections.

Trump, the front-runner amongst Republicans within the 2024 presidential race, hosted a rally at a Michigan plant of a nonunion provider the week of Biden’s picket-line go to.

Trump’s go to and rally, which largely targeted on the auto business, was criticized by the union and Fain, who has repeatedly mentioned he believes one other Trump presidency could be a “catastrophe.”

Through the occasion, Trump a number of occasions requested UAW members to encourage union leaders to endorse him.