DETROIT (Michigan News Source) – The United Auto Workers continue to strike the Big Three Automakers, and have even enlisted the support of President Joseph Biden. 

“You’ve heard me say it many times,” President Biden said at a UAW picket line. “Wall Street didn’t build the country; the middle class built the country.” 

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White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Michigan that “Biden is fighting to ensure that the cars of the future will be built in America by unionized American workers in good-paying jobs, instead of being built in China,” according to PBS. 

President Biden joined the picket line a day before former President Donald Trump is expected to make an appearance in Michigan and give a speech about the strikes. 

“You deserve what you earned, and you’ve earned a hell of a lot more than you get paid now,” President Biden said to a crowd of UAW strikers. 

According to UAW President Shawn Fain, “This is a historic moment: the first time in our country’s history that a sitting USA President has came out and stood on the picket line.” 

During the rally near UAW Local 174 at the Willow Run Redistribution Center in Belleville, Fain spoke against corporate leaders. 

“These CEOs sit in their offices,” Fain said at the rally. “They sit in meetings. They make decisions, but we make the product. They think they own the world, but we make it run. The CEOs think the future belongs to them. Today belongs to the auto workers and the working class.”

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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer echoed the historic nature of the President’s visit, acknowledging how Michigan has benefited from federal investments. 

“President Biden’s visit to Michigan, home of the Big Three, to support our world-class autoworkers is historic,” said Gov. Whitmer in a statement. “The president is committed to strengthening our workforce and economy by bringing jobs home from overseas, reversing trends of the previous administration that lost jobs. Since taking office, we’ve announced 36,000 auto jobs with help from President Biden’s investments, proving it’s possible to support working men and women, while also securing record-breaking economic development deals that will guarantee jobs and investment for decades.”    

 On Friday, Fain activated an additional 5,000 more members of the auto union in order to join the plants already on strike, adding Willow Run Redistribution, among 37 other locations across 20 states to ‘Stand Up’ Strike General Motors and Stellantis.

“But to be clear, we’re not done at Ford,” Fain said, “We still have serious issues to work through, we do want to recognize that Ford is serious about reaching a deal.  At GM and Stellantis, it’s a different story.”

While the UAW chose not to expand strikes to more of Ford’s facilities, the Dearborn based automaker has decided to cease construction at the Marshall facility under development, the Ford BlueOval Battery Park Plant. 

“We’re pausing work, and we’re going to limit spending on construction at Marshall until we’re confident about our ability to competitively run the plant,” Ford spokesman T.R. Reid told the Detroit News on Monday. 

Fain made a statement on the ramifications of Ford ceasing construction for workers. 

“This is a shameful, barely-veiled threat by Ford to cut jobs,” Fain said. “Closing 65 plants over the last 20 years wasn’t enough for the Big Three, now they want to threaten us with closing plants that aren’t even open yet. We are simply asking for a just transition to electric vehicles and Ford is instead doubling down on their race to the bottom.”

Former President Donald Trump is expected to speak to roughly 500 current and former union members in Clinton Township Wednesday night.