In what could be a preview of their strategies for the 2024 presidential election, both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will visit Michigan in the coming days, in connection with the ongoing strike by the United Auto Workers union.
Biden will travel to Michigan on Tuesday to meet with UAW workers who are picketing facilities owned by the Big Three automakers: Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. Trump is expected to be in the state the following day for a rally that his campaign has said will be attended by current and former labor union members, though not necessarily members of the UAW.
Both men have complicated relationships with the labor movement. Although Biden has been a longtime supporter of unions in general and has appointed a union-friendly majority to the National Labor Relations Board, some of his actions as president have angered union members. Trump’s administration was distinctly less friendly to labor, but the former president still received significant support from union members in both of his previous presidential runs.
With the UAW strike now in its second week, the president and the man most likely to be his opponent in next year’s election are focused on signaling solidarity with working-class Americans, whose political loyalties have been malleable in recent years.
Union attitudes shifted
Although union members were long considered a Democratic monolith when it comes to U.S. politics, the modern-day truth is more complicated.
When Trump won the presidency in 2016, he did so with 43% of votes from households that included at least one labor union member, according to the Roper Center for Public Opinion Polling. Against the vocally pro-union Biden in 2020, that percentage fell to 40%, but still represented a significant slice of the union vote.
“There has been a trend of union workers becoming identified more often as Republican over the last 10 to 15 years,” said Kevin Reuning, an assistant professor of political science at Miami University of Ohio. “There is a lot more diversity among union members than people think.”
Reuning told VOA that even though Trump had scant history of backing unions when he first ran for election, his willingness to tear up trade agreements that union members blame for shifting manufacturing jobs overseas probably played a big role in attracting a significant share of the union vote.
For example, Trump has been able to appeal to many union voters by blasting deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement, which was signed by former Democratic President Bill Clinton.
“Trump doesn’t have th