The powerful motor union UAW recommends voting for Biden in the presidential elections

Joe Biden has scored something important this Wednesday in his race for re-election in November.

The president of the United States has received the strong support of Shawn Fain, the leader of the powerful United Auto Workers (UAW) union.

Fain returns the favor that Biden did him with a historic gesture, when he joined, megaphone in hand, a picket of the strike that the union maintained against the Big Three of Detroit: General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, which absorbed Chrysler .

The vote of industrial workers can be decisive in some of the key states of the November presidential elections, such as Pennsylvania, Michigan or Wisconsin.

The UAW union has nearly 400,000 members.

The event in which Biden participated was held the day after Tuesday's New Hampshire primaries, where Donald Trump obtained a clear victory against Nikki Haley, putting his nomination as a Republican candidate on track.

Biden, for her part, comfortably won the Democratic primaries despite not appearing on the ballots.

“I know there are people who want to ignore these elections,” said the union president.

“Elections are not just about choosing your best friend for office or the candidate who makes you feel best.

Elections are about power,” he continued.

“This November, we can stand up and elect someone who will stand with us and support our cause, or we can elect someone who will divide us and fight us every step of the way.

The question is, who do we want in that position to give us the best opportunity to win?”

When asked by the union leader, those in attendance applauded and chanted Joe Biden's name.

Fain pointed to a Biden quote projected on the screens in support of auto unions and the crowd cheered.

He then highlighted quotes from Donald Trump, including one about unions “hurting” the auto industry, and many in the audience booed.

“Rarely as a union do you have the choice between two candidates so clear,” concluded Fain.

At one point a blank white square was projected on the screens, which Fain said was an image of what Trump did for American auto workers.

He recalled that when the UAW union went on strike against GM in 2019, Trump, then president, remained silent.

"He said nothing.

He did nothing.

Not a damn thing because he doesn't care about the American worker,” Fain said.

And he pointed out the contrast with Biden's attitude during last year's strike.

“During our

Stand Up strike,

[Biden] heard the call and stood up,” Fain said, noting that it was “the first time a sitting president did that,” joining a picket line.

“Joe Biden went for the American worker while Donald Trump blamed the American worker.

So if our support has to be earned, Joe Biden has earned it.

“Today I am proud to stand here with the international executive board and announce that the UAW endorses Joe Biden for president of the United States,” the union president said.

Biden has declared himself the most union-friendly president in the history of the United States.

Before the 2022 legislative elections he already campaigned alongside union leaders, but the moment in which he showed it most was when last September he joined the pickets of the UAW union strike in a center for a quarter of an hour. General Motors distribution center in the Detroit metropolitan area.

Megaphone in hand, standing on some wooden pallets and wearing a union cap, he then showed his support for the strikers' demands: “Stay firm.

You deserve a considerable raise and other benefits,” he said.

“Wall Street didn't build this country, the middle class built this country, and unions built the middle class,” he added.

Unions achieved the most advantageous collective agreement in decades, recovering some of the purchasing power and advantages lost in the wake of the financial crisis.

The UAW union has been the most powerful and influential union in the United States throughout its 88-year history, but it had fallen into an era of decadence and corruption for which two of its presidents ended up in prison.

In March, Fain became the union's first president to be directly elected by its members and with his aggressive approach he won a more advantageous agreement.

The union is usually one of the last to offer support to one of the candidates, since its members include many voters of both parties.

With the backing of unions, Biden hopes to trim the advantage Trump has enjoyed among white workers without a college degree.

Trump stole from the Democrats the traditional support of a large part of the industrial workers of the so-called rust belt of the United States, where heavy industry is concentrated.

He beat Hillary Clinton in 2016 in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, among other states where the weight of blue-collar workers has an important weight, and thanks to that she achieved the presidency.

Biden regained all three in 2020 and, along with Arizona, Nevada and Georgia, they can be decisive again this year.

At this Wednesday's event, Biden boasted of having maintained his commitment to being the most pro-union president in history.

“It is not the first time that he participated in a picket.

In Delaware, my home state, I did it many times.

But it was the first time that a president did it, I found out later,” he explained.

“We have a great fight ahead of us.

“We are fundamentally changing the economy of this country,” Biden said.

“Since I came to office, with your help we have created 14 million new jobs,” he added, thanking the union for its support while attendees chanted: “Four more years!

“Four more years!”

Even at this event, the specter of pro-Palestinian protests over Biden's support for Israel in the Gaza war haunted him.

At almost every campaign event he has been interrupted by activists.

Follow all the information on the elections in the United States in

our weekly newsletter

.