United Auto Workers withholding Biden endorsement over concerns with EV policies

The Leaders of the United Auto Workers (UAW) are withholding an endorsement for President Biden’s reelection bid due to their concerns over the White House’s focus on electric vehicles.

The president has directed major funding towards a transition to electric vehicles, building up manufacturing of parts and charging stations. The UAW said in a memo obtained by The Hill that their concerns over the transition need to be addressed before they can endorse Biden.

“The federal government is pouring billions into the electric vehicle transition, with no strings attached and no commitment to workers. The EV transition is at serious risk of becoming a race to the bottom. We want to see national leadership have our back on this before we make any commitments,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in the memo.

Fain said they want to see a “just transition” to electric vehicles “where the workers who make the auto industry run aren’t left behind.” He noted that taxpayer money is being used to build up the electric vehicle industry. 

The withheld endorsement was first reported by The Detroit News.

Fain said that a team of UAW leadership went to Washington, D.C., last week to meet with members of the Biden administration and told them about how “plant closures and idlings … turn our members’ lives upside down, forcing workers to choose to take a buyout, retire, or transfer, uprooting their families and communities.”

He pointed to the closure of Ford’s Romeo Engine Plant, Stellantis’s Belvidere Assembly Plant, and GM’s Lordstown Assembly.

The union has historically backed Democrats and endorsed Biden in 2020. Fain also made clear in the memo the union is not going to support former President Trump, Biden’s likely challenger.

“Another Donald Trump presidency would be a disaster. But our members need to see an alternative that delivers real results. We need to get our members organized behind a pro-worker, pro-climate, and pro-democracy political program that can deliver for the working class,” Fain said.

Biden has billed himself as the most pro-union president in history, and often gives speeches in front of union workers about job creation and manufacturing in the U.S. 

The withheld endorsement is a blow for the president, who also touts himself as a “car guy,” just a week after he launched his reelection campaign. Other unions have already backed Biden, such as the Service Employees International Union and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Former UAW president Ray Curry visited the White House during the first two years in office for events including Biden’s signing of the CHIPs and Science Act. He was ousted in March in the union’s first direct election, and Fain took over, CNBC reported at the time.