President Biden joins United Auto Workers picket line in Michigan

President Joe Biden is now the first sitting president to join a picket line as he joined UAW members on strike in Michigan.

“I’ve marched a lot of UAW Picket lines when I was a senator, since 1973, but I’ll tell you what, this is the first time I’ve ever done it as the President,” Biden said.

Presidents, including Biden himself, previously have declined to wade into union disputes to avoid the perception of taking sides.

While Biden has repeatedly touted his status as "the most pro-labor president," the White House worked to toe a thin line on Monday ahead of the president's visit. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated that Biden is “standing with the workers" and that the administration is "not involved in negotiations."

CNN's Betsy Klein and Nikki Carvajal contributed reporting to this post.

In front of President Biden standing amongst picketers and embracing a striking autoworker, UAW president Shawn Fain advocated heavily for the working class and the autoworkers on strike.

As Biden watched on and with applause from the picketers, Fain said, "our president has chosen to stand up for economic and social justice."

"These CEOs sitting in their office, they make the decisions, but we make the product," he added.

He mentioned workers in Hollywood, Starbucks, teachers and nurses who are also joining in the labor movement.

President Joe Biden told UAW members that they deserved a "significant raise" as he visited a picket line in Michigan on Tuesday.

Speaking to the crowd with a bullhorn, Biden said the workers “saved the automobile industry back in 2008 and before” and made a lot of sacrifices when the “companies were in trouble," adding:

And now they’re doing incredibly well, and guess what, you should be doing incredibly well, too.

Biden noted he's said many times that the middle class built America, and he proclaimed Tuesday that "unions build the middle class -- that's a fact."

You deserve what you've earned and you've earned a hell of a lot more than you get paid now.

The UAW union announced last week it is expanding its strike against GM and Stellantis in response to what it called a lack of movement from the two companies. Ford, the third company in the Big Three, was largely spared a strike expansion thanks to what the UAW said was progress in the company's offers.

President Joe Biden has joined the picket line at GM's Willow Run Redistribution Center in Wayne, Michigan.

This center is near where the B-24 Liberator bomber was built for use during WW2.

"Today, the enemy isn't some foreign country miles away, it's right here in our own area. It's corporate greed," UAW President Shawn Fain said.

In a statement Tuesday, GM did not criticize the president's union support.

"Our focus is not on politics but continues to be on bargaining in good faith with the UAW leadership to reach an agreement as quickly as possible that rewards our workforce and allows GM to succeed and thrive into the future," the company's statement said.

Along with UAW President Shawn Fain, a group of politicians from Michigan greeted President Biden when he touched down in the key swing state.

Michigan Democratic US Representatives Shri Thanedar, Debbie Dingell and Rashida Tlaib met the president. Michigan Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist, II, also was also on the tarmac.

UAW President Shawn Fain released a statement on X — formerly known as Twitter — Monday regarding Ford’s decision to pause work on a $3.5 billion Michigan electric vehicle battery plant.

Ford is pausing work on the new plant in Michigan, even as the transition to electric vehicles has become a major sticking point in a United Auto Workers strike against automakers Ford, GM and Stellantis.

No final decision has been made on whether the plant will, ultimately, become operational, said Ford spokesman T.R. Reid.

President Joe Biden has landed in Michigan and is expected to join United Auto Workers union members on the picket line at around 12:45 p.m. ET.

When he arrived, a reporter yelled, "What will it take to get to UAW endorsement?"

"I'm not worried about that," the president responded.

UAW President Shawn Fain, who invited Biden to the picket line, is also there. Earlier this year, Fain was vocal in his criticism of Biden, especially for his administration’s financial support of a transition by the auto industry from traditional gasoline powered cars to electric vehicles, which the UAW sees as a threat to its members’ jobs.

When President Joe Biden becomes the first sitting president to visit a picket line Tuesday, United Auto Workers union President Shawn Fain will be there with him. It's quite a change in the relationship between the two.

Six months ago, it was doubtful Biden or almost anyone else at the White House knew who Fain was. He was an upstart challenger seeking to topple the caucus that ran the UAW for decades in its first popular election. He ended up winning by less than 500 votes.

But soon after the election, he started making life difficult for the White House, attacking it for federal loans going to automakers to build EV battery plants that are expected to pay a fraction of union wages.

"Why is Joe Biden’s administration facilitating this corporate greed with taxpayer money?” Fain said in a June statement attacking a $9.2 billion loan to Ford and South Korean battery manufacturing partner SK.

And in July, Fain was at the White House meeting with staff about the administration's support for EVs, and he met face-to-face with Biden. Since then he's been far more limited in his public criticism of Biden.

And Biden has voiced support for many of the union's talking points in its negotiations with the automakers.

The first day of the strike Biden said that while the automakers had made "some significant offers," that he believed "they should go further to ensure record corporate profits mean record contracts for the UAW."

And on Friday, only hours after Fain invited Biden to join members on picket lines, the White House announced plans for Tuesday's visit, with Biden saying he would "stand in solidarity with the men and women of UAW as they fight for a fair share of the value they helped create."

But while the UAW has yet to endorse Biden for reelection, as other unions have done, Fain has been very critical of former President Donald Trump, who is due to speak to union members in Michigan on Wednesday. "Every fiber of our union is being poured into fighting the billionaire class and an economy that enriches people like Donald Trump at the expense of workers," Fain said last week after Trump's trip was announced. The union has not been in touch with the Trump campaign about its plans for Wednesday, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Jeremi Suri, a presidential historian and professor at the University of Texas at Austin, said he doesn’t believe any president has ever visited a picket line during a strike.

Earlier this year, United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain was vocal in his criticism of President Joe Biden, especially for his administration’s financial support of a transition by the auto industry from traditional gasoline powered cars to electric vehicles, which the UAW sees as a threat to its members’ jobs.

But after Fain and Biden met face-to-face at the White House in July, the union boss has been far less critical of the president in public comments. And Biden has echoed many of the union’s talking points during its ongoing negotiations with the automakers.