Biden's UAW Picket Line Visit Tests Union Support in 2024 Battleground

President Biden's unprecedented appearance Tuesday on a picket line in Michigan will test his support with rank-and-file union voters in a key 2024 battleground state.

Biden will meet with striking members of the United Auto Workers union in the Detroit area, becoming the first sitting president in modern U.S. history to join a picket line. Tuesday marks the 12th day of the UAW's strike against the country's three largest automakers.

"The symbolism is huge," Joseph McCartin, an expert on U.S. labor history at Georgetown University, told Newsweek. "For a president to go to a picket line is as strong a stand as you can make."

In the past presidents have expressed solidarity with organized labor, but Biden's appearance alongside striking union workers appears to be unprecedented, according to labor historians.

Abraham Lincoln met at the White House with striking workers frustrated over labor conditions at Navy shipyards during the Civil War. Decades later, private sector unions won the right to organize with the passage of the Wagner Act under Franklin D. Roosevelt.

More recently, then-candidate Barack Obama said in 2008 that he would be open to joining a picket line to protect workers rights, but he never did so as president.

Biden's decision to break from the longstanding tradition of U.S. presidents taking a hands-off approach to labor disputes is in keeping with his vocal support for unions. Biden often describes himself as the "most pro-union president" in American history.

The trip will also give Biden an opportunity to present a clear contrast with former President Donald Trump, who is planning to visit a non-union plant in Michigan on Wednesday to rally working and middle class voters in the state who backed him in 2016 and 2020.

Trump won Michigan in 2016 by just 10,704 votes, but lost the state to Biden in 2020 by three percentage points. Biden will need support from rank-and-file union workers in Michigan to carry the state again in 2024.

Biden's unusual show of support for the UAW won praise from union leaders.

"President Biden is demonstrating once again that he is the most pro-union president in history," AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in a statement ahead of Biden's trip. "He understands that UAW members' fight for a fair contract is deeply connected to the struggle over the soul of our country."

Still, Biden's decision to join a picket line is not without risk.

Biden's focus on the UAW strike has amplified a debate over the administration's push for automakers to transition to electric vehicles. Republicans including Trump—the 2024 GOP frontrunner—have slammed Biden's support for electric vehicles and overall push for the economy to shift to clean energy.

"Biden is a catastrophe for Michigan, and his environmental extremism is heartless and disloyal and horrible for the American worker," Trump said at a campaign rally in Michigan in June.

The visit by Biden to Detroit also comes amid growing concern that a prolonged work stoppage, combined with a possible government shutdown, could damage the economy.

The work stoppage won't have a significant impact on the national economy "if the strike doesn't go on too long," Gabriel Ehrlich, an economic forecaster at the University of Michigan, told Newsweek. "But if we have a longer strike, you could see negative job numbers in a couple of months."

Any economic slowdown, whether or not it's related to the strike, could be damaging for Biden. The president enters the 2024 election with low overall approval ratings, and a new ABC poll released Monday showed just 30 percent of Americans approve of Biden's handling of the economy.