Should the UAW Have Endorsed Biden?

The answer is yes.

But this has not gone unchallenged from the growing left wing of the United Auto Workers. That’s because the UAW has engaged in organizing around the nation outside the auto industry, which means it’s brought in a lot of academics, especially graduate students, who have a very different agenda than actual autoworkers do. That’s going to be the reality of organizing today–unions may still have their base in traditional industries, but nearly all unions outside the building trades have quite complex memberships and large minorities who may have political agendas either to the left or to the right of the core membership.

The basic argument here is that the UAW screwed up by endorsing Biden because doing so meant it backed off of its call for a ceasefire in Palestine. You can read it if you like. Labor unions have every right to a foreign policy. After all, corporations have foreign policies and influence policymakers on this, so why not unions? It’s been part and parcel of the labor movement for a long time, even though that foreign policy was often terrible in the AFL-CIA era under George Meany and Lane Kirkland. So I have no principled problem with a union endorsing or not endorsing someone over a foreign policy issue.

At the same time, anyone who thought the UAW wasn’t going to endorse Biden for any reason was high on their own supply. Of course that was going to happen. UAW already waited a pretty long time to do this, at least in comparison to a lot of other unions. And yeah, Shawn Fain was able to go to Biden and say “you need to do more to earn this.” But the problem then is that Biden did just that. At some point with political endorsements, when the candidate does what you want them to do, you have to pull the trigger. You can’t just keep coming back with more stuff to earn an endorsement. This is what I think a lot of people on the left don’t really get when they want unions or other groups to do politics in their way. You made the ask, you got what you wanted, now it’s your turn. Otherwise, they are going to ignore you.

Moreover, let’s also not forget what Donald Trump would mean for the American labor movement. We already know this from what his appointees, both in the DOL and the courts, did and in the latter case continue to do to organized labor. The article above sort of admits this but then tries to move on. But you really can’t. Moreover, for as terrible as Biden has been on Israel/Palestine, what leftists have to get into their heads is that Trump will be a lot worse, since he will do whatever Netanyahu wants. I too think Biden has been disastrous on Israel. But the choice here is Joe Biden or Donald Trump. Since this is the actual choice, despite the fantasies of nearly everyone for Johnny Unbeatable to come in and enact their personal political preferences, you can have the guy who is too enamored with Zionism or the guy who openly hates Muslims. It’s not the difference you’d like to see, but it is a difference.

In the end, UAW leadership did have to decide what is best for its interests. The UAW does not represent the world. It represents its members. Choosing to endorse Joe Biden was the only choice to make.