Autoworkers union endorses Kamala Harris for president

WASHINGTON — The United Auto Workers endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday, giving her the support of one of the nation’s most influential unions after it delayed to assess her approach to key issues, including the war in the Gaza Strip and U.S. investments in manufacturing jobs.

The UAW’s endorsement throws the union’s powerful organizing muscle behind Harris, who faces a tight race against former President Donald Trump. The union has about 370,000 members, with large presences in key battleground states like Michigan and Wisconsin.

“We stand at a crossroads in this country,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement, adding, “We can put a billionaire back in office who stands against everything our union stands for, or we can elect Kamala Harris who will stand shoulder to shoulder with us in our war on corporate greed.”

The statement noted that Harris would attend a rally in Detroit next week with UAW members and other Michigan voters.

While many unions were quick to endorse Harris after President Joe Biden dropped out and gave her his backing, the UAW held off, despite its long history of support for Democrats.

The group is one of Biden’s closest allies — having endorsed him in January — but it had questioned his policies toward Israel during the war in Gaza. In July, it joined a coalition of several unions that sent a letter to Biden urging him to “immediately halt all military aid to Israel as part of the work to secure an immediate and permanent cease-fire in the war in Gaza.”

A person familiar with the UAW board’s deliberations said that Fain had attempted to contact Biden during the week-and-half before Biden abandoned his reelection campaign, to urge him to consider doing so.

But Fain was unable to reach the president directly, according to the source, and the union considered going public with its concerns. The union’s board believed that Biden had been a highly effective president but had become pessimistic about his chances of winning reelection.

The same source said the group wanted indications that Harris understood the importance to the union of two key issues before endorsing her: continuing Biden’s agenda of investing in U.S. manufacturing jobs, and being more outspoken on the need to end the war in Gaza and attach strings to U.S. aid to Israel.

Fain and Harris spoke about these issues after Biden dropped out of the race, and the union was encouraged by the conversation.

A UAW communications official declined to comment. A Harris campaign spokesperson did not immediately comment.

Harris has hewed closely to the Biden administration’s policies on Gaza but she has also forcefully called out the severity of the humanitarian crisis there, saying after a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel that she would “not be silent.”

Both Biden and Harris have ties to organized labor. Biden served as a top Obama administration liaison to organized labor during his vice presidency and became the first sitting president to join a picket line when he visited striking autoworkers in Michigan last year. Harris joined workers during a strike against General Motors when she served in the Senate and, as vice president, led a task force examining the ways that the government could help expand union membership.

“Vice President Harris is honored to receive the endorsement of the United Auto Workers and knows it comes with the responsibility to fight for unions and working families as she’s done her whole career," said Harris’ campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, in a statement.

The UAW is especially influential in Michigan, where there is a sizable Arab American presence and pro-Palestinian sentiment. A protest movement against Biden in Michigan’s Democratic primary earned significant support — a worrying sign for Democratic hopes of winning the state in November. The union also represents tens of thousands of graduate students and other academic workers, many of whom have been outspoken in their opposition to the war in Gaza. It formally called for a cease-fire in Gaza in December.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.