UAW Strike Support Hits a New High Following Michigan Visits From Biden and Trump

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A week that saw President Joe Biden make history by becoming the first U.S. president to visit a labor union picket line also saw record-high support among the public for the United Auto Workers strike against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.

According to the latest weekly Morning Consult survey tracking public sentiment of the ongoing Sept. 15 strike, 58% of U.S. adults support it — up 5 percentage points from the previous survey and the highest reading recorded so far.

The increase in support from the previous survey was largely driven by Republicans, among whom support rose from 41% to 49%, and independents, among whom support rose from 45% to 51%. Roughly 7 in 10 Democrats support the UAW’s strike, which is largely in line with findings from the past month.

While it’s possible that Biden’s Sept. 26 pep talk to workers at a General Motors warehouse outside Detroit is partially responsible for the uptick in support among Republicans, it’s also plausible — and perhaps more likely — that former President Donald Trump’s own visit to a nonunion auto factory in Michigan, where some striking UAW members were said to be present, is filtering down to his base.

Roughly half (49%) of Republican voters said they had seen, read or heard something about Trump’s Sept. 27 address to those autoworkers, slightly less than the 59% who said the same of Biden’s visit to the picket line. Among all U.S. voters, 64% reported hearing at least something about Biden’s personal outreach, compared with 49% who said the same of Trump’s.

However, we can’t completely discount the notion that coverage of Biden’s visit has translated to increased support for the UAW’s efforts even among Americans who loathe the president. 

While 58% of U.S. adults who identify as Republican disapprove of Biden’s urging of UAW workers to “stick with it” at the picket line, an ample 29% approve of the historic visit. (Among registered Republican voters, approval was a bit lower at 24%, while disapproval was higher at 62%.)

It’s tough to parse exactly how public consumption of these speeches is influencing opinion on the strike itself, but it’s clear that coverage of these visits drove more attention to the strike.

Almost two-thirds (65%) of U.S. adults now say they’ve heard something about the strike, up from 42% who said they’d heard about the potential strike in the week before it happened. The volume of coverage is also spiking: Roughly a quarter (26%) of U.S. adults say they have heard “a lot” about the strike, almost twice the share who said the same in early September.

The bottom line

Visits by the leaders of the country’s two major parties are the latest and clearest sign that  unions’ political strength is on the rise in America — a significant shift from a decadeslong depletion of power for organized labor.

In the case of an increasingly likely Biden-Trump rematch, many industry leaders looking toward 2024 should expect a continuation of unfavorable rhetoric from the most high-profile part of the campaign trail. If our data on public support for the UAW's activities is any guide, that rhetoric will continue filtering down to the American public throughout the election season.