Joe Biden’s visit to the UAW picket line is historic – and may pay off politically

The president standing in solidarity' with striking autoworkers is a powerful gesture that could resonate with key blue-collar voters

In the more than 150 years since workers first formed labor unions in the United States, no American president has ever stood in solidarity" with workers on a picket line. Joe Biden has vowed to do exactly that with striking autoworkers in Michigan on Tuesday.

This is genuinely new - I don't think it's ever happened before, a president on a picket line," said Nelson Lichtenstein, a longtime labor historian at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Candidates do it frequently and prominent senators, but not a president."