Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks speaks at a campaign rally at Drake Enterprises, a non-union automotive parts manufacturer, on September 27, 2023 in Clinton Township, Michigan. President Joe Biden met with striking UAW workers the day before at a General Motors parts facility. |(Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Former President Donald Trump told United Auto Workers (UAW) leaders Wednesday that they would not have a union if they fail to endorse him in the 2024 presidential election.

“They have to endorse Trump, because if they don’t, all they’re doing is committing suicide,” Trump said.

UAW President Shawn Fain criticized Trump’s Wednesday night visit to Drake Enterprises, a non-union automotive parts manufacturer in Clinton Township, Michigan, which the former president scheduled to counterprogram the second 2024 Republican presidential debate.

Trump, who is facing 91 state and federal felony charges in four jurisdictions, ?repeatedly attacked Fain throughout his remarks, even as he also claimed to support the striking UAW members. It was unclear how many striking workers were at the event.

“Shawn, endorse Trump and you can take a nice two month vacation, come back, and you guys are going to be better than you ever were,” Trump said. “The other way, you won’t have a vacation, Shawn. And in a short period of time, you’re not going to have a union. You’re not going to have jobs. You’re not going to have anything.”

The UAW has not endorsed in the 2024 presidential election. Michigan is, once again, expected to be a key swing state next year.

Fain did invite President Joe Biden, who defeated Trump in the 2020 election, to a picket line in Wayne County on Tuesday. Fain declined to meet with Trump.

“I don’t think the man [Trump] has any bit of care about what our workers stand for, what the working class stands for,” Fain said on CNN. “He serves the billionaire class and that’s what’s wrong with this country.”

The union has been on strike since Sept. 15 in the first time it has declared a strike against all three domestic automakers, with three sites targeted at first: Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, GM’s Wentzville plant in Missouri and Stellantis’ Jeep plant in Toledo.

Last week, the union began striking an additional 38 GM and Stellantis sites in 20 states, sparing Ford from the new batch of strikes because there had been meaningful progress in negotiations.

Fain said Wednesday that he will make an announcement Friday about the status of the strike.

The union is fighting for increased wages, a 32-hour work week and better pension benefits, among other issues such as an end to tiered compensation between workers with different lengths of service.

Fain joined Biden on Tuesday as he made a brief visit to a picket line in Belleville in what is thought to be the first time in at least a century that a sitting president has visited an active strike site.

Asked by a reporter whether UAW members deserve the 40% raise they are negotiating for, Biden responded, “Yes! Yes, I think they should be able to bargain for that.”

Trump told the striking workers that “I support you and your goal of fair wages and greater stability, and I truly hope you get a fair deal for yourselves and your families” but argued that “it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference” what concessions the workers are able to win because he predicted that in two to three years “the entire car industry will be packed up and shipped to China” as electric vehicles become more widely adopted.

Trump called the transition to electric vehicles “a transition to hell” and argued that “American labor will be under siege.”

U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, a Democrat, previously said during a visit to a picket line with U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pennsylvania, that electric vehicle production needs to be a focus of negotiations.

“Certainly a big part of this negotiation is to make sure as we make the transition to EVs that we have union workers making those vehicles in the battery plants and throughout the supply chain. There’s no reason why they need to be separate,” Peters said. “You can build world class EVs as long as you have union workers building them. That’s how you get world class workers.”

Ford announced earlier this week that it was pausing construction of a $3.5 billion electric vehicle battery plant in Marshall that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has touted as a key piece of her economic recovery agenda.

“Closing 65 plants over the last 20 years wasn’t enough for the Big Three, now they want to threaten us with closing plants that aren’t even open yet,” Fain said. “We are simply asking for a just transition to electric vehicles and Ford is instead doubling down on their race to the bottom.”

U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, joins striking UAW workers outside the Ford Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Michigan. on Sept. 16, 2023. (Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)

U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pennsylvania, on Saturday joined striking autoworkers outside the Ford Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Michigan. Fetterman said he drove about five hours from Braddock, Pennsylvania, in his UAW-made Ford Bronco to get to the plant.

“I always stand for the union way of life,” Fetterman said. “Whatever the unions say is in their best interest, that’s what I’m going to stand for.”

For the first time in history, the UAW has declared a strike against all three domestic automakers: Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. The union has three initial strike targets: Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant, GM’s Wentzville plant in Missouri and Stellantis’ Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio.

The union is fighting for increased wages, a 32-hour work week and better pension benefits, among other issues such as an end to tiered compensation between workers with different lengths of service.

Fetterman called President Joe Biden the “best labor president in recent time.” He spent about 15 minutes talking to workers, although not all were supportive.

One worker, wearing an “Impeach Biden” shirt, shouted to “get the dude who’s trying to say he’s John Fetterman out of here,” citing baseless conspiracy theories that Fetterman has a body double and never recovered from his stroke.

“I’m totally taking a picture with John Fetterman. This is my man right here. You don’t know nothing about labor if you don’t know about John Fetterman,” another worker said over the yelling.

U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat, said that while he and Fetterman hope the UAW can reach a deal with the auto companies quickly, it’s important to focus on the big picture even if the strikes drag on.

“When workers get fair wages and see an increase in wages, that’s great for the economy,” Peters said. “The more money you put in the pockets of middle class workers in this country, the stronger our economy is.”

Fetterman offered a contrast between the demands of workers and the combined $74 million earned by the CEOs of the Detroit Three auto companies.

“It’s $74 million, you know, collectively earning that. How many yachts can they need to water ski behind? It’s just crazy. Do what’s right for the unions in this nation and in Michigan.”

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont, on Friday led a UAW rally in Detroit where he also decried corporate greed. A slew of Democratic politicians were at the event, including Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell.