Sean Fain, president of the United Auto Workers union, said the union was “in no rush” to endorse Vice President Harris after President Biden dropped out of the presidential race on Sunday.
The UAW endorsed Biden in January, but on Sunday he endorsed Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, after she suffered a disastrous defeat in a debate in late June and dropped out of the race due to concerns about her age and mental health.
Since the announcement, several major labor unions have endorsed Harris, including: AFL-CIO, United Steelworkers, American Federation of Teachers, Food and Commercial Workers Union And that International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
But the UAW isn’t on that list yet.
“We are in no rush to throw it out there and we hope to have a fruitful discussion when we meet. [with Harris’s team]”And I think it’s important that they do that. We owe it to them to do that,” Fein told Biden’s former press secretary, Jen Psaki, on MSNBC.
Fein also said the past few days and weeks have been “emotional,” and called Biden “the greatest president and the most pro-worker president I’ve ever lived.”
He also said Biden did the “honorable thing” and criticized former President Trump.
“Can you imagine Donald Trump putting his ego aside and doing the right thing for the country? That’s just not going to happen,” Fain added.
Fain and Trump have traded accusations against each other multiple times during the election, with Trump calling for Fain’s firing during a speech at the Republican National Convention last week, the union attacking social platform X and calling the former president a “billionaire strikebreaker.”
The union leader also praised Harris for walking the picket line with UAW workers in 2019 when Trump was president, saying “Harris should never have been on a picket line.”
