United Auto Workers who have been walking the picket lines in Plymouth are being joined by other union members Tuesday in a show of solidarity.
The Stellantis Parts Distribution Center off of Highway 55 is one of 38 additional facilities that joined the growing strike last week.
Among those showing support for striking workings Tuesday is Denise Specht, president of Education Minnesota which is the largest union in the state.
"I know that the people here that have been standing out on strike all night long, all day long, it just boosts their morale," said Specht. "It makes them feel better. They know that they are part of one big family and we are going to stand behind them until they get the fair contract they deserve."
"It's really pretty surreal, but we are out here marching for a great cause, standing up for everybody before us an everybody after us," explained Lorrie Perrault who is one of the striking workers.
Kirk Rourke is a member of the Teamsters Local 120 who was also there to show support.
"It is important to have support from everybody," said Rourke. "Because we're all in this together. This is a fight against the middle class. And that's what we're here for."
The strike against the big three automakers is in its 12th day.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden’s decision to stand alongside United Auto Workers pickets on Tuesday underscores support of labor unions that appears to be unparalleled in presidential history.
Experts in presidential and U.S. labor history say they cannot recall an instance when a sitting president has joined an ongoing strike, even during the tenures of the more ardent pro-union presidents such as Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Theodore Roosevelt invited labor leaders alongside mine operators to the White House amid a historic coal strike in 1902, a decision that was seen at the time as a rare embrace of unions as Roosevelt tried to resolve the dispute.
Biden will be arriving one day before former President Donald Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination, goes to Detroit to hold his own event in an attempt to woo autoworkers even though union leaders say he's no ally.
Union leaders say Trump's record in the White House speaks for itself. Union leaders have said his first term was far from worker-friendly, citing unfavorable rulings from the nation’s top labor board and the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as unfulfilled promises of automotive jobs. While the United Auto Workers union has withheld an endorsement in the 2024 presidential race, its leadership has repeatedly rebuffed Trump.