U.A.W. Holds Off on Endorsing Harris

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A succession of unions and labor federations this week have endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, but one prominent group has stood out for its relative silence: the United Automobile Workers. The union, which has been a close ally of President Biden, noted in a statement after his withdrawal from the race that Ms. Harris had “walked the picket line with us” during a 2019 strike at General Motors. Ms. Harris, it said, “along with President Biden has brought work and jobs back to communities like Lordstown, Ohio, and Belvidere, Illinois,” where auto plants had been shuttered. But the U.A.W. has yet to offer its endorsement. On Tuesday, a U.A.W. spokesman said the union’s executive board “will meet in the coming days to discuss any presidential endorsements, and is excited to talk with Vice President Harris about the issues that matter to our members and the whole working class.” A spokesman for the Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment. Ms. Harris has interacted several times with the U.A.W. president, Shawn Fain, since he took office early last year. He said in an interview on Monday with MSNBC that Ms. Harris had called him on Sunday, but that he was on a plane and unable to take the call.