UAW's Fain to expand strike on Friday if no progress; Trump to visit after Biden

There's plenty of news is coming out of Detroit as the United Auto Workers (UAW) stand-up strikes enter their 13th day.

A UAW source confirms to Yahoo Finance that union President Shawn Fain will expand his "stand-up" strike strategy this Friday at 10 a.m. ET if no major progress has been made in talks with the Big Three. Last Friday, Fain and the UAW expanded their strikes to 38 GM and Stellantis parts and distribution facilities, sparing Ford because the UAW said it had made some progress with the Dearborn-based automaker.

News of a possible strike expansion comes as former President Donald Trump will set foot in Michigan following a historic visit by President Biden to the UAW picket line. On Tuesday, Biden met with UAW picketers at GM's Van Buren Township parts distribution center in Michigan. "Wall Street didn’t build this country; the middle class built this country. The unions built the middle class," Biden said to UAW workers on strike. "Let’s keep going. You deserve what you’ve earned. And you’ve earned a hell of a lot more than you’re getting paid now."

Biden also said that the UAW should fight for the 40% pay hike it had asked for, despite Big Three pleas that higher labor costs would make their cars uncompetitive in the marketplace.

Of course, Tesla CEO Elon Musk — no fan of Ford, GM, and Stellantis — weighed in. He said a 40% pay hike would be bad for his Big Three competition and lead to their eventual “bankruptcy.” That's not a surprising take from Musk given his past anti-union views.

Nonetheless, for the UAW, Biden’s visit brought a huge spotlight to its labor fight, with the union and its president Shawn Fain effectively embracing Biden ahead of the visit by Trump.

Trump is expected to hold a rally with 500 former or current union members in Clinton Township, Mich., shunning the GOP debate occurring at the same time on Wednesday night in California. Ironically, Trump is holding his event at non-union auto supplier Drake Enterprises, per Michigan's AFL-CIO.

This led to Fain noting his disgust once again for Trump’s Michigan visit. “I see no point in meeting with him because I don’t think the man has any bit of care about what our workers stand for, what the working class stands for,” Fain said to CNN on Tuesday. “[Trump] serves a billionaire class and that’s what’s wrong [with] this country.”