Good morning, I'm Taylor Wilson, and this is five things you need to know Wednesday the 20th of September, 2023.

Today, President Joe Biden stands on the UAW strike, plus Hunter Biden will plead not guilty to federal gun charges,

and Vladimir Zelensky addresses the UN.

The United Auto Workers Strike has caught President Joe Biden's attention.

I spoke with USA Today White House correspondent Joey Garrison about what his support for the workers means politically, and how the union feels about it.

Joey, thanks for having on.

Thanks for having me.

So Joey, just starting here, where does President Joe Biden stand on the United Auto Workers Strike?

Well, President Biden in a speech at the White House last week made it pretty unequivocal that he stands behind the UAW strikers,

at the same day that they went on strike at three plants in locations in Ohio, Missouri and Michigan, and really in doing so, he went further than he has in other labor disputes that have gone on since he has taken office.

Now President Biden has made no bones about where he stands on the side of unions.

He likes to think of himself as the most pro-union president in U.S. history, but he hadn't gotten really as far as he has in this case where he actually endorsed a lot of the demands pushed by UAW workers for higher pay, etc.

So that's where he stands on this issue, and he made it pretty unmistakable whose side he's on.

Does the White House have plans to formally get involved in strike negotiations?

Not as of right now. Now you might remember the rail dispute that we saw about last year in the White House was mediators in that issue.

Now that was very different in that Congress and the federal government plays a unique role when it comes to the rail sector in terms of setting contracts of the rail workers.

For now, they're keeping an arms length of the negotiations between UAW and the three auto manufacturers, but they are sending later this week the acting Labor Secretary Julie Wu, as well as Gene Spurling, who is a White House advisor to Detroit where they'll be on hand if either side wants to bring in the White House for their input, etc.

But right now that is a key distinction that they are not serving as mediators in the dispute.

Joey, what's the political strategy for the Biden camp on this?

It's impossible to ignore the 2024 election backdrop of this strike.

For several years now, all the Democrats and unions have traditionally been tied to each other and Democrats are historically backed by unions.

The rank and file members of unions in the Midwest and elsewhere, their support for voting for Democrats has slipped.

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