UAW's Shawn Fain makes Time's list of 100 most influential people of 2024

UAW President Shawn Fain caught the world's attention last year with his fiery rhetoric and memorable speeches calling for workers to get their "fair share" as the union he leads launched its historic strike against the Detroit Three.

Now, Time has named him to the publication's list of the 100 most influential people of 2024, showing that the message he carries has resonance beyond the traditional sphere of organized labor — and Time tapped President Joe Biden to explain why he was chosen. Fain joins an overall list that includes musician Dua Lipa, filmmaker Sofia Coppola and quarterback Patrick Mahomes. He appears in the category titled "Innovators."

"Shawn and I share a basic view of how workers deserve to be treated," Biden wrote. "Just as they sacrificed when their employers were on the brink, they deserve record contracts when those companies have record profits. It’s only fair. The historic wage increases the UAW won under Shawn’s leadership carry forward the powerful legacy of labor leader and fellow UAW president Walter Reuther, and have led virtually every auto-maker across the country to follow suit. They remind us that when unions win, all workers benefit."

Biden started the story by recalling his visit to Michigan in September, joining Fain as the president walked the picket line at General Motors' Willow Run Redistribution Center in Van Buren Township. The message from Fain then was that UAW members are the highest authority in the union, just as citizens are the highest authority in this country.

Fain, Biden wrote, represents the "hard-won success" that unions had during 2023.

Part of that success from the strikes against the Ford Motor Co., GM and Stellantis, owner of Jeep, Ram, Chrysler, Dodge and Fiat, helped invigorate an organizing push across the many nonunion auto plants in the United States. Interestingly, the Time list was announced on Wednesday, the same day that union voting started at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

If UAW supporters can score a victory there — voting wraps up Friday — it would mark the most significant win by the UAW in decades, coming in the U.S. South, a region that has long proven challenging for UAW organizers. A victory could also lead to even more momentum, with details expected soon on a UAW election for Mercedes-Benz workers in Alabama.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: UAW's Shawn Fain picked for Time's list of most influential people