The United Auto Workers (UAW) union is getting a lot of publicity for its stance that the union will not endorse Joe Biden in his bid for re-election. What? A major blue-collar union won’t endorse the Democrat running for president? Not so fast…

The UAW caused some waves when its leadership announced there will be no endorsement of Joe Biden but there is a catch. The union is nervous about the Biden administration’s push for electric vehicles and the potential that push brings for job loss for auto worker union members. The small print of that bold declaration is that the union big shots are just waiting for Joe Biden to pander to their concerns. They are waiting for assurances from “the most union-friendly president ever”, as Biden likes to call himself, that jobs will not be lost.

The key word is “yet” – the union is not yet endorsing Biden. It isn’t honestly saying it won’t endorse Biden. We all know it will, just not yet.

“The federal government is pouring billions into the electric vehicle transition, with no strings attached and no commitment to workers,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in a message. “The EV transition is at serious risk of becoming a race to the bottom. We want to see national leadership have our back on this before we make any commitments.”

Fain claims he wants a “just transition” for the union’s members and says that isn’t happening at the moment.

Electric vehicles require less traditional labor and parts than cars with internal combustion engines.

In other words, the declaration of non-endorsement is a negotiating tactic. They want guarantees from candidate Biden that benefit the union’s workers. Frankly, Biden shouldn’t have any qualms about promising the union whatever it wants. He has bent over backward to portray himself as the union worker’s best friend. Biden has frequently gone to a union venue to deliver a speech about jobs or the economy and do his Lunch Bucket Joe routine. He flipped Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania in 2020 from Trump. He often visits those states to tout manufacturing initiatives and alleged job creation.

The union has made it clear it will not support Donald Trump in 2024. That tells you all you need to know. They won’t sit the election out because that would be a lost opportunity to use their power of persuasion over blue-collar voters in a presidential election. Union dues contribute to presidential elections in a big way. Democrats depend on their support.

The UAW isn’t going anywhere. So, when you see a union official on a cable news channel like FNC talking about hanging back and not offering an endorsement of Biden, take it with a large grain of salt. Conservative hosts may get a little excited to hear a major union smack-talk a Democrat running for president but it’s for show. Don’t get sucked into the drama. In the end, a deal will be struck, guarantees will be made, and Joe Biden will be endorsed by the UAW. A big event will be held to make the announcement and the status quo will remain in place. Cynical? Maybe. But union leadership isn’t changing after all these years, even over an incompetent president like Joe Biden. They have worked too hard and long for their place of importance in Democrat Party politics.

Union officials have already traveled to Washington to meet with the Biden administration officials to voice their concerns. A memo written by the union’s president, Shawn Fain, said the Detroit-based union leadership expressed “our concerns with the electric vehicle transition” that Biden pursues.

The memo underscores how some of Mr. Biden’s boldest moves to fight climate change, which animate his liberal base, could at the same time weaken his political support among another crucial constituency. The U.A.W. has shrunk in size in recent decades, but it still counts about 400,000 active members, with a robust presence in Michigan, a critical battleground state for Democrats.

In April, the Biden administration proposed the nation’s most ambitious climate regulations yet, which would ensure that two-thirds of new passenger cars are all-electric by 2032 — up from just 5.8 percent today. The rules, if enacted, could sharply lower planet-warming pollution from vehicle tailpipes, the nation’s largest source of greenhouse emissions. But they come with costs for autoworkers, because it takes fewer than half the laborers to assemble an all-electric vehicle as it does to build a gasoline-powered car.

Talking points were provided in the memo, too. One point is that if companies received federal subsidies, then workers “must be compensated with top wages and benefits.” Fain is the new union president who defeated the incumbent by promising a more confrontational style of contract negotiations. That tracks with how he is handling the presidential endorsement. Fain may be aggressively negotiating with Team Biden but there is no doubt as to which candidate will eventually get the endorsement.

“Another Donald Trump presidency would be a disaster,” reads Mr. Fain’s memo, which was first reported by The Detroit News. “But our members need to see an alternative that delivers real results. We need to get our members organized behind a pro-worker, pro-climate, and pro-democracy political program that can deliver for the working class.”

It’s all a negotiating tactic. The presidential endorsement will come. You can take that to the bank.