Biden visits Belvidere, Illinois, to celebrate UAW victory in restarting plant, saving ‘the beating heart’ of a small auto town

BELVIDERE, Ill. — President Joe Biden came to Belvidere on Thursday to celebrate the restarting of the idled Stellantis plant and tout his role in supporting the United Auto Workers, whose strike negotiations made it possible.

In a speech before a jubilant crowd of union autoworkers at the Boone County community center, Biden, who became the first sitting president to join a picket line last month in Michigan, donned a red UAW/Belvidere T-shirt in a show of solidarity before delivering his address.

“The Belvidere Assembly Plant was the beating heart of this community for nearly six decades, just like it was back in Delaware, where I was raised,” Biden said. “Eight months ago, the plant idled indefinitely, 1,200 of you lost jobs. When that happens, the community loses more than jobs. They lose their sense of pride, lose their sense of being, lose their sense of dignity.”