President Joe Biden on Thursday will meet in Belvidere, Illinois, with the head of the United Auto Workers union, where the two leaders are expected to highlight plans to reopen an auto factory that Stellantis wanted to close. A White House official confirmed the meeting on the condition of anonymity to preview Biden’s trip to the region.
In the deal with Stellantis, the union was able to save the idled factory in Belvidere, a small city of 25,000 on the northern edge of the state. Biden made it a mission to cultivate a personal relationship with Fain, inviting him to a private Oval Office meeting on July 19 and calling him last week to wish him a happy 55th birthday.