Day One of an auto strike to feature rally with Sanders, but no Charity Preview picket

Detroit — As an auto strike appears ever more likely, the United Auto Workers' protest plans do not include a presence at the North American International Auto Show's swanky Charity Preview — but they do include a rally with a high-profile politician downtown on Friday.

The only event the international UAW has on the books for Friday — which would be Day One of an auto strike if one is called — is a rally at 4 p.m. at the UAW-Ford National Programs Center on Jefferson Avenue, which The Detroit News previously reported. The event is slated to be headlined by UAW President Shawn Fain and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont who has been a close ally of the union during contract negotiations with the Detroit automakers. The union is billing the event as a "Rally to save the American Dream."

Sanders has been a vocal supporter of the UAW as it pushes at the bargaining table for improvements including a shorter work week, restoration of pensions, double-digit wage increases, the end of a tier system under which newer workers have lower wages and benefits, and more. UAW leaders and Sanders have cast the union's demands as representative of a broader push to improve working conditions and quality of life for the working class.

"UAW members are fighting not only for themselves but against a corporate culture of arrogance, cruelty and selfishness causing massive and unnecessary pain for the majority of working families throughout the country," Sanders wrote on X this week, summarizing an op-ed he wrote for The Guardian. "Their fight is our fight."

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor, said on social media Thursday that there will not be a UAW-sponsored picket line at the Charity Preview on Friday night.

"I will join President Fain and (the UAW) at the solidarity rally on Friday, and then attend the Charity Preview," she wrote. "There won’t be a picket line, and we all support raising money for children’s charities."

The Charity Preview, a black-tie gala for which tickets cost $400 each, is a hallmark of the Detroit auto show, capping off media and industry days and coming just ahead of the start of the public portion of the show. The event, typically attended by auto industry executives and insiders, raises money for children's charities. The event is scheduled for 5 p.m. at Huntington Place — meaning, the UAW's event will be taking place simultaneously in a different part of downtown.

Beneficiaries of this year's Charity Preview include such organizations as the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southeastern Michigan, The Children's Center, and the University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, among others.

Meanwhile, the union and Detroit automakers alike are preparing for a strike that is looking ever more likely ahead of the current contracts' expiration at 11:59 p.m. Thursday. Still, negotiations continue as the union trades proposals back and forth with negotiators at General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis NV.

The UAW is planning a targeted strike of specific plants operated by each of the Detroit automakers if tentative agreements aren't reached by the deadline, The News previously reported.

jgrzelewski@detroitnews.com