Belvidere

“I’ve been involved in the U.A.W. longer than you’ve been alive,” Mr. Biden, then 80, told the boisterous crowd at an event in Illinois in November, after the union reached an agreement with Ford, General Motors and Stellantis on a contract that included pay increases and reopened a plant in Belvidere, Ill.

Amid wild cost fluctuations and extreme weather conditions, a small army of workers toiled for years at Wyckoff’s Christmas Tree Farm in Belvidere, N.J.

His family has been growing Christmas trees in Belvidere, N.J., about a 90-minute drive from Midtown Manhattan, since his grandfather started the business in the 1950s.

The union’s success in securing significant wage gains could provide a political boost to President Joe Biden, who visited workers on a Detroit-area picket line and traveled to Belvidere, Illinois, Cornell’s Wheaton said.

Mr. Biden toured a newly reopened Stellantis plant in Belvidere, Illinois, and met with UAW President Shawn Fain on the heels of a six-week strike by the union against the Big Three U.S. automakers.