Biden again has support from the union. But the unions look different this time.

The public image of President Biden’s “Union Joe” persona rests largely on his longstanding ties to labor unions representing police officers, firefighters and construction workers.

But the modern labor movement gathering in Philadelphia on Saturday to support Mr Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign is younger, more diverse and far more female than the union stereotype that Mr Biden has embraced over the decades he has worked on his political identity.

“You think of it as the dude with a cigar, and it just isn’t,” said Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers. “I’m sure there are still guys with cigars, but there are lots and lots of other people in a multi-generational, multi-racial cacophony of people united by a zealous struggle for a better life.”

While the current labor movement is demographically more aligned with the Democratic Party, the increasing proportion of young people and people of color means union members may be less familiar with — and more skeptical of — Mr Biden’s track record.

The Biden campaign and the union leaders endorsing it – the AFL-CIO and 17 other unions — celebrated the early support as a triumph of labor unity for the president.

Julie Chávez Rodríguez, Biden’s campaign manager, called it “an unprecedented show of solidarity and strength for our campaign.”

Less than two months after Mr. Biden launched his re-election bid, the endorsement not only reflects Mr. Biden’s popularity among union leaders, but also the reality that much of the union membership does not associate Mr. Biden. with the union-friendly legislation he signed.

“There is a discrepancy between all of the Biden-Harris achievements and what information gets to the ground in communities,” said Liz Shuler, the president of the AFL-CIO. about policy and talk about laws and regulations. It’s up to us to decipher that and connect the dots back to what’s happening in Washington.”

Before he was president, Mr. Biden was a regular at Labor Day parades — especially in Pittsburgh, home to the largely male and white steelworker unions that built much of Western Pennsylvania, and where he kicked off his 2020 campaign .

That run followed the defection of large numbers of union workers to Donald J. Trump’s 2016 campaign, which had realigned the Republican Party in opposition to international free trade agreements championed by Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.

That helped Trump shave off traditionally Democratic union voters. When Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 presidential election, she only won 51 percent of votes from union households, while Trump won by huge margins among working-class white voters, according to exit polls at the time. Four years later, Mr Biden took 56 percent of union household votes, and union voters made up a slightly larger share of the electorate.

“The labor movement is changing, there is no doubt about that. We have a younger and more diverse workforce,” said Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. “We’re seeing a revitalization among youth and people of color who see themselves being mistreated and have no real place at the table.”

Mr. Biden and his administration have been more outspoken than his Democratic predecessors in encouraging union organizing. Mr Biden has welcomed to the White House millennial Amazon and Starbucks organizers who have united parts of those companies in unions.

Martin J. Walsh, Mr. Biden’s first labor secretary who is now executive director of the professional hockey players’ union, said the early support of the organized working class was clear efforts to give union leaders more time to push Mr. Biden’s cause with their members. to bring under attention. .

“The fact that so many unions are coming out so early in the process indicates that the unions are solidifying their membership early and putting their members to work early so that they don’t get a repeat of what happened in 2016,” said the Mr Walsh.

One of the youngest union leaders is Roland Rexha, the secretary-treasurer of the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association, which represents maritime workers, including Staten Island Ferry workers. Mr. Rexha, who at 41 is the youngest member and the only Muslim the executive council of the AFL-CIOsaid it may be difficult to sell Mr Biden to a group that was about three-quarters white males — a group with whom Mr Trump has gained majority support.

“Most unions try to explain to members why they should support the people who support them,” said Mr Rexha. “It’s something that we as leadership have sometimes had a hard time communicating to them.”

Widespread union support for Mr Biden Saturday masks some discontent for the president among the organized labor movement. The United Auto Workers withheld an approval over concerns about the electric vehicle transition that the White House has championed. There was much grumbling among working-class groups that on the day Biden launched his campaign, he was speaking to the construction union — a group whose members are considered less reliably Democratic within the working-class world.

And then there’s the fact that Mr Biden’s much-lauded infrastructure legislation will largely benefit construction workers — a group that is far more likely to be male and vote Republican than the rest of the organized labor universe.

“There is some real progress, ironically, for construction workers, probably half of whom voted for Trump twice,” said Larry Cohen, a former president of the Communications Workers of America who is a longtime adviser to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. .

“The coverage is as good as it’s ever been in 50 years or more, but there has to be results.”