DETROIT, MI -- Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders thanked union auto workers on strike for standing up to corporate greed during a visit to the picket line in Detroit Wednesday.

The Vermont senator marched with United Auto Workers outside General Motors’ Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant 10 days after a breakdown in negotiations between the two parties caused roughly 49,000 workers to walk out of plants across the country. Sanders condemned GM for increasing production in Mexico and China as it idles American plants, including the Detroit facility, and pressured the automaker to give its workers better wages and benefits.

“All over this country, working people are sick and tired of working two or three jobs, seeing their healthcare benefits go down, seeing their wages go down and seeing the CEOs get huge compensation packages,” Sanders said. “They are tired of working it factories for decades and waking up one day and seeing that factory moved to Mexico, where people are paid $3 an hour. Working people of this country want justice.”

While Trump remains neutral in the situation, Democratic primary candidates are showing their support for blue-collar voters who Trump credits with driving his historic victory in Michigan during the last election. U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn, also visited workers on the picket line in Detroit during the last week.

On the UAW picket line with @BernieSanders demanding GM treat their workers with respect pic.twitter.com/QgoIPksinj — Bill Neidhardt (@BNeidhardt) September 25, 2019

Doris Parnell, a 67-year-old retired former GM employee, slammed the president for his absence at the UAW strikes.

“In lieu of everything that has happened he has not been here at all,” Parnell said of Trump. “I want a president, regardless of your party affiliation, if you say you are for the workers you’re gonna be out here for everybody ... As far as I’m concerned, I have no love for him.”

Sanders received an enthusiastic reception from more than 200 auto workers and supporters present Wednesday. He marched with UAW strikers before delivering brief remarks on a stage set up across the street from the demonstration.

“Today I saw to General Motors: Sit down with the UAW, negotiate a contract that is fair for the working people of this company,” Sanders said.

Sanders said GM has an obligation to give back to its workers after it received a $50 billion taxpayer bailout a decade ago during the Great Recession. The company is raking in cash after the economy recovered, Sanders said, but hoarding profits instead of investing in its workers.

GM dropped health care plans for the thousands of striking workers, shifting the cost to the UAW’s strike fund. Sanders said the move is an appalling attempt to “force workers into submission.”

“If General Motors thinks that after they treat their workers like crap they’re going to go to Washington and get huge federal contracts they have another guess coming,” Sanders said. “We want companies in this country to be decent corporate citizens and treat their workers with respect and dignity.”

This strike is the first major labor action in the American automotive industry since 2007. The UAW hasn’t endorsed a presidential candidate yet but historically has a close relationship with the Democratic Party.

Union workers said Sanders and Warren appear to be the best options for working people but are waiting for the primary field to narrow down in the coming months. Both candidates are running campaigns focused on fixing rampant political corruption and economic inequality holding back the middle class.

Workers expressed a mixed range of views about Sanders’ and Warren’s proposals to replace their employer-provided health care plans with a single-payer government-run “Medicare for All” system that would eliminate the private insurance market. Some said they are open to the idea, but others worried they would be worse off and would prefer politicians to strengthen the Affordable Care Act.

Sanders argued his Medicare for All plan is good for unions because it ensures workers keep their health care coverage during strikes.

Teama Dowdell, a 32-year-old GM worker, said Sanders has a lifelong history of standing up for workers rights. She said Sanders continued fighting for blue-collar workers in Michigan even after losing the 2016 Democratic primary. Dowdell was more skeptical of other candidates who are throwing their support behind union workers on strike.

“They’re out there doing it now because they want to get these votes,” Dowdell said. “Bernie has been there the whole time. We don’t need your sympathy now.”

Will Noronn, a 43-year-old GM employee, was transferred to a GM facility in Flint after the company announced it will idle the Detroit plant. He and Dowdell, who now commutes from Troy to Flint, said Trump failed to uphold his campaign promises by not intervening in the plant’s closure.

“I feel like the president, he could have definitely stepped in a lot sooner and that could have had really made a difference for us,” Noronn said. “This was a struggling community as it is, now it’s basically dead.”

Parnell said it’s nice to see support from Democrats running for president, but a quick visit to the picket line isn’t enough.

“Once you get elected, don’t just go and hide, come back and check on us and see how we’re doing," she said.