UAW President Shawn Fain has applauded President Donald Trump’s announcement that a 25-percent tariff would be imposed on cars imported to the United States starting next week.
“We applaud the Trump administration for stepping up to end the free trade disaster that has devastated working class communities for decades. Ending the race to the bottom in the auto industry starts with fixing our broken trade deals, and the Trump administration has made history with today’s actions,” said Fain in a statement.
“But ending the race to the bottom also means securing union rights for autoworkers everywhere with a strong National Labor Relations Board, a decent retirement with Social Security benefits protected, healthcare for all workers including through Medicare and Medicaid, and dignity on and off the job,” Fain’s statement continued. “The UAW and the working class in general couldn’t care less about party politics; working people expect leaders to work together to deliver results. The UAW has been clear: we will work with any politician, regardless of party, who is willing to reverse decades of working-class people going backwards in the most profitable times in our nation’s history. These tariffs are a major step in the right direction for autoworkers and blue-collar communities across the country, and it is now on the automakers, from the Big Three to Volkswagen and beyond, to bring back good union jobs to the U.S.”
The UAW applauding Trump may come as a surprise to some, considering the union is typically more in line with Democrat politicians than Republicans. Estimates show that approximately 60 percent of UAW members vote Democrat, and the union has never officially endorsed a Republican candidate for president.
The current leadership’s past statements on President Trump have been less than favorable. Shawn Fain has explicitly denounced Trump in the past and called him a “scab,” accusing him of anti-labor policies. An official statement from the UAW even criticized Trump’s tariff policy as recently as February. If other American labor unions follow suit, Trump’s trade policies could make the Republican Party more favorable to the labor vote than in decades past.
