Former President Donald Trump’s plans to skip the second Republican presidential debate and travel to Michigan to meet with striking auto workers are not going down well with a top official at the United Auto Workers (UAW).
“Every ounce of our union is poured into fighting the billionaire class and an economy that enriches people like Donald Trump at the expense of workers,” said UAW President Shawn Fain. “We can’t keep electing billionaires and millionaires who have no idea what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck and struggle to survive and expect them to solve the problems of the working class.”
The UAW has not endorsed a candidate for president in 2024.
The UAW now represents about 150,000 members nationwide. For the first time in the union’s 88-year history, all three Detroit automakers — Stellantis, Ford and General Motors — are targeted by a strike.
The union has launched a strike at three plants: Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant, GM’s Wentzville, Missouri, plant and Stellantis’ Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio.
The GOP debate is scheduled for Sept. 27 in California at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. Trump plans to travel to Detroit, “according to two Trump advisers familiar with the plans, intervening in a labor dispute between striking auto workers and the nation’s top automakers,” the New York Times reported. Reporting.
“The all-electric car is a disaster for both the United Auto Workers and the American consumer. They will all be made in China and are too expensive, don’t go far enough, take too long to charge, and pose a variety of hazards in certain weather conditions. If this happens, United Auto workers will be wiped out, along with every other auto worker in the United States. The all-electric car policy is as stupid as open borders and no voter ID. A COMPLETE AND TOTAL DISASTER!” Trump wrote on social media last week.
The former president who is lining 91 counts out of four indictments criticized Fain.
“I don’t think he’s doing a good job representing his union because in three years he won’t have a union,” Trump said. he said Fain. “Those jobs will disappear because all these electric cars will be made in China.”
The Trump campaign is also set to air an anti-Biden radio ad in Toledo, Politico reports.
“He is [Biden] turned its back on auto workers by cutting a deal that uses U.S. tax dollars to help fund China’s electric car business. That’s a stake in the heart of American auto workers, and they can count on President Trump to change that,” the ad says.
Democrats back UAW strikes, while Republicans criticize electric vehicle push
While president, Trump largely took a neutral stance during the UAW’s last attack on one of the Detroit Three — a 2019 action against General Motors that lasted 40 days. The Republican did not go to the picket line.
“Here we go again with General Motors and the United Auto Workers. Let’s get together and make a deal!” he tweeted September 15, 2019
A year earlier, in May 2018, Trump issued Executive Order No. 13837 which restricted the ability of trade unions to represent employees by preventing trade union representatives from using working time to facilitate employees prepare or pursue grievances.
This time, the UAW is fighting for wage increases, a 32-hour workweek and better pension benefits, as well as other issues such as ending the pay gap between workers with different lengths of service.
Biden, Democrats, Labor Unions Criticize Trump
President Joe Biden, the Democrat who defeated Trump in the 2020 election, sharply criticized his former opponent.
“Donald Trump is going to Michigan next week to lie to Michigan workers and pretend he didn’t spend his entire failed presidency selling them out at every turn,” said Ammar Moussa, a Biden-Harris 2024 spokesman. “Instead of standing up for workers, Trump has cut taxes for the super-rich while auto companies have closed their doors and moved American jobs overseas.
“He said he would let the car companies go bankrupt, destroying the industry and upending millions of lives. That’s why Trump lost Michigan in 2020 and his MAGA [Make America Great Again] friends further decimated the Michigan Republican Party and cost it 2022. No amount of self-serving photo ops will erase the four years in which Trump abandoned union workers and sided with his ultra-rich friends.”
Biden has not announced plans to visit striking workers, although several of his allies, such as U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania), U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, have already done so.
Fetterman joins striking UAW workers on picket line in Michigan
On Tuesday, U.S. Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor) and Haley Stevens (D-Waterford) joined Michigan Democrats for a news conference where they criticized former GOP President Donald Trump’s “anti-worker actions” following reports of his planned visit to Michigan next week.
Both speakers highlighted Trump’s “MAGAnomics” [Make America Great Agenda] program “has hurt auto workers, encouraged companies to move jobs overseas and lined the pockets of billionaires and big corporations at the expense of Michigan’s middle class.”
The conversation also highlighted the “stark contrast” between Trump and President Joe Biden — “who has a proven record of being the most pro-union president in history and a proven record of standing up for workers,” according to a press release from the Michigan Democratic Party.
“Trump has been one of the most anti-worker presidents this country has ever had. He showed us what he really stands for when he said he would let the auto companies go bankrupt in 2008,” Dingell said. “The last thing Michigan auto workers need right now is more empty promises or more oil on the fire. So while President Trump tries to come in and erase his history… I think Michiganders will see what his record has been and they will reject his anti-worker agenda.”
Stevens argued that Trump has done little to address negotiations between the United Auto Workers (UAW) union and the Detroit Three.
“He signed a tax bill that gave billions of dollars in tax cuts to the wealthy and did little, if anything, for the middle class,” Stevens said. “I think that’s disrespectful to the men and women of the UAW on the picket line. Donald Trump can take his policies elsewhere.”
Mark McManus, president of the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters Unions, also cast doubt on Trump’s visit in connection with the strike.
“When Donald Trump was first elected president, he invited me to the White House in the early days of his administration and promised to pass the biggest infrastructure bill in generations. He claimed to be a builder, just like us. But after four years, one thing was clear: When it comes to the fundamental issues that our members care about — fair pay, safe jobs, and the ability to retire with the dignity we deserve — Donald Trump is just another con man.”
Other Republican Party candidates
Several other 2024 Republican presidential candidates have taken anti-union stances.
“I was a union buster. I didn’t want to bring in companies that were unionized, simply because I didn’t want it to change the environment in our state. We were very careful with the workers. … We didn’t encourage intermediaries between companies and their workers. We encouraged workers to communicate directly with them,” Nikki Haley, former South Carolina governor and Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, told Fox News on Saturday.
Haley too he said On Tuesday, Fox News reported that Biden’s pro-union stance was the reason for the strike.
“When you have a president who keeps telling people to unionize, to unionize, that’s what you get. Unions get emboldened, and then they start demanding things that companies have a hard time doing,” Haley said.
Mike Pence, Trump’s former vice president, was asked by CNN on Sunday about the “overall fairness” of higher CEO pay compared to that of their employees.
“That should be left up to the shareholders of that company. I’m someone who believes in free enterprise,” Pence said. “I think those are decisions that shareholders can make and exert pressure on. And I fully support the way these public companies operate. I’m not interested in government mandates or government intimidation when it comes to these types of issues.”
U.S. Sen. Tim Scott (R-C.) appeared to criticize the UAW’s demand for a 32-hour workweek during an event in South Carolina on Friday.
“We’re watching on every screen across the country today the UAW fighting for more benefits and fewer hours. More pay and fewer days on the job. It’s a disconnect from work,” Scott said.
During Monday’s event in Iowa, Scott was I asked by voters if he intervened in labor disputes as president. The Republican has said he supports firing striking workers.
“Let me answer the first question. I think Ronald Reagan set a great example for us when federal workers decided to go on strike,” Scott said. “He said, you strike, you’re fired. It’s a simple concept to me. To the extent that we can reuse that, absolutely.”
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