UAW Leadership Panics in Face of Growing Auto Worker Support for Trump

UAW President Shawn Fain pushed the panic button in mid-August, announcing an unprecedented political outreach program to its members (who are supposed to be solidly Democratic) and launching a publicity-stunt complaint against Donald Trump and Elon Musk with the National Labor Relations Board.  

This comes in the wake of the Republican Party Convention in July, which featured a speech by Teamster President Sean O’Brien, and a Trump endorsement by Bobby Bartels, a Steamfitters local official from New York. That Convention also saw the adoption of the new Republican Party Platform which pledges to return the GOP to its roots as the party of industry and workers, and contains multiple planks to defend the auto industry from free trade and EV-mandate insanity. Adding to the potential for the emergence of a Republican/labor alliance, the Teamsters are allowing their members to vote on who to endorse for President. There is a real possibility that the largest union in the country could endorse the Trump-Vance ticket.

This leaves those trade union leaders who remain in the pocket of the green, woke and free-trade-loving Democratic Party in a pickle. Hence the ridiculous NLRB complaint filed by Fain. The complaint alleges that the off-the-cuff exchange between Trump and Musk in their August 12 interview, which referenced Musk laying off workers, represented an “illegal attempt to threaten and intimidate workers who stand up for themselves.” This apparently referred to the fact that Musk laid off half of the workforce at Twitter when he took it over and rebranded it as X. Given the fact that the X interview between Trump and Musk pretty much broke the internet, it seems like X might not have needed those caramel mocha frappuccino-sipping, 5-break-times-a-day employees. 

But the real marker of the Democrats’ panic is Fain’s announcement of what is being described as the most ambitious political outreach program in decades. That Fain feels he has to convince his members, who have been solidly Democratic for most of the UAW’s history, to please vote for Harris is remarkable. In a video statement, the best Fain could come up with was: “All they care about is their billionaire buddies, and taking more wealth, so this is a 'which side are you on election'” and “Donald Trump is all talk, but Kamala Harris has delivered for auto workers.”

What Biden and Harris have delivered for auto workers is inflation and cascading layoffs, as consumer purchasing power collapses, prices skyrocket, and the EV fairy tale explodes. Just last week, Stellantis announced over 2000 layoffs in the Detroit area. During the 2023 UAW strike and right up to today, Donald Trump continues to  warn that Biden's (and now Harris’) policies of forced EV mandates and free trade, will destroy the auto industry and result in massive job losses.

So, it’s not surprising that support for Trump among auto workers is growing. Promethean PAC organizers have joined with Auto Workers for Trump founder Brian Pannebecker in holding Trump rallies at auto plants throughout the Detroit area, most recently at plants in  Detroit itself. Judging from the numbers of thumbs up versus the numbers of extended middle fingers, the visible support for Trump is easily 50 percent at these plants, whose workers are mostly minorities and Detroit residents.

UAW launches outreach program ahead of election as “Auto Workers for Trump 2024” movement ramps up

The United Auto Workers union hosted a call Wednesday, during which members will hear what’s at stake in November, the union’s key issues, and how they’re looking to win against the so-called “billionaire class.” The UAW is calling this its most ambitious political program in decades to elect Harris as the next president. But on the flip side, there’s “Auto Workers for Trump 2024.”

CBS DetroitCBS Detroit

On the heels of Fain’s announcement, the Detroit CBS affiliate briefly covered the new UAW outreach program but then gave extensive coverage of the latest rally at the Mack Avenue plant, interviewing Pannebecker and the other retired auto workers in attendance. Nationally-syndicated columnist Selena Zito wrote an article headlined, “Plagued by inflation, working-class Michiganders turn to Trump.” She interviewed several of the attendees, including one retired auto worker who said, “From where I sit and experience life in my community and in my job, the Republicans are more for the common man and for America working its way up into the upper class,” he said. “And the Democrats are for the elites, rewarding those that have already gotten there.”

Plagued by inflation, working-class Michiganders turn to Trump - Washington Examiner

Michigan autoworkers show significant enthusiasm for Donald Trump for president.

Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal GovernmentSalena Zito