Associated Press
The United Auto Workers on Wednesday endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for President, giving her union firepower for the likely contest this November against Republican Donald Trump.
UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement that the union’s “job” in this year’s election was to defeat Trump. The union has more than a million active and retired members with a strong base in what the Democrats call the “blue wall” states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
“We can put a billionaire back in office who stands against everything our union stands for, or we can elect Kamala Harris who will stand shoulder to shoulder with us in our war on corporate greed,” Fain said.
There was never any doubt that the UAW would endorse Harris after President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race. Biden won the UAW’s backing in January, and accepted it with a speech at a union political convention in Washington. The AFL-CIO, the umbrella labor organization that includes the UAW, had already endorsed the Vice President.
Fain needed to wait for the union’s Executive Board to give the nod to Harris, but has repeatedly attacked Trump ahead of the endorsement.
“There is only one answer to the threat we face as a nation, and it’s not another billionaire in office,” Fain wrote in a UAW post early Wednesday on the X social media site.
Fain and the union also have called Trump a “scab,” a derogatory term for workers who cross union picket lines and work during a strike. They also have said he did nothing for workers in Ohio when General Motors closed a factory in 2019.
The UAW endorsed Biden’s reelection bid in January, just a few months after the Democratic President joined striking General Motors workers on the picket lines near Detroit. The union won big raises last fall after limited strikes at all three Detroit automakers.
Shortly after the Biden endorsement, Fain was making multiple television appearances on Biden’s behalf. But those waned as the UAW ramped up its campaign to organize nonunion auto factories and a spat with a court-appointed union monitor.
The UAW says its union members and retirees typically lean toward Democrats, but a sizeable number support the GOP. That’s consistent with AP VoteCast, which found that 56% of union members and households backed Biden in 2020, while 42% backed Trump.
Still, Trump has courted union members, saying when he accepted the Republican nomination that he would rescue the auto industry from what he called “complete obliteration.”
He also called for members to fire Fain, using false claims that Fain allowed Chinese automakers to build auto factories across the border in Mexico to ship electric vehicles to the U.S. without tariffs. Industry analysts know of no such factories under construction. The auto industry is currently far from obliteration. Detroit auto companies are still making billions and auto manufacturing employment is up 13.8% since Biden took office.
Trump said he would put tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles. Biden earlier this year slapped tariffs on Chinese imported goods, including EVs.
The 1.3 million-member Teamsters union, whose President spoke at the Republican National Convention, has yet to make an endorsement in the race.
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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
10 comments
Shelly Justice
July 31, 2024 at 4:18 pm
Never ceases to amaze me how people, esp people in the automobile business will back electric cars and school buses
Kamala is Brat 🥥🌴🥥
July 31, 2024 at 7:37 pm
Young Americans are setting the standards and priorities for America’s future. My suggestion is to take a chair on the retirement bus and take a powder! Bye!
Just Why
July 31, 2024 at 5:23 pm
So I don’t understand. Does UAW leadership somehow think they will be safe and be able to compete with China with all the EV mandates? She has promised to end Chinese tarriffs. And the mandates must be fulfilled in SIX YEARS – stop making gas vehicles. They couldn’t even adapt to Obama era fuel efficiency mandates in that time. Remember when vehicles were turning themselves off in the middle of traffic? Yeah, that went well. What has she promised them? Anyone who has followed the auto industry must realize the companies and UAW leadership are not there for the workers, and the workers know it. So what was promised. Because on the face, this makes zero sense. None. Nada.
PeterH
July 31, 2024 at 7:30 pm
You don’t believe in setting environmental goals?!?!
Triple Hitter Double Hater
July 31, 2024 at 5:29 pm
Why are we forcing people to buy electric vehicles with no way to charge them, no way for this country to pay for the charging stations that would be necessary, no way to account for the stress on the electric grid WHICH RUNS OFF FOSSIL FUELS AND NATURAL GAS, so the country will be EXPONENTIALLY INCREASING its use of fossil fuels and natural gas to give the APPEARANCE of reducing use of fossil fuels and natural gas. Minerals for EVs come from China and Russia. The US must become a client state to its adversaries. Mining is the source of some of the worst abuses in human rights and the US will look the other way. The batteries we build for EV are highly toxic and will fill landfills. There is currently no solution for this. It is sickening to me that this is the nature of discussion as a means of moving forward to address climate change. It’s cronyism at its finest, and the ultimate hypocrisy. No one is being honest in this argument. This is not a solution, it’s madness, and it will bankrupt families, the electric grid, the environment, and the country. Obama outlawed biodiesel and the hydrogen car. WHY? Ask why.
PeterH
July 31, 2024 at 7:31 pm
Who’s forcing you to buy ANYTHING?
Tom
August 1, 2024 at 7:08 am
The same people who are constantly ‘coming for our guns’ I suspect. ie: nobody.
Michael K
July 31, 2024 at 6:45 pm
I see the fossil fuel people are out. in force.
No one is forcing anyone to buy an EV. It’s a choice. And a smart choice in my opinion. No oil changes, and mostly just tire rotation and new tires. One out of every four cars sold globally is electric.
I bought one. There is no problem charging – the network infrastructure is quite extensive and growing – and it’s easy to plan a trip. The grid continues to expand. I invested in solar panels seven years ago, so I pay aabout $16 monthly electric bill at home, which includes my car. EV battery materials – the metals – are recycled – they do not end up in landfills.
Once you drive an EV, you realize how quiet, smooth, and efficient they are – and with no toxic fumes and expensive maintenance. Every automaker is producing them, except Toyota, which is sticking to hybrids. My EV has the equivalent of about 110 MPG.
No one is outlawing gasoline engines, No one. The future is electric. And if Florida had better leaders, we would be leading the nation in solar power – free, cheap, abundant solar power in the Sunshine State.
Just look at how quickly Germany pivoted to renewable energy to see that yes, it can be done. Quickly even. With leadership.
PeterH
July 31, 2024 at 7:32 pm
Well said Michael!
KathrynA
August 1, 2024 at 7:31 am
Also, many vehicles are hybrids and do not even need charging as they charge themselves. We love ours and the gas mileage is fantastic! Why not save on using limited fossil fuels and the green house gases they create. If you live I. Florida, you have to be aware of increasing temps!
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