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UAW Slams Trump-Vance as 'Menace to the Working Class'
The union blasted them for "threatening the $500 million investment the Biden-Harris administration made in the General Motors Grand River Assembly Plant and the union jobs that investment would provide."
Oct 04, 2024
The United Auto Workers this week reiterated its warning that the Republican presidential ticket of Donald Trump and JD Vance is a threat to working-class Americans in response to a refusal by Vance to commit to honoring a $500 million federal grant for an electric vehicle plant in Michigan.
Both Trump and Vance—a venture capitalist turned U.S. senator from Ohio who often postures as a working-class ally—are campaigning in Michigan, a key swing state, this week.
The Detroit News reported Wednesday that on the campaign trail, Vance was "noncommittal" about the promised funding, part of $1.7 billion distributed by the Biden administration. The $500 million grant would help General Motors convert its Lansing Grand River Assembly Plant into an EV facility.
The UAW, one of several labor unions that have endorsed Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, fired back Thursday, echoing its previous criticism of Trump and Vance.
"Donald Trump was the job-killer-in-chief while in the White House," the powerful union said in a statement. "His failed United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement—or Trump's NAFTA as we prefer to call it—has led to the mass exodus of good, blue-collar jobs from the United States. In sharp contrast, the Biden-Harris administration has bet on the American worker and thanks to their policies, hundreds of thousands of good manufacturing jobs are returning to the United States."
"Now, Trump and JD Vance are invading Michigan and threatening the $500 million investment the Biden-Harris administration made in the General Motors Grand River Assembly Plant and the union jobs that investment would provide," the UAW continued. "The bottom line is that Donald Trump and JD Vance are a menace to the working class and are openly threatening to double down on Trump's legacy of job destruction."
In a potential boost to Democrats ahead of November 5, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Friday that in September federal unemployment hit 4.1% and the U.S. economy added 254,000 jobs, over 100,000 more than economists projected.
UAW president Shawn Fain, who led a major strike against Big Three auto companies last year, is set to join U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) for weekend events in Michigan to support Harris. The pair plans to visit Warren, Grand Rapids, and East Lansing to discuss "the American healthcare system, the fight against corporate greed, and shoring up Michigan's manufacturing future."
Harris was in Michigan on Friday for events in Detroit and Flint, where she was set to "meet with leaders from the Arab American community," according to Reuters. "Meeting participants include leaders from the Muslim advocacy group Emgage, which recently endorsed Harris, the American Task Force on Lebanon, and a long-standing friend of Harris, Hala Hijazi, who has lost dozens of family members in Gaza."
"Other such as Jim Zogby, founder of the Arab American Institute and a longtime member of the Democratic National Committee, said he declined the invitation,"
Reuters reported. "Leaders from the Uncommitted National Movement protest campaign said they have not been invited to the meeting."
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'UAW All the Way': Ohio EV Plant Workers Hail Historic Contract Victory
One Ultium worker said the new contract—under which production workers will get $35 by late 2027—"enables me to just go ahead and move forward in life rather than living from paycheck to paycheck."
Jun 17, 2024
United Auto Workers members at an Ohio plant that produces battery cells for General Motors electric vehicles on Monday celebrated their overwhelming ratification of a contract that the union said "sets a new standard for the EV industry with strong wages and benefits and historic health and safety protections."
UAW Local 1112 members at Ultium Cells' Lordstown, Ohio facility approved their new local contract by 98% on Sunday. Under the contract, production workers will be paid $35 an hour by October 2027. Sunday's vote came after the workers at the plant—a joint venture between GM and South Korea-based LG Energy Solution—voted in December to unionize.
"This is setting a precedent that can be built on," said Ultium worker Chris Wyatt. "This is a guideline that every other EV plant can follow through with."
Another worker at the plant, Donald Bevly, said the new contract "enables me to just go ahead and move forward in life rather than living from paycheck to paycheck."
UAW president Shawn Fain said in a statement following the contract's tentative approval last week that "18 months ago, this company was on a low road path to poverty wages, unsafe conditions, and a dark future for battery workers in America."
"Ultium workers said, 'Hell no,' got organized, and fought back," Fain added. "Now they've more than doubled their wages by the end of this contract, won record health and safety language, and showed the world what it means to win a just transition."
As UAW noted:
When Ultium opened in 2021, the workers were nonunion, they made just $16.50 an hour, and the EV industry was in a race to the bottom. But the Ultium workers organized with the UAW in late 2022 and during the Stand Up Strike, they were brought under the GM national agreement.
In addition to $35 an hour, the new contract includes an immediate $3,000 bonus, four full-time on-site union health and safety representatives, and a full-time union industrial hygienist at the Lordstown plant.
In August 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden signed his signature climate and jobs law, the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes incentives for automakers to ramp up EV manufacturing. Fain has pressed Biden—who touts himself as the "most pro-union president in American history"—to ensure that workers can earn a decent living as part of a just transition from fossil fuel-powered to electric vehicles.
Referring to her new contract, Lordstown Ultium worker Lori Lovitz said that "the benefits are just the best benefits I've had in my life."
"Paid hospitalization, holiday pay," she added. "I've never had this many paid holidays. Job security."
Another worker at the plant, Janine Hooks, summed up her feelings about the new contract with a raised fist, saying, "UAW all the way!"
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30 Years After NAFTA, UAW Launches Solidarity Project for Mexican Autoworkers
"For decades, corporations have taken advantage of inadequate trade laws to offshore thousands of U.S. manufacturing jobs to Mexico, where worker wages and conditions have long been suppressed."
Feb 23, 2024
Thirty years after the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect, the largest U.S. autoworkers union on Friday announced the establishment of a solidarity initiative to support industry workers in Mexico "fighting for economic justice and improved working conditions."
United Auto Workers (UAW) said the new project "will provide resources to Mexican workers and independent unions in Mexico, and aims to strengthen cross-border solidarity between U.S. and Mexican workers."
"Under NAFTA, Mexico's automotive workforce has grown sevenfold, while wages, benefits, and working conditions continue to fall behind."
Signed in 1993 and taking effect the following year, NAFTA eliminated virtually all tariffs and trade restrictions between the United States, Mexico, and Canada. The leaders of the three nations, including then-U.S. President Bill Clinton, promised the pact would create millions of new jobs and lift living standards.
But while U.S. trade with Mexico has more than tripled in the decades since the treaty went into effect, the income gap between the two countries is wider today than when the treaty was signed, while American and multinational corporations have profited tremendously from lower trade barriers and labor costs as production has shifted south of the border.
"Under NAFTA, Mexico's automotive workforce has grown sevenfold, while wages, benefits, and working conditions continue to fall behind," the UAW said on Friday.
Wages for U.S. workers have also suffered as automakers cite the need to remain competitive with their own Mexican operations.
"For decades, corporations have taken advantage of inadequate trade laws to offshore thousands of U.S. manufacturing jobs to Mexico where worker wages and conditions have long been suppressed," the UAW said.
Meanwhile, the union noted that "corporations use the threat of offshoring jobs as a cudgel to beat back worker discontent and organizing efforts in the U.S."
Cross-border solidarity was a key component of last year's six-week UAW strike at the Big Three U.S. automakers. Rank-and-file workers at General Motors' plant in Silao, Guanajuato organized to block corporate efforts to shift production to Mexico as a strikebreaking tactic.
The strike ended with the UAW and the Big Three agreeing to a new contract widely hailed by union members.
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