UAW President Shawn Fain goes on Fox, lists 5 key reasons why Trump lost union endorsement

REASON #1: HE IS A SCAB

Phoebe Wall Howard, Detroit Free Press
Sat, January 27, 2024

A clip of a Fox News interview with UAW President Shawn Fain is getting attention from viewers on YouTube not because the labor organization endorsed President Joe Biden for the 2024 election cycle but because the union leader listed so many reasons why former President Donald Trump didn't deserve the support of working-class people.

Podcast host David Pakman, who has more than 2 million subscribers, spotlighted Friday the 3:53 minute segment where Fain gave a withering series of examples on why he advises his union, which has an estimated 400,000 members, that include an estimated 150,000 autoworkers from the Detroit Three.

Initially Pakman said the endorsement of the Democrat seemed obvious despite the fact that Fain has said for months that the union gave no free rides to any politician for this election cycle, that the endorsement would need to be earned. The UAW has long been a political mix of workers, especially when Trump faced Hillary Clinton in 2016.

UAW President Shawn Fain speaks to the media in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Monday, Dec. 18, 2023. Fain visited the Volkswagen plant with workers, community and faith leaders, and CALEB (Chattanoogans in Action for Love, Equality, and Benevolence). The group delivered a letter to Volkswagen management, "demanding the company end its union-busting and intimidation."

When Fox host Neil Cavuto asked on Thursday why the UAW didn't endorse Trump. Fain calmly responded, "If you look just at the facts and the body of work of both candidates and both of them, in their own words. Nowhere in history has Donald Trump ever stood for the American worker. He stands against pretty much everything we stand for."

Fain continued, "We had to look at a lot of things and overall, you know, we decided our contract fight with the Big Three, our most successful contract in history, President Biden stood there with us on the picket line, unlike President Trump back in '19, when GM was on strike for 40 days and he was completely not existent and silent on the issue. I can go through a list of things, the difference in the candidates. it's very clear to us who stands with working-class people in this country and who stands against them."

Then Caputo pointed out that Teamsters President Sean O'Brien met with Trump and other major presidential hopefuls, while Fain did not.

More: ‘Let me be blunt’: UAW VP for GM has strong words about Trump’s visit to Michigan

Fain said, "In 2008-2009, the economic recession, Donald Trump blamed the workers for what was wrong with these companies. In 2015, he talked about doing a rotation of good paying jobs in the Midwest, somewhere where they pay less and have people begging for their jobs back at lower wages. Also, in '15, when Volkswagen workers voted to organize, he put an NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) in place that killed the organizing. ... In '19, when he was president, he didn't support the strike. He told the workers at Lordstown (Ohio) Assembly Plant, which was closing, 'don't sell your houses.' Then he did nothing to support them. You know, versus President Biden, who, in 2023, when a plant was going to close in Belvidere, Illinois, for Stellantis, he stood with those workers. He helped us save a community and helped bring not one plant but two plants back to life and he stood with our members on the picket line in our fight for economic justice."

Fain, who endorsed Biden on Jan. 24, called Trump a "scab." He earlier said workers can't continue to elect members of the "billionaire class" and expect them to help factory workers and middle-class Americans.

The UAW won a record contract with Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Stellantis in 2023 after striking all three automakers. After union members ratified contracts, Honda, Toyota, Hyundai and Tesla announced pay raises for their nonunion U.S. workers.

More: Ford begins $50,000 buyout offers for skilled, production UAW members

The Detroit-based union is currently attempting to organize nonunion carmakers, including Tesla and Volkswagen and others, some of which work with organized labor outside the U.S.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press