In lieu of Wednesday’s Republican debate, and in an attempted answer to President Joe Biden’s Tuesday appearance at the picket line in support of striking United Auto Workers members, Donald Trump is heading to Michigan himself to speak directly to blue-collar Michiganders in the auto industry.
The event will not, despite original reports to the contrary, have Trump speaking to striking union members. Instead, he will speak to nonunion workers at a nonunion parts manufacturer called Drake Enterprises, at the invitation of the company’s management.
“It was complete luck,” said Drake president Nathan Stemple in a Fox News segment misleadingly titled “Biden, Trump to rally auto workers in Michigan as UAW strike expands,” explaining that “some of our colleagues that we do business with reached out to us said that the president was looking for a location to host this event and we were more than willing to do so.”
That’s a far cry from Biden’s personal invitation from UAW president Shawn Fain; Trump will not be speaking to any UAW workers from Drake at all, because, of course, there are none.
He might, however, be speaking to some unhappy workers, at least according to a bunch of reviews of Drake on Indeed, a recruiting site that allow employees and ex-employees to review their workplaces.
“Crabs in a bucket mentality,” wrote someone who identified themselves as a former production worker, in May, in a three-star review (out of five). “Nothing about this job is good longevity wise and McDonald’s pays more.”
“Worse [sic] place to work,” wrote a respondent identifying as a current technician in March, in a two-star sendup. Across 35 total reviews, Drake got its lowest marks for “management”: 2.8 stars out of five.
It’s not much better on Glassdoor, another popular site for workplace reviews. There, the company sports three out of five possible stars, across 12 evaluations, with only 50 percent of employees saying they’d recommend the plant to a friend.
“Beware,” wrote one person identifying as a current employee in a one-star January 2023 review. “Management is clueless. Shop is completely dirty. The truly good people leave after a short time as there is no culture.”
“DON’T WORK HERE,” warned one self-identifying former employee in December 2022. “Dead end,” wrote another.
(One very positive review for Drake on Glassdoor, a five-star endorsement from a self-identified machine operator in January 2023, states: “Drake is one of the best places I have ever worked. It’s a family owned business and the owners actually care about us.” That’s the only positive review dating back two years.)
It’s not that the Indeed and Glassdoor reviews on, say, Stellantis, one of the auto manufacturers with unionized workers that are currently on strike, fare so much better. (We’re talking about jobs after all.) But “fair pay for job” is one of the top comments in the Indeed reviews of Stellantis, across 1,223 survey responses. And that kind of says it all, doesn’t it? The unionized work places can at least boast that the jobs pay mostly fairly—in large part because of the efforts of organized labor.
When asked about the autoworkers strike on Fox, Drake president Stemple lamented the action and offered no support for striking workers. “We’re still producing parts to create inventories and things like that and to keep our people working,” he said.
Trump’s appearance, then, looks a lot less like a rally with labor than it does a captive audience meeting. It certainly won’t succeed in driving a wedge between the Democratic Party and organized labor. Workers at Drake seem to have a very dim opinion of their management, who invited Trump to evangelize, not on behalf of organized labor but on behalf of himself (and presumably, against electric vehicles).
If anything, Trump’s appearance in Michigan puts the UAW strike in even starker relief. As UAW president Fain told CNN, “I find a pathetic irony that Trump is going to hold a rally at a non-union business. … He serves a billionaire class and that’s what’s wrong with this country.”
ONE AUTOWORKER
Few striking autoworkers show up for Trump's speech at a nonunion factory
Henry J. Gomez and Vaughn Hillyard and Dan Gallo and Jake Traylor
Wed, September 27, 2023
Alex Brandon
CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Former President Donald Trump called for a “revival” of the economic nationalism that fueled his successful 2016 campaign in a visit here Wednesday aimed at distracting from the second Republican presidential primary debate.
Trump’s speech at a nonunion auto parts company was also geared toward blue-collar workers in the midst of a United Auto Workers strike. President Joe Biden made history Tuesday by joining a picket line outside Detroit, becoming the first sitting president to do so.
Addressing an audience of more than 300 that included only a few of the striking workers, Trump ascribed the auto industry’s problems to foreign trade deals he has long railed against — pacts that Biden and even many Republicans have supported in the past. Trump also frequently complained that Biden and Democrats were pushing electric vehicles to please environmental activists at the expense of an industry still heavily centered on gas-powered cars.
“Joe Biden claims to be the most pro-union president in history,” said Trump, who toured one of the company’s factories before he began his remarks. “His entire career has been an act of economic treason and union destruction.”
He added a direct appeal to UAW officials.
“Hopefully,” he said, “your leaders at the United Auto Workers will endorse Donald Trump.”
The crowd cheered loudly.
Trump’s appearance in this suburb north of Detroit is packed with meaning for a presidential campaign that could very well be a rematch of his 2020 race with Biden.
By avoiding another debate with the GOP candidates looking to snatch the nomination from him, the front-running Trump is signaling he is more focused on a general election battle against Biden. Michigan is part of the swath of industrial and Midwest states that swung to Trump in 2016 and to Biden four years later. And, on a night his rivals tangled at former President Ronald Reagan’s namesake library, Trump was smack dab in Macomb County, legendary in the 1980s for its concentration of fed up blue-collar workers known as “Reagan Democrats.”
Trump won Macomb County in 2016 and 2020, but Biden narrowed the margin a bit, losing by fewer than 40,000 votes. Hillary Clinton lost to Trump by about 48,000 votes four years earlier. The area is a major hub of auto industry activity, from car makers and parts suppliers to dealers.
The audience Wednesday was a mix of workers from the host company, Drake Enterprises, and UAW members and area politicians. Many in the crowd waved “Union Members for Trump” signs printed in the University of Michigan’s blue and gold colors. The audience also included Trump fans with no deeply vested interest in the strike who were there more for Trump than for the autoworkers. J.R. Majewski, a Trump-backing Republican who last year lost a congressional race in Toledo, Ohio, made the 80-mile trip.
Paul Sheridan, who came from nearby Bloomfield Hills to see Trump again, said: “I mean, I’ve seen him speak in person, two or three times.And he’s always very good. And he speaks the truth. He’s funny. And so it’s always great to see him in person.”
But hardly any striking workers were on hand.
“There are a few strikers here, yes,” said Brian Pannebecker, a former local autoworker who organizes an Auto Workers for Trump Facebook page and helped shore up attendees for the event. “I don’t know where they’re at. But there are several — a handful.”
One of the striking UAW members on hand, Scott Malefant, concurred.
“I haven’t seen anybody yet,” Malefant, wearing a Make America Great Again hat, said as he waited for Trump to arrive. “I’m sure there might be a few.”
The event came off like a Trump rally in miniature, far smaller than the arena blowouts he was known for in his first two campaigns but with the same festive atmosphere — a food truck, the usual campaign playlist blaring over the speakers. Trump frequently went off on tangents unrelated to the labor dispute, delighting fans who cheered for him wildly and booed at mentions of Biden’s name.
When he hit on the strike and the auto industry, Trump talked up the “America First” themes familiar to his previous runs. And while he said he has nothing against electric vehicles, he repeatedly asserted that Biden’s push to make more of them would hamstring the U.S. industry.
“The things that you make in Michigan, they don’t need any of it,” Trump said of electric car manufacturers.
Trump also held himself up as a more reliable champion for autoworkers and the industry at large, at times sounding like the president who in 2017 told supporters in Youngstown, Ohio, not to sell their homes, because manufacturing was coming back on his watch. Two years later, General Motors closed a plant in nearby Lordstown. Plants have also closed in Warren, Michigan, and Baltimore. The number of auto manufacturing jobs held relatively even during Trump’s administration, adding about 35,000 jobs from January 2017 to February 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“It’s obvious why Donald Trump is not at the Reagan Library tonight — he’s leading the Republican primary field by 40 points,” said Rich Luchette, a Democratic strategist. “But from a general election standpoint, Trump’s speech at a nonunion shop is a mistake. It will no doubt remind voters of Trump’s abysmal record on labor issues. Trump packed the National Labor Relations Board with anti-union appointees. Trump failed to bring back auto manufacturing jobs.”
Large throngs of Trump supporters and protesters marched near Drake before Trump arrived, waving signs and chanting. American Bridge 21st Century, a progressive super PAC, paid for a plane to circle the area with a banner reading “TRUMP SOLD US OUT.”
Biden’s re-election campaign, meanwhile, promoted a new cable TV and digital ad Wednesday aimed at Michigan voters, specifically in Detroit, Grand Rapids and Lansing.
“He says he stands with autoworkers,” a narrator says of Trump. “But as president, Donald Trump passed tax breaks for his rich friends, while automakers shuttered their plants and Michigan lost manufacturing jobs.”
Biden, the ad asserts, “doesn’t just talk; he delivers.”
Several Trump backers in the crowd Wednesday acknowledged that Biden’s visit to the picket line Tuesday was a smart move.
“I’m not a big fan of him,” Malefant said. “But, you know, any support we can get, we’ll take it.”
Asked whether Trump should have joined a picket line, Malefant countered that he “wouldn’t want to see the guy get booed or anything.”
“I think there’s always going to be a warmer welcome for Democrats when it comes to the unions,” Malefant added. “I mean, a lot of people would boo Biden, but it’s not a popular thing with unions, so we kind of keep our mouths shut.”
Pannebecker, the organizer of the Facebook group, said Biden should not take sides in the dispute.
“I don’t think the president of the United States should be sticking his nose into contract negotiations between businesses, companies and workers,” he said. “President Trump’s here today to talk about what he accomplished during his first term and what he hopes to accomplish during his second term.”
Donald Trump To Visit Nonunion Plant During Autoworker Strike
Liz Skalka
HUFFPOST
Tue, September 26, 2023
Donald Trump is set to appear at Drake Enterprises, a parts supplier that doesn't appear to have a union relationship.
DETROIT — Former President Donald Trump said he was traveling to Detroit to rally with striking autoworkers, but the location he settled on for his Wednesday event is a nonunion parts supplier whose workers aren’t at all involved with the strike.
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain pointed that out after President Joe Biden’s stop at a picket line in Belleville, Michigan, on Tuesday.
“I find it odd he’s going to go to a nonunion business to talk to union workers,” Fain told reporters after Biden’s stop. “I don’t think he gets it, but that’s up to people to decide.”
Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign is set to hold its event at Drake Enterprises in Macomb County, a quintessential swing county in the Detroit suburbs that backed Biden in 2020 after Trump won it in 2016. A national UAW spokesperson confirmed that the union does not represent workers at Drake, but the factory could be home to other unions. Drake did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump’s campaign says he’s planning a prime-time speech to an audience of 500 union members, including some autoworkers. The former president has touted his renegotiation of trade relations between the United States, Mexico and Canada as benefiting rank-and-file workers, but union leaders see him as anything but an ally. Trump, and Republicans in general, were mostly silent during the UAW’s 2019 strike against General Motors, and Trump did not visit the picket line. Fain is sharply critical of Trump, calling him an out-of-touch member of the millionaire and billionaire class that workers are fighting against.
“The proof’s in the body of work,” Fain said. “I go back to the economic recession, where he was quoted blaming the union, blaming the UAW for what was wrong with the auto companies. I go back to 2015, when he was running the first time and he was talking about doing a rotation, getting rid of our jobs, moving them somewhere else, where they pay less money.”
The UAW hasn’t moved yet to endorse Biden in the 2024 presidential race — but Fain has made clear that an endorsement for Trump isn’t happening.
Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the former president singled out the union’s leadership in a Saturday post on Truth Social. “If the UAW ‘leadership’ doesn’t ENDORSE me, and if I don’t win the Election, the Autoworkers are ‘toast,’ with our great truckers to follow,” he wrote.
Drake lists Ford, General Motors and other major automakers as clients, which all do business with a vast network of unionized and nonunionized suppliers. Drake’s website says it specializes in making parts for heavy-duty trucks: “Our customers include many major OEM companies in the heavy truck, agriculture and automotive markets.” The company says it has 125 employees.
Drake CEO Nathan Stemple appeared on Fox News on Tuesday to discuss Trump’s upcoming visit. He said the strike has impacted demand for the parts his company manufactures. Stemple also made a dig at Biden when asked about his stop at the picket line.
“I’m not much of a politician. I have three kids and run a manufacturing company, so I don’t have time to get into politics,” he said. “I did look at some past things and President Biden in 2020 said that he was gonna bring 18.6 million jobs for the automotive industry. And I don’t know if that has happened yet, or if he miscalculated his numbers. We all know that’s happened before.” (Biden didn’t actually say he would create 18.6 million automotive jobs.)
Trump’s visit has been billed as an effort to court striking autoworkers who represent part of the working-class coalition that powered his rise in 2016. Meanwhile, Biden’s Tuesday appearance at a General Motors parts supplier in Belleville made him the first president to ever meet with striking workers at a picket line.
Trump is expected to make his remarks at 8 p.m. Wednesday as counterprogramming to the second Republican presidential debate.
Trump in Michigan to compete for union votes as GOP debates in California
Dave Kinchen
Wed, September 27, 2023 at 2:56 PM MDT·4 min read
CLINTON TWP, Mich. (FOX 2) - On Wednesday, Republican hopefuls for President are attending the second debate – except for one. As they gather at the Ronald Reagan Library in California, former President Donald Trump is in the battleground state of Michigan to try to win over blue-collar voters in the middle of the UAW strike.
Trump spoke in Clinton Township in Macomb County at Drake Enterprises. Watch the full speech in the video player above.
The Republican front-runner’s trip comes a day after President Joe Biden became the first sitting president in U.S. history to walk a picket line as he joined United Auto Workers in Detroit. The union is pushing for higher wages, shorter work weeks and assurances from the country’s top automakers that new electric vehicle jobs will be unionized.
The dueling appearances preview what will likely be a chief dynamic of the 2024 general election, which increasingly looks like a rematch between Trump and Biden. Michigan is expected to again be a critical battleground state as both candidates try to paint themselves as champions of the working class.
Trump will not be met with open arms from union leadership, as Biden was. UAW President Shawn Fain spoke with a cable news outlet Tuesday night, calling it "pathetic irony" that Trump would hold a rally for union members at a non-union business.
Trump's visit to Michigan comes at a fluid time in the 2024 general election race. Seen as the front-running for the Republican Party, the former president skipped the first debate to give remarks elsewhere. He's recently posted on his social media that the party should pay less attention to the upcoming primaries and instead focus on the general election.
Michigan is likely going to play a role in the 2024 race for president. Blue collar workers make up a key demographic and voting bloc for both Democrats and Republicans and depending on how it votes could help one candidate win the state.
What is Drake Enterprises?
The supplier builds gear shift levers, engine components, and parts for transmissions in heavy trucks, according to its website. Its clients include brands from all three Detroit automakers as well as several other manufacturers.
It employs 125 workers and in 2019, it expanded its operations when it announced it would open a second manufacturing facility.
On Facebook, it wrote it was excited to host Trump for the rally.
According to the Michigan AFL-CIO, which encompasses several union groups, Drake Enterprises is a non-union manufacturer and supplier
Trump and unions
Among the themes that Trump has railed against and likely will touch on again Wednesday is electric vehicles. Among the biggest policies pushed by the Biden administration is the need to pivot the auto industry toward more battery-powered vehicles.
That has big implications for unions who face an uncertain future as new kinds of vehicles start rolling off the line. This round of negotiations may be the last best chance to secure contracts before the pivot becomes permanent.
Fain has previously said the argument that EVs are bad is an attractive one for some members and warned Biden that he shouldn't forget about that piece of the debate.
According to Axios, Trump secured 43% of the union vote in 2016, helping him tip states like Michigan. Biden reclaimed some of the votes along the way to his 2020 vote. The dueling visits to Michigan underscore just how important those margins are.
But one thing is certain, Trump does not have the favor of Fain, who spoke to CNN's Wolf Blitzer Tuesday night, chastising Trump for the placement of his rally.
"I find the pathetic irony that the former president is going to hold a rally for union members at a non-union business and all you have to do is look at his track record," he said, referring to comments Trump made about workers in 2008 and 2015 and then as president in 2019, the last time that workers went on strike.
"Our workers at GM were on strike for 60 days. For two months, they were on the picket lines. I didn't see him hold a rally, I didn't see him stand on the picket lines. And I sure as hell didn't see him comment on it. He was missing in action," he said. "I see no point in meeting with him because I don't think the man has any bit of care about what our workers stand for, what the working class stands for. He serves the billionaire class and that's what's wrong with this country."
Here's what Biden said during his visit to the picket line
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
Trump skips GOP debate to deliver 'economic nationalism' speech at non-union plant
David Knowles
·Senior Editor
Updated Wed, September 27, 2023
Donald Trump speaking at an automotive parts manufacturer in Clinton Township, Mich., on Wednesday. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
In an effort to court blue-collar workers, former President Donald Trump traveled to Michigan on Wednesday to deliver a speech aimed at courting the support of autoworkers at a time when their largest union is on strike.
Unlike President Biden, who accepted an invitation by the United Auto Workers to join striking workers on a picket line outside Detroit on Tuesday, Trump spoke at a non-union plant in Clinton Township, but portrayed himself as a champion of union members.
Read more on Yahoo News: ‘UAW boss says Trump works for ‘billionaire class’ ahead of visit,’ from The Hill
“I side with the autoworkers of America,” Trump said. He laid out what he called his “vision of economic nationalism” before a modest crowd, many of whom held up pre-printed signs that read “Union members for Trump.”
On Tuesday, UAW President Shawn Fain blasted Trump’s planned speech at the non-union plant.
“All you have to do is look at his track record,” Fain said. “His track record speaks for itself. In 2008, during the Great Recession, he blamed UAW members, he blamed our contracts for everything that was wrong with these companies — that’s a complete lie.”
Read more on Yahoo News: ‘The automotive plant where Trump is speaking sure has some bad reviews,’ from Salon
In Wednesday’s speech, Trump’s nationalist vision consisted largely of attacks on the electric cars and trucks that the U.S. auto industry has been transitioning to across the country.
“The damn things don’t go far enough and they’re too expensive,” Trump said of EVs.
Trump also spent much of his campaign speech attacking Biden, who he portrayed as having sold out the auto industry to China.
In response to Trump’s remarks, Kevin Munoz, a spokesperson for the Biden-Harris campaign issued a statement.
“Donald Trump’s low-energy, incoherent ‘speech’ at a non-union factory in Michigan was a pathetic, recycled attempt to feign support for working Americans,” he said, adding that it was Trump “who let China get ahead in the race to the future.”
Only once during his remarks did Trump bother to mention his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, which recent polls show is all but his to claim.
“You know we’re competing with the job candidates. They are all running for a job. No, they’re all job candidates. They’ll do anything, secretary of something. They even say VP, does anybody see any VP in the group? I don’t think so,” Trump said.
