UAW President Shawn Fain responded to former President Donald Trump, who called for him to lose his job during his acceptance speech for the Republican presidential nomination.
During Trump’s acceptance speech on Thursday (July 18), the former president said the United Auto Workers should be ashamed for allowing Chinese automakers to start building large factories across the Mexico border, where they ship cars to the United States without paying taxes.
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Experts in the auto industry said they have yet to learn of such plans being constructed, claiming that only one Chinese auto assembly factory is operating in Mexico.
It is run by JAC Motors, which builds inexpensive vehicles from kits for sale in the country.
In response, Fain said Trump was once again attacking the union on a national stage, which should tell you everything you’d need to know about the Republican presidential nominee as a man and a candidate.
“Last night, Donald Trump once again attacked our union on a national stage. That should tell you everything you need to know about the man and the candidate. As we’ve said for many months, he stands for everything we stand against. Trump claims to be attacking us in the name of protecting American auto workers.
So tell us why, when Lordstown closed in 2019, when Trump was President, and our members were on strike for 40 days, he said nothing and did nothing. Tell us why Trump pushed to move auto jobs out of Michigan to drive down wages.
Tell us why Trump “renegotiated NAFTA” for the disastrous USMCA, under which manufacturing jobs continue to leave the country and the trade deficit with Mexico has gone up, not down. Tell us why Trump blamed the 2008 auto crisis on the autoworkers. We’ll tell you why. Because Donald Trump always has and always will side with the billionaire class against the working class.
He doesn’t want to protect American auto workers. He wants to pad the pockets of the ludicrously wealthy auto executives. He wants to cut the corporate tax rates of his golfing buddies and keep the stock buybacks and Wall Street manipulation going. He wants autoworkers to shut up and take scraps, not stand up and fight for more.
He talks about the electric vehicle transition as the reason our industry is under threat. Our members don’t go to work every day because they’re passionate about combustion engines. It’s about our families and our communities getting our fair share of the record auto profits, electric or not. The threat we face is corporate greed run wild, and that’s what Donald Trump enables and celebrates.
America’s autoworkers aren’t the problem. Our union isn’t the problem. The working class isn’t the problem. Corporate greed and the billionaires’ hero, mascot, and lapdog, Donald Trump, are the problem. Don’t get played by this scab billionaire. Stand up and fight for more.”
UAW President Shawn Fain