President Trump said it best when he said, “The auto workers are being sold down the river by their leadership,” before the strike that President Biden failed to avert. The UAW leadership should be demanding an end to Biden’s electric car mandates and subsidies, which are wrecking jobs at Detroit automakers.
One-third of U.S. auto workers voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020. But instead of representing his politically divided membership, the narrowly elected president of the United Auto Workers named Shawn Fain has lashed out against Trump and thereby given away any political leverage the UAW might have had with Biden.
The Wall Street Journal editorial board observed that “the underlying cause of the auto walkout is the Biden Administration’s forced electric-vehicle transition.” Democrats cannot curb the power of the unions because Democrats’ leftist orthodoxy requires that they cripple the Detroit auto industry with demands for electric cars that use components from China. Democrats are mandating that electric vehicles become two-thirds of the Detroit automakers’ sales by 2032, even though they are less than 3% today. The car companies’ profits that liberals cite in this strike are being plowed back into money-losing electric car development that few genuinely want.
Disappearing jobs in Michigan and the Midwest would result from the EV mandate that favors Tesla’s manufacturing with cheaper labor. Ignoring this, the UAW’s headquarters in Detroit is called “Solidarity House” while their new leader is a throwback to prior strike waves that destroyed Motown as the engine of America’s prosperity.
UAW leadership should not be so daft as to assume that their membership will never catch on to the hypocrisy of endorsing the political party that seeks the destruction of the very industry that the auto workers rely upon to feed their families. The leftist vision for an electric vehicle future is not compatible with the needs of America’s auto workforce, and a rude political awakening is in store for the UAW if they don’t change their path quickly.
