Trump, UAW’s Fain Trade Potshots in Battle for Union Support

UAW members are a prized voting bloc in the November presidential elections, with the battle for their hearts, minds and votes marked by name-calling between Republican nominee Donald Trump and union President Shawn Fain, a supporter of Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, took the high road in their bid for union support during two appearances in Southeast Michigan last week.

“I am so deeply honored as a lifelong supporter of union labor, for Tim and I to have the endorsement of the UAW,” Harris tells thousands of union members and their families first at Detroit Metropolitan Airport and then at UAW Local 900 in Wayne, MI. Local 900 represents workers at a major Ford assembly plant that was one of the focal points of last fall’s “Stand-Up Strike” that saw the UAW win substantial pay raises and concessions from the Detroit Three automakers.

Says Walz: “The work that you did (during the Stand-Up Strike) didn’t just benefit UAW workers – it benefited all workers. So, I couldn’t be prouder to be on this stage and couldn’t be prouder to stand with the UAW,” adds Walz, a one-time teacher who, Fain notes, is a union member.

Fain is characteristically confrontational in his remarks: “This election is about a choice, about whether we continue forward or whether we go backward. This is a ‘Which side are you on?’ moment, and the choice cannot be any clearer.” 

Trump, Fain says at the airport rally, “comes to Michigan. He talks about how he's going to bring back the auto industry. Let me tell you something – Donald Trump doesn't know s--- about the auto industry, and he doesn't give a damn about the working class in this country.

“This is a simple question because on one side, you got a billionaire that serves himself and his billionaire buddies," Fain says. “He lies, he cheats and he steals his way to the top. He’s a lap dog for the billionaire class.”

For his part, Trump is again emphasizing his appeals to working-class voters just as he has since he first campaigned for the presidency back in 2015 by arguing they have been ignored by the nation’s elites.

The UAW supported Hillary Clinton in 2016 when Trump surprised the union and Democrats by carrying Michigan by 11,000 votes. Trump also carried Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio, which Barack Obama won in 2012. Clinton, however, never campaigned personally in Michigan or Wisconsin and the UAW’s support was lukewarm, though unions pressured the Democratic candidate to drop her support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade pact Trump had targeted.

Trump’s support among blue-collar workers in 2016 prompted a broad discussion about working-class voters’ shift away from the Democratic Party. Harris seeks to reclaim that support.  

Over the years, the UAW membership has been divided, with a crucial slice of the membership neither Democrats or Republicans but independents, who switch sides from election to election depending on the candidate or the issues, according to political consultant Brian Rothenberg, a former UAW communications director.

Trump is confident of winning rank-and-file UAW support, continuing to attack Fain and again promising to revitalize the industry if elected.  “Look, the United Auto Workers I know very well, they vote for me,” he says. “They have a stupid person leading them, but they vote for me. They’re going to love Donald Trump more than ever before.”