‘Willing to work with Trump’ – a big mistake for union leaders

Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers union, wrote an op-ed piece for the Washington Post, stating in the title, “We’re ready to work with Trump.” In it Fain claimed:  “We  hope to find common ground on overhauling our devastating trade policies and rebuilding U.S. manufacturing. Trump has promised to enact tariffs to protect workers, and we agree that tariffs are a necessary tool.” (Jan. 19)

This is the same union leader who bestowed a glowing endorsement on former President Joe Biden and subsequently former Vice President Kamala Harris. Fain famously sported a T-shirt with the slogan:  “Trump is a scab.” That was no exaggeration.

Fain made a name for himself in the fall of 2023 when the UAW’s strike against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis — all three companies at once for the first time in UAW history — won huge contract gains. The bourgeois mouthpiece the New York Times attacked the union president for having “a non-negotiable demand: Eat the rich.” (Oct. 5, 2023) Fain’s response was, on a Facebook update with UAW members, to wear an “Eat the rich” T-shirt. 

Brazilian metalworkers union supports UAW strike, September 2023. Protectionism undermines global worker solidarity.

The UAW has championed global working-class solidarity on many fronts, from supporting Stellantis workers in Italy, GM workers in Brazil and fired, injured GM workers in Colombia to speaking out against attacks on undocumented workers in the U.S.

Wrong kind of political independence

The Biden endorsement drew the ire of the Palestine solidarity movement, which demonstrated outside the UAW Region 1 building while “Genocide Joe” was speaking inside. But the new “ready to work with Trump” line is not the kind of political independence from both capitalist parties that labor needs.

This approach represents a retreat. Does it signal that the UAW will return to past protectionist positions under the chauvinist “Buy American” theme? 

Autoworkers won’t benefit from tariffs, which will cause already inflationary prices to rise even more. And if higher prices mean fewer vehicle sales, there will be fewer jobs for UAW members. 

Unions need to break their subservience to the Democrats, but not by appeasing ultraright bigots like Trump! What the labor movement needs is not “bipartisanship” in the name of “pragmatism.” Unions must break with protectionism completely and build global class solidarity. It’s time to embrace an uncompromisingly anti-capitalist perspective.

Workers need what neither the Democrats nor the Republicans want. That’s a new social system that puts people before profits — where jobs, food, health care, education, housing and all basic needs are guaranteed rights. 

That system is socialism.

Martha Grevatt is a retired Stellantis worker who served on the executive boards of UAW Locals 122 and 869.