As of late, former President and 2024 Presidential Candidate Donald J. Trump has been stirring controversy as ever before, this time within the American Labor Movement. To garner support for his campaign, Trump appealed to union workers, pressing them for their votes this election season. He directed his aims towards the United Auto Workers Union (UAW) which has made recent gains against the top American car manufacturers.
Trump took the fight to social media, claiming “Shawn Fain is a Weapon of Mass Destruction on Auto Workers and the Automobile Manufacturing Industry in the United States! Is he under contract to China, because they will be getting almost all of our car-making business within a very short period of time. All Auto Workers should VOTE FOR TRUMP. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Trump’s claim was basically that these workers are going to lose their jobs because their Union President is working behind their backs to get car manufacturers to instead produce cars in China. The objective result of this is that he is effectively unraveling the relationship between the union rank and file and their leadership.
Newly elected UAW president, Shawn Fain, had recently pledged support of the UAW to Trump’s opponent, Joe Biden. Trump was most likely responding to this decision to win back some of the votes of the rank-and-file UAW members.
It is also possible that Trump’s greater aim was not simply to win their votes, but to cause disunity and disarray amongst the union itself. Had Trump genuinely sought their votes, and possibly the backing of the UAW at large, it would have been a more effective approach to instead pledge his support to the unions and workers themselves. However, supporting the labor movement and unions in general objectively goes against Trump’s class interests. For, had he pledged his support for them, he would be forced to go over to their side and turn against his billionaire capitalist counterparts.
While nearly all the major unions have endorsed President Biden, not all unions are arrayed against Trump. He managed to secure the endorsement of Steamfitters Union Local 638 which represents 10,000 members throughout New York. Likewise, many union members themselves, especially amongst the building trades, are willing to cast their lot in with Trump. The Teamsters, one of the largest unions in the US, have not yet endorsed either Biden or Trump, making the American labor movement split on this election.
