UAW Investing Millions to Defeat Trump, Elect Harris

The United Auto Worker is preparing to spend millions of dollars on what is described as the most ambitious political program in decades to defeat Republican Donald Trump and put Democrat Kamala Harris in the White House.

After smacking Donald Trump this week with charges alleging unfair labor practices, , the United Auto Workers will launch a major campaign to help put Vice President Kamala Harris into the White House by mobilizing union members and retirees to vote against the Republican candidates in November.

The new program will take a multi-pronged approach, reaching out to UAW members and retirees online, at worksites, and in the field with a door-to-door outreach. It will echo the message union boss Sean Fain sounded during last year’s negotiations with Detroit’s Big Three automakers with a pro-worker, anti-Corporate Greed agenda, the UAW said in a statement.

New web site focuses on the 2024 election

The union said it has set up a special web  UAWStandUp2024.org, with resources, videos and links to factual information around the candidates’ records — and why the UAW is ready to stand up, speak up, and show up in November.  The site includes flyers that can be printed out by local unions to be distributed to worksites across the country.

The union’s one million active and retired members will form a core base of support for the Harris-Walz campaign and will provide a major push for Harris’ victory in tightly contested states such as Michigan. It also will work to elect Democrats in key Congressional races in battleground states like Ohio, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.

In 2020, the UAW’s membership accounted for 9.2% of Biden-Harris’ votes in Michigan alone.

Stand Up Strike

The UAW’s plan to win stems from the vision that launched 2023’s Stand Up strike. Under Fain, the UAW broke with decades of precedent as it went down to the wire in contracts with General Motors, Ford and Stellantis. Instead of targeting one manufacturer with an all-encompassing walkout, Fain targeted a handful of vulnerable plants at each of the Big Three, adding more and more each week to ramp up pressure,

By putting out the facts, uniting the working class, and letting members lead the way, the UAW said, its new“Stand Up, Speak Up, Show Up” campaign will mobilize a mass campaign to defeat what it described as the “billionaire class” at the ballot box.

More on the Auto Industry and Election 2024

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Fain plans to move mountains

“We’ve moved mountains in the past,” Fain said during a webinar hosted by the union to help kick off the campaign. “We’ve got more mountains to move,” he added. Fain, who was joined by Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont), described Trump as a liar, an enemy of working people and a threat to democracy.

Other union activists said they stand ready to do all they can to support the Democratic ticket of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota governor.

While the UAW’s leadership may be all-in on Harris and the Democrats, an active Auto Workers for Trump group has organized small rallies at unionized plants around Detroit recently. And it’s lent its support to both Trump and his vice presidential pick, J.D. Vance, during their appearances in Michigan.

For his part, Trump has said repeatedly that blue-collar workers generally and auto workers in particular support his candidacy.

Trump’s pro-worker appeal falters on X

Trump’s long-running efforts to cast himself as a champion of working people suffered a setback this week, however, during a two-hour conversation on X Spaces with Elon Musk, CEO of both X and Tesla.  With Musk sounding his approval, Trump referred to the billionaire entrepreneur’s past actions against workers who had tried to unionize.

“I mean, I look at what you do, You walk in, you say, ‘You want to quit?’ They go on strike. I won’t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike, and you say, ‘That’s okay. You’re all gone. You’re all gone. So, every one of you is gone,’” Trump said.

Fain blasted Trump’s comments, describing him as a scab. The union quickly filed unfair practices complaints against both Trump and Musk with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing them of trying to “intimidate” workers.

Comments could backfire with other unions

Trump’s comments also caught the attention of Teamster President Sean O’Brien. His appearance at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last month was hailed by conservative media as a sign of Trump’s popularity with working class voters, particularly white working-class voters. Trump also has asked the Teamster’s executive board for the union’s political endorsement.

O’Brien, however, blasted Trump’s remarks during the conversation with Musk, saying that “Firing workers for organizing, striking, and exercising their rights as Americans is economic terrorism.”

Under O’Brien, the Teamsters are working to organize employees at Amazon, where dozens have been fired for pro-union activity.

J.D. Vance steps in

Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, is stepping into the Republican effort to win blue-collar workers. He turned up at a non-union trucking company in Western Michigan for a campaign event this week. The turnout was marginal compared to that at several rallies in the Detroit area for Harris and her VP pick, Tim Walz.

As unions turn their fire on the former President, Trump also appears to be losing the support of the one demographic that has reliably backed him and is essential to winning the White House – white voters without a college degree. They were critical to his successful campaign against Hilary Clinton in 2016.

Union members, in particular, were skeptical of Clinton, because of her husband’s push for the North American Free Trade Agreement and her own, early support for the Transpacific Partnership trade deal.

Boots on the ground

Harris campaign insiders have also been quoted saying they won’t repeat a critical mistake made by Clinton during the 2016 campaign. She largely downplayed what some had then referred to as “flyover states,” failing to stage critical rallies in places like Michigan.

During an appearance on CNN’s Out Front with Erin Burnett this week, the network’s senior data reporter Harry Enten highlighted a recent New York Times/Siena College poll. It found what the Times described as a “dramatic reversal” in support in Trump’s “core group” of white working-class voters. In polling between August 5-9, it found, Harris held a four percentage-point lead in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, three states that swung for Trump in 2016 – but which helped his White House successor, Joe Biden, win in 2020.

In May, Trump was leading Biden among white voters without a college degree in those swing states by substantial margins of up to 25.%. In early August the lead in, that group – which fits into the target for the UAW’s new political campaign was down to 14 points.

With Harris showing strength among more traditionally Democratic groups, this helps explain why, a round of recent polls shows her surging into the lead in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. And despite the presence of Ohio Senator Vance on the Trump ticket, Harris is narrowing the gap in Ohio, which once seemed a solid base for the Republicans.