United Auto Workers Union chief Shawn Fain has ripped Elon Musk’s efforts to buy elections and change the law for his personal benefit. The UAW has no choice but to participate in politics, Fain said, adding that the union campaign against Trump in swing states is gaining traction.
A recent legal case involving Tesla could benefit the UAW.
A decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to uphold the dismissal of a Tesla employee who had attempted to organize a union at the EV maker’s plant in Fremont, California was actually a potential win for the UAW, according to President Shawn Fain.
If anything, it offers a taste of what workers can expect if Donald Trump becomes President-elect in next week’s election, said Fain following the court ruling.
Speaking on a Facebook Live this week, Fain said, “Last week, the nine Republican appointees on a federal appeals court ruled in favor of Elon Musk, and refused to find wrongdoing when he fired a worker, and tweeted workers would lose their stock options. It’s no coincidence Elon Musk has contributed at least $130 million dollars to Donald Trump’s campaign for President.”
Tesla case underscores threat to workers
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been known for his anti-union stance with the UAW saying workers could face more threats from Elon if they try to organize representation drives.
The case cited by Fain dates to 2017 when Tesla fired Richard Ortiz, a union supporter, ostensibly for lying to private investigators hired by the company to investigate purloined Facebook posts. At the time of Ortiz’s firing, the UAW’s organizing drive had gained a foothold on the chaotic shop floor in the Tesla plant in Fremont, California.
The UAW appealed Ortiz’s and the case languished throughout Trump’s Presidency. But in 2021, after President Joe Biden make a series of appointments to the National Labor Relations Board, the NLRB ordered Ortiz reinstated and given back pay to the date of the firing.
Tesla, however, moved its corporate headquarters from California to Texas, and appealed the case to the Fifth Circuit Court in New Orleans, which is dominated by ultra-conservative judges. Initially, the first three-judge panel from the Fifth Circuit, which heard Tesla’s appeal, sided with the NLRB. However, Musk and Tesla appealed to the full court, gaining the decision by the Fifth Circuit’s seventeen judges. The ruling was posted on the court’s website late last week.
“It’s no coincidence Musk is the most anti-union CEO in the auto industry,” said Fan. “It’s no coincidence he’s trying to buy elections and bend the law in his favor. That’s not democracy. That oligarchy,” added Fain, noting that 80% of the tax cuts approved when Trump was President went to the top 1% and the eight hundred wealthiest Americans now control $6 trillion in assets or more than all of the wealth in the lower 50% combined.
Fain defends UAW political activism
UAW president Sean Fain defended the union’s political activity in a recent statement.
Along with the attack on Trump’s relationship with Musk and other billionaires, Fain also delivered a defense of the union’s political activity, which he said was necessary to protect the rights of union members.
“We don’t engage in political activity because we like a particular candidate. We don’t do it because we like Democrats or Republicans,” Fain said. In fact, Democrats all too often failed to protect the interest of the working class, Fain told a union member who asked about the willingness of Democratic politicians to take money from corporate interests.
“At least the Democrats are willing to listen when we raise our voices,” said Fain. The Republicans, however, are completely dominated by the billionaires and would be oligarchs.
“We are up against a billionaire class that will not stop their attacks,” said Fain, noting billionaires and corporate interests have gained more and more power over the past forty years.
More UAW News
- UAW Looking To Build on VW Victory With Vote at Mercedes-Benz’s Vance Plant, Daimler Truck Also In Crosshairs
- UAW Achieves Representation Victory At VW’s Chattanooga Assembly Plant, Historic Vote Could Prompt More Plants To Join
- UAW Charges Musk, Trump With Trying to Intimidate Workers
Politics is in the UAW’s DNA
Politics have always been a strong part of the union’s history.
Fain said founders of the union and pre-eminent leaders such as Walter Reuther understood what is won at the bargaining table could be taken away in legislation. Politics is essential for the union to gain mastery of the environment at work, Fain added. The UAW has an obligation to promote participatory democracy, he said. “The UAW must play an active role in government at all levels,” The billionaire class has done everything they can to buy off both parties. “It’s an embarrassment to our democracy,” he said.
Fain also addressed the so-called cultural issues, which have played a prominent role in this year’s Presidential contest between Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris.
The billionaire class and their Republican allies have used race, migration, and gender to try, and divide working class voters and obscure the larger issues around economic inequality and fairness that are at stake in this election. “The gender of the next person on the assembly line doesn’t matter,” Fain told a member, who raised a question about gender during the Facebook live session.
Fain also noted the current Biden-Harris administration has used tariffs, and he believes Harris will do a better job than Trump to revise the USMCA trade pact with Mexico and Canada when it comes up for renewal than Trums. Trump’s USMCA was a failure since imports of autos and auto parts from 20% under the agreement.
UAW’s anti-Trump appeal is working, Fain said
UAW says that its anti-trump campaign is working despite the election being a proverbial toss-up
UAW members are listening to the union’s political appeals, Fain claimed.
Contrary to reports in right-wing media such as the viciously anti-union Fox News, UAW members are moving to support Harris, Fain said.
Among union members in key swing states—Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada—shows Harris leading Trump by twenty-two points. The UAW has engaged 293,000 active and retired members, as well as their families, in battleground states.
In an ambitious robust phone, text and mail program, UAW members are engaging in conversations at worksites and within their communities. In Michigan alone, they have participated in an intensive door-to-door campaign, reaching over 200,000 union households so far, Fain said.
Among members who reported hearing from the UAW about the presidential election, Harris’ lead over Trump grew to twenty-nine points. These numbers highlight the effectiveness of the union’s aggressive strategy to inform members about the candidates’ positions on key economic issues, including protecting overtime pay, overhauling harmful trade deals, preventing offshoring, expanding retirement security, and taking on corporate greed, added Fain.
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