The United Auto Workers union campaigned hard against Trump last year but is supportive of his import duties, saying they will end the “free trade disaster.”
The tariffs will mark “the beginning of the end of a thirty-plus year ‘free trade’ disaster,” UAW said in reaction to the tariffs. “This is a long-overdue shift away from a harmful economic framework that has devastated the working class and driven a race to the bottom across borders in the auto industry.”
UAW put “free trade” in quotation marks because unions, like the Trump administration, argue that other countries do not truly practice it and that they often employ their own import duties, pay workers less than the U.S. minimum wage, or subsidize exports to boost their own economies at the expense of U.S. manufacturing.
“Volkswagen makes 75% of their North America product in Mexico for $7 an hour, and over 40% of their U.S. sales are produced by workers earning poverty wages in Mexico,” UAW’s statement said. “That shift should be restored immediately as production shifts back to the U.S.”
Trump has been courting Rust Belt union voters since his 2016 campaign, and UAW’s praise of his tariffs indicates that effort is expanding.
“The Trump administration has made history with today’s actions,” UAW President Shawn Fain said. “The UAW and the working class in general couldn’t care less about party politics; working people expect leaders to work together to deliver results.”
In pledging to work across party lines, Fain echoed sentiment similar to Teamsters boss Sean O’Brien, who spoke at last summer’s Republican National Convention and played a role in boosting former Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer to the labor secretary post. Both major labor unions have been growing more friendly with Trump in recent months after spending decades in the Democratic camp.
Trump’s announcement could upend the international auto industry as he seeks to bring more manufacturing jobs to the United States, saying that foreign car companies can also avoid tariffs if their cars are built in America.
Trump announces new 25% tariffs on auto imports
The news has delighted auto unions, but some pro-business and libertarian-leaning groups recoiled, saying tariffs would be harmful to the economy.
“Looking for a good example of government waste, fraud, and abuse?” the Cato Institute’s Tad DeHaven wrote of Trump’s trade war. “The time the Trump administration is spending upending global trade is a waste, the rationale for it is a fraud, and forcing taxpayers to cover the damage is downright abuse.”
