The United Auto Workers union has offered rare praise of President Donald Trump for the president’s 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada.
The UAW endorsed former Vice President Kamala Harris for president last year and frequently criticized Trump. However, the group’s tone was noticeably different on Tuesday.
“For 40 years, we’ve seen the devastating effects of so-called ‘free trade’ on the working class,” the UAW, headed by Shawn Fain, said in a press release. “Corporations have been driving a non-stop race to the bottom by killing good blue-collar jobs in America to go exploit some poor worker in another country by paying poverty wages. Tariffs are a powerful tool in the toolbox for undoing the injustice of anti-worker trade deals.”
“We are glad to see an American president take aggressive action on ending the free trade disaster that has dropped like a bomb on the working class,” they added.
Trump announced that he would be levying 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada in early February before a 30-day negotiated pause failed to stop the tariffs from going into effect Tuesday. Trump said the two countries’ lack of action on immigration and drug enforcement contributed to him enacting the tariffs.
He also placed an additional 10% tariff on all imports from China on top of the 10% tariff he placed on all Chinese goods last month.
WHY DOES TRUMP THINK TARIFFS WORK?
Many critics of Trump’s tariff plan have said they will raise prices on American consumers. “These tariffs are going to cost huge amounts to the American people. They’re not thought out. They’re willy nilly. They’re against some of our closest allies and not against people we need. So the trade policies have to be improved because Donald Trump’s screwing them up so badly,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told reporters.
The UAW doesn’t appear to match Schumer’s sentiments, saying “corporate America” would be responsible for rising prices.
“There’s been a lot of talk of these tariffs ‘disrupting’ the economy,” the union said. “But if corporate America chooses to price-gouge the American consumer or attack the American worker because they don’t want to pay their fair share, corporate America bears the blame for that decision.”
The union also took aim at the North American Free Trade Agreement, saying the working class “suffered the pain” of the trade pact and doesn’t want to face the consequences of it being undone. “We want to see corporate America, from the auto industry and beyond, recommit to the working class that makes the products and generates the profits that keep this country running.”
The UAW concluded its statement saying it is working with the Trump administration to “end the free trade disaster.”
WHAT IS DOGE? WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY
“We look forward to working with the White House to shape the auto tariffs in April to benefit the working class,” the union said. “We want to see serious action that will incentivize companies to change their behavior, reinvest in America, and stop cheating the American worker, the American consumer, and the American taxpayer.”
Despite the new praise on tariffs, the UAW has not been entirely positive on the Trump administration’s actions, targeting its freeze on National Institutes of Health grants. “The Trump administration is continuing its attempts to circumvent multiple court orders that it unfreeze NIH grants,” UAW 4811, a union for the University of California’s academic workers, said in a social media post reposted by the UAW. “In response, academic workers are organizing to restore research funding and making sure the public knows how these cuts could affect public research.”
