Free Republic

General Motors CEO Mary Barra has publicly cozied up to the Trump administration in recent months, including promoting a major investment in the United States last week, but her tenure at the company has included several examples of the company shipping production and jobs overseas. "I'm actually looking forward to working with the president and with the administration, because I think we can grow the importance of the auto industry and manufacturing, and so I think there's a lot that we have in common," Barra said about the incoming Trump administration in December 2024. This month, GM announced that it...

DETROIT—If President Trump’s trade war has a physical battleground, it is Michigan, where companies and workers are already feeling the beginning of an onslaught that could blow a hole in the state’s economy. Nearly 20% of the economy is tied to the auto industry, which has become increasingly dependent on parts and vehicles from Canada, Mexico and China—imports Trump hit with steep tariffs in recent weeks. This trade has grown so large that Michigan ranks fifth in the nation by the size of its imports and exports, even though its total economy ranks 14th. Detroit’s automotive executives have shifted into...

Michigan union workers are hailing President Donald Trump’s tariffs on foreign-made cars, telling a crowd in the Rose Garden on Wednesday evening that the president’s economic nationalist agenda will revitalize communities gutted from decades of free trade policies.During the speech, Trump brought up a man named Brian — a leader in the United Auto Workers (UAW) — who said the 25 percent tariffs on all foreign-made cars will drive an economic boom in areas like Macomb County, Michigan, and save American industry.“I grew up just north of Detroit, Michigan in Macomb County — known as the home of the Reagan...

In a video posted to social media Thursday, United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain praised President Donald Trump after Trump announced tariffs on imported automobiles and auto parts. Citing “national security concerns,” Trump imposed the 25% tariff Wednesday, which covers imported cars, SUVs, crossovers, minivans and light trucks, in addition to parts that include engines and transmissions. Fain said Trump’s policy would address “unfair” laws regarding trade. “We are ecstatic to see an administration finally address the unfair trade laws in this country,” Fain said. “These laws have destroyed the American working class. They’ve destroyed communities in this country, in...

.."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,"...

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), a member of the progressive faction in the House referred to as the “Squad,” refused to back Vice President Kamala Harris during a Michigan United Auto Workers rally just days ahead of the election. With union workers forming a critical component of the Democratic base, Tlaib joined Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) in rallying supporters in Detroit on Friday evening in a bid to shore up blue party support in the battleground state. Yet while Jayapal and Ocasio-Cortez urged workers to vote for Harris, Tlaib never mentioned her name. Tlaib has been a...

The leader of the United Auto Workers (UAW) made a last plea to union members to vote for Kamala Harris on Tuesday night casting the presidential election as a fight between the interests of the working class and billionaires. “I want you to know where your union stands. I want you to listen to how your UAW leadership thinks about this election and I want you to keep an open mind,” said Shawn Fain, president of the 391,00-strong union. “I know that so much of our political system in this country is focused on bullshit, the back and forth, the...

Workers at a Tennessee battery plant have voted to join the United Auto Workers (UAW) — marking a significant victory in the union’s ongoing campaign to organize both the Southeast and the electric vehicle (EV) industry. “Southern workers are ready to stand up and win our fair share by winning our unions. And when we have a free and fair choice, we will win every time,” Trudy Lindahl, a worker at the Ultium plant in Spring Hill, Tenn., said in a statement. General Motors (GM), the Detroit-based automaker that runs the plant as a cooperative venture with South Korea-based LG...

A group called "Muslim Women for Harris-Walz" is disbanding after the Uncommitted National Movement said it was told a Palestinian American speaker couldn't address the Democratic National Convention.... "We cannot in good conscience, continue Muslim Women for Harris-Walz, in light of this new information from the Uncommitted movement, that VP Harris' team declined their request to have a Palestinian American speaker take the stage at the DNC," the group said in a statement posted on Instagram. The group said the family of an Israeli hostage "has shown more empathy towards Palestinian Americans and Palestinians, than our candidate or the DNC...

The United Auto Workers (UAW) union joined calls for a Palestinian American to speak on the final night of Democratic National Convention, implying that the party risks losing the election amid ongoing protests over the administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. “If we want the war in Gaza to end, we can’t put our heads in the sand or ignore the voices of the Palestinian Americans in the Democratic Party,” the UAW wrote Thursday on social platform X. “If we want peace, if we want real democracy, and if we want to win this election, the Democratic Party...

On Monday night United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain endorsed Kamala Harris at the DNC Convention in Chicago. Fain called Kamala Harris a “fighter” for the working class and denounced Donald Trump as a “scab.” During President Trump’s first term, he prioritized bringing manufacturing back to America. And that is exactly what he did. --SNIP -- And then on Tuesday, the day after UAW President Shawn Fain announced his endorsement of communist Kamala Harris, General Motors announced a loss of 1,000 high-paying engineering jobs – 600 of those job losses will be in Michigan.

figures of our time. However, not everyone was thrilled with the outcome of this conversation. The UAW, a union deeply entrenched in leftist ideologies, has taken issue with comments made during the discussion. Specifically, they have accused Trump and Musk of attempting to intimidate and threaten workers who exercise their rights to engage in protected activities such as strikes.

The United Auto Workers union said Tuesday that it filed federal labor charges against former President Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk after the duo's conversation on X veered into talk about workers striking. Why it matters: The UAW recently endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris' 2024 bid, while the union is also aiming to organize Tesla workers. Driving the news: The UAW said it filed the charges against Trump and Musk "for their illegal attempts to threaten and intimidate workers who stand up for themselves by engaging in protected concerted activity, such as strikes."

Kamala Harris and her running mate stolen valor Tim Walz visited a United Autoworkers Union Hall in Detroit, Michigan on Thursday. The UAW endorsed Harris after she forced Biden off the ballot last month. The union may have endorsed Harris but the members love Trump. UAW President Shawn Fain admitted most of the union members will support President Trump.

Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, are set to play up their support for organized labor during an appearance at a Detroit-area union hall as the new Democratic ticket lavishes attention on a crucial base of support. Harris is expected to speak at 3:10 p.m. EDT. Watch live in our player above. Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, and Walz, who joined the ticket on Tuesday, plan to speak on Thursday to several dozen United Auto Workers members.

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain said his union was “not going to rush” an endorsement for Vice President Harris after President Biden dropped out of the presidential race Sunday. The UAW in January endorsed Biden, who endorsed Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee Sunday after he exited the race amid concerns about his age and mental acuity following a disastrous debate at the the end of June. Several major labor unions have endorsed Harris since the announcement, including the AFL-CIO, the United Steelworkers, the American Federation of Teachers, the United Food and Commercial Workers and the International Brotherhood of...

President Biden announced Friday he planned to appoint two key union leaders to an advisory committee on international trade, including United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain. The White House announced Fain and Brian Bryant, who serves as the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) president, would be appointed to the advisory group. The President’s Export Council serves as the main national committee advising the White House on matters of international trade. The group discusses and works to resolve trade-related issues around business, agriculture and labor.

The United Auto Workers union is challenging the results of last week’s organizing vote of Mercedes-Benz workers in Alabama, in which workers voted against union representation, and is asking federal officials to order a new election. ... Union organizing failed at the Alabama plant with 56% of the vote, or 2,642 workers, casting ballots against the UAW, according to the NLRB, which oversaw the election. More than 90% of the 5,075 eligible Mercedes-Benz workers voted in the election.

The state labor board late Thursday declined to stop the University of California academic workers’ strike, ruling that a UC complaint did not meet the legal standard required for its intervention. UC officials had claimed that the walkout was illegal and causing such serious harm that it needed to be stopped. The union representing 48,000 academic workers called the strike over alleged free speech violations related to Israel-Hamas protests and other harms to workers. The rolling strike was launched Monday at UC Santa Cruz by United Auto Workers Local 4811, which represents graduate student teaching assistants, tutors, researchers and other...

The UAW said that auto assembly workers at Volkswagen's Chattanooga plant will hold a vote on unionization The United Auto Workers (UAW) union announced Monday that workers at Volkswagen's assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, will hold a unionization vote after the UAW secured historic contracts for workers at Detroit's Big Three automakers last year. The UAW said a supermajority of eligible Volkswagen workers signed union cards to call for the election at the Chattanooga plant. The facility is Volkswagen's only assembly plant in the U.S. and employs about 4,100 workers who make the Atlas and ID.4. The union added that...