Ron Lare & Judy Wraight
WE ARE SPEAKING only for ourselves in this article.
The UAW leadership should reverse its declaration of support for Trump on tariffs and protectionism, and should stand on international labor solidarity in organizing for a labor party and a general strike.
The UAW’s statement on March 4, 2025 on relations with Trump and tariffs should be read in full. It is copied at the end of this article.
The UAW’s statement is right to reject “free trade.” “Free trade” is the phrase that businesses use as a tool of capitalism and imperialism in their drive to squeeze more out of workers. But tariffs and nationalism are not better for workers. Tariffs raise prices for everyone, especially workers and the poor. Tariff wars can lead to economic depressions and shooting wars.
The UAW statement is wrong about Trump. He is deeply anti-union. He has paralyzed the National Labor Relations Board and EEOC by depriving them of members needed for quorums. Trump’s ally Elon Musk’s SpaceX has teamed with Amazon and Trader Joe’s in an effort to get the entire NLRB declared an illegal institution.
The UAW statement’s opportunist attempt to get close to Trump will not even work. Trump demands complete allegiance to him and what he does.
The UAW’s recent statement is a blow against international labor solidarity. Mexican and Canadian workers are not mentioned despite the effects on them. The UAW has some alliances with these union siblings. Instead of solidarity, the spirit of the statement is in line with Trump’s “America First” nationalism.
When Victor Reuther was head of the UAW’s International Department, the UAW was somewhat internationalist in trade policy, rather than protectionist. Then came the shift to protectionism, followed by neoliberalism, as the UAW stopped truly fighting the companies, competence declined, corruption increased, and the Administration Caucus hardened further.
Many UAW members thought we were starting to get rid of neoliberal union policies by electing the current International Executive Board, in a campaign led by UAWD (Unite All Workers for Democracy, the UAW reform movement). In interviews and speeches, UAW President Shawn Fain has identified his family’s move from the South to Indiana for jobs as similar to immigrants who move to the United States. The recent UAW statement runs contrary to that spirit of international solidarity. Unity and action across borders are the key to worker’s power — along with demands like 30 hours work for 40 hours pay (“30 for 40”) to create jobs.
The progressive wing of the labor movement is beginning to mobilize against Trump’s policies. For example, Sara Nelson of the Flight Attendants has a history of calling for a general strike, which Fain raised earlier for 2028. He raised the call in conjunction with the expiration of the UAW’s 2028 contracts. And he has called on other unions to align their contracts as a way to build for the 2028 action.
Today federal workers are fighting back. Union and community activists are participating in the streets and in other ways in growing mobilizations around the country. But the UAW’s current appeal to Trump is completely contrary to Fain’s own appeal for a general strike.
Organizing for a general strike could also help spark creation of a Labor Party to replace the Democrats as well as the Republicans as the political forces that workers and most of their leaders look to. In fact, UAW support for a Labor Party dates back to the 1936 UAW Convention. In 1996 a short-lived Labor Party was founded. It was supported by nine unions including Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers; United Electrical workers; West Coast longshore (ILWU); the California Nurses Association (CNA); and other unions.
Judy Wraight and Ron Lare, are both retired members of UAW Local 600 Ford Rouge.
Labor Notes ran a useful article on the union position on tariffs.
Here is the March 4 UAW statement on tariffs:
For 40 years, we’ve seen the devastating effects of so-called “free trade” on the working class. 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.
There’s been a lot of talk of these tariffs “disrupting” the economy. 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 working class suffered all the pain of NAFTA, and we won‘t suffer all the pain of undoing NAFTA. 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 is in active negotiations with the Trump Administration about their plans to end the free trade disaster. We look forward to working with the White House to shape the auto tariffs in April to benefit the working class. 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.