Shortly after President Joe Biden joined the picket line of the striking United Auto Workers, union president Shawn Fain took to CNN to slam former President Donald Trump, who plans to hold a rally at a non-union auto parts plant despite workers warning him to stay away.
"As you know, former President Trump will travel to Michigan tomorrow to give a speech to autoworkers in Detroit," said anchor Wolf Blitzer. "Many of your members are supporters of this. He wrote this on his social media ahead of President Biden's visit today. This is from Trump: 'Joe Biden's draconian and indefensible Electric Vehicle mandate will annihilate the U.S. auto industry and cost countless thousands of autoworkers their jobs.' Is the former president right? Does the push for electric vehicles here in the United States hurt your union?"
As a fact-check, the big three automakers have doubled their profits from 2013 to 2022, earning $250 billion, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
"It doesn't if it's a just transition, and that's what we're fighting for right now," said Fain. "It doesn't if companies do the right thing, and put this work under our agreements or to our standards. And again, it's the companies driving this race to the bottom and they're using our tax dollars to finance it. And you know, I find it a pathetic irony that the former president is going to a rally for union members at a non-union business."
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"You know, all you have to do is look at his track record. His track record speaks for itself," continued Fain. "In 2008 during the Great Recession, he blamed UAW members. He blamed our contracts for everything that was wrong with these companies. That's a complete lie."
He went on to recall in 2015, when Trump was running for president, "he talked about doing a rotation — taking all these good-paying jobs in the Midwest and moving them somewhere in the South where people work for less money, and then to make people beg for their jobs back at lower wages."
Fain pointed to Trump's "ultimate show of how much he cares about our workers," which happened in 2019 while serving as president.
"Where was he then?" asked Fain. "Our workers at GM were on strike for 60 days. For two months out there on the picket lines. I didn't see him hold a rally. I didn't see him stand up at the picket line. And I sure as hell didn't hear him comment about it, he's missing in action."
"Here's the question: what about a meeting with Trump?" asked Blitzer. "Would you meet with him when he's in Detroit tomorrow?"
"I see no point in meeting with him, because I don't think the man has any bit of care about what our workers stand for, what the working class stands for," Fain replied. "He serves the billionaire class, and that's what's wrong with our country."
Watch the video below or at the link here.