United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain, who backed Kamala Harris in last year’s election, just delivered the most significant endorsement yet of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on foreign-made automobiles. Defying the left’s narrative, Fain called the tariffs a necessary tool to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States.
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Speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Fain agreed with Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro’s assessment that American auto plants are operating at only 60% capacity, which leaves plenty of room to ramp up production domestically.
“He’s spot on,” Fain said, citing the example of Stellantis, which recently laid off 2,000 workers in Warren, Mich., after shifting Ram truck production to Mexico. “They could shift that work back in very short order and be producing Ram trucks right back there and put those people back to work.”
Fain also pointed to Volkswagen, which he called “the biggest violator of all” for its reliance on Mexican production. “Seventy-five percent of their production for the North American market is made in Mexico, so they can shift product there overnight,” he said, emphasizing that American plants can absorb that production.
Recalling World War II, Fain argued that America has successfully repurposed its manufacturing base before. “The way that we formed the Arsenal of Democracy that won the war was, they took the excess capacity of all the automotive manufacturing plants in the country and produced tanks and planes and bombs and engines and all those things,” he said. “And it’s no different right now.”
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“And Shawn, for people who are listening to you, how do tariffs make that happen?’ asked Major Garrett. “What is the relationship between a 20 or 25% tariff and getting that capacity back up to where you’d like to see it?”
When asked how tariffs would help restore domestic auto production, Fain said they would serve as a deterrent against offshoring.
“Well, because, like everything, the companies abuse the process,” he said. “They’re in the pursuit of driving a race to the bottom.” He referenced Ross Perot’s warning in 1992 about the “giant sucking sound” of jobs leaving under NAFTA, adding, “He was spot on.”
Fain noted that 90,000 manufacturing plants have closed in the past 30 years, including 65 facilities belonging to the Big Three automakers. He cited ongoing threats to move production from Wisconsin’s John Deere plant and Pennsylvania’s Mack Truck facility to Mexico.
“Tariffs are a tool in the toolbox,” Fain said. “They’re not the end-all solution. We have to fix the broken trade system. But the way tariffs work, I mean, it’s a motivator, because there’s going to be a penalty for everything the companies ship in here, and I’ve had companies tell us, point blank, that they’re going to have to bring product back here if those tariffs are implemented.”
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Fain’s stance puts him at odds with the Democrats, who have opposed Trump’s tariffs and pretty much everything else Trump does. While Fain previously backed Kamala, his remarks suggest growing frustration within organized labor over policies that have failed to stem the offshoring of American jobs.
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