New York:
The head of the US Auto Workers Union on Thursday supported the car tariff as a way to address the “free trade disaster”, rejecting the use of “levy for political games”.
Praising President Trump for dealing with free trade diseases while banging other major elements of the Republican agenda, Shaun Fan, president of the United Auto Workers, described the tariff as a potential important tool to protect the working class interests.
“We support some uses of tariffs on auto manufacturing and other similar industries,” Mr. Fan said in a webcast. “We do not support the use of tariffs for political games about immigration or fantanel. We do not support careless chaotic tariffs at crazy rates on all countries.”
Mr. Fen dismissed claims by the US auto industry that tariffs would harm the US car manufacturers and lead high prices, compared to statements for those during the 2023 UAV strike talks, which eventually resulted in huge wages for workers in General Motors, Ford and Jeep-maker Stalentis.
“The companies lied,” said Mr. Fen. “They could then do the right thing and they can do the right thing now.”
These comments were the most wide of Mr. Fen for national membership since returning to Trump’s office in January.
Mr. Fen shot in 2023 with the strike by Detroit’s “Big Three” Automkers, but his enthusiastic campaign for Democrat Kamla Harris’s presidential campaign proved to be controversial in a union, where Trump also likes a vocal base of support.
On Wednesday, Trump stopped many of his most difficult tariffs on every business partner except China for 90 days, while extending the levy over the world’s second largest economy.
But Trump has maintained 25 percent tariff on imported autos which became effective last week, as well as 25 percent tariff on imported steel and aluminum which came into force in mid -March.
Mr. Fen described auto tariffs as a means of eliminating “Race to the Bottom” in the car industry, stating that GM, Ford and Salentis can add 50,000 jobs if they chose to operate American factories with full capacity instead of transferring production in Mexico, where labor is cheap.
Trump’s administration is the first “in my lifetime that is ready to do something about this broken free trade system,” said Mr. Fan.
But Mr. Fen exploded the cut of the Trump administration on the rift on health research funding, social security attacks and free speech, including the custody of Mahmud Khalil, a former UAV member Columbia University graduate student, Mahmud Khalil.
“We have seen a complete tramling of constitutional rights,” said Mr. Fen.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is published by a syndicated feed.)