UAW Irony

Isn’t it ironic that UAW leader Shawn Fain railed against Trump in a recent speech saying: “every fiber of our union is being poured into fighting the billionaire class and an economy that enriched people like Donald Trump at the expense of workers. We can’t keep electing billionaires and millionaires that don’t have any understanding of what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck and struggle to get by and expecting them to solve the problems of the working class.”  Either he is hilariously tone-deaf as to the political climate that has brought about this strike or he is getting greased by the democrat machine. Wonder which. Newsflash Shawn: Biden is that segment of the millionaire class who doesn’t understand the problems of the working class and his party hasn’t for decades. And come on, man we know what this strike is all about. As the automotive industry struggles to transition to Electric Vehicles to satisfy government-imposed mandates, they will be forced to modify their plants, move operations, and perhaps lay off workers to remain profitable. And EVs require less labor to manufacture than IC vehicles. The handwriting is on the wall and surprisingly, you cretins can read it. So Shawn wants to essentially reduce the number of hours worked as well as increase salaries and benefits while guaranteeing union workers will have a job. Sweet. To anyone with a functioning cortex, those parameters would appear to be untenable for a business to survive in this increasingly green environment. How exactly is that business going to increase overhead, and guarantee employment to produce a product that requires fewer workers and is currently operating at a loss? Yes, the big three are losing roughly $60000 per EV sold, with Ford recording a 700 million dollar loss in its Ford e division in the first quarter of 2023, hardly a recipe for financial viability in a marketplace where they are competing against non-union shops and foreign competition. So when NPR broadcast a story about a woebegone auto worker forced to choose between staying in Detroit and becoming unemployed versus moving to a plant five hours away to keep her job, criticizing the automaker for not retooling her local factory so that she could remain in Detroit, they show inexcusable ignorance of how business actually works. An industry that is moving towards a smaller workforce to build government-mandated EVs and forced to consolidate resources should not be spending billions to retool a local plant to satisfy workers’ geographic preferences any more than companies that have moved overseas to escape corporate taxes, union demands, and inflated wages should be obliged to move back to America. Their first responsibility is to the shareholders, and to do that, they must remain financially viable and relevant in the marketplace. Sure, treat your workers well but you must produce a superior product and offer it at a competitive price. But the big three are failing on both counts. Their product is of inferior quality and the price tag is too high. And the reason for that is government. Government mandates, government emission standards, a high corporate tax rate, OSHA standards, disability insurance requirements, minimum wage increases, raging inflation, and the Democrats’ unrelenting support of union labor’s demands are all making America a difficult place to do business. All working in concert to make the American automobile industry unable to compete against non-union competition and foreign imports who are beating us on quality, value, or both. And if millionaires are at fault then look no further than Joe Biden and his administration’s policies. More than 45 years in public office having never worked in the private sector and yet Fain suggests he has insight into the working class. Blame Trump all you want, but he got one thing right: he predicted the demise of the American auto industry if “crooked Joe Biden’s crazed concept of all-electric cars goes into effect.” How will that benefit the “problems of the working class” autoworkers?