Former President Donald Trump called for United Auto Workers (UAW) president Shawn Fain to be fired during his Thursday speech at the Republican National Convention (RNC), slamming the union leader who endorsed President Joe Biden earlier this year.
Speaking about car manufacturing in the US, Trump said that “right now, as we speak, large factories — it just started — are being built across the border in Mexico” and “they’re being built by China to make cars and sell them into our country, no tax, no anything.”
Trump, who did not explain why he blamed the UAW for this, said the union “ought to be ashamed for allowing this to happen and the leader of the United Auto Workers should be fired immediately.
The Republican presidential candidate said that “every single auto worker, union and non-union, should be voting for Donald Trump because we’re going to bring back car manufacturing, and we’re going to bring it back fast.”
Trump also said he would end the Biden administration’s electric car policies.
The UAW fired back on Thursday, writing on X that Trump “is a scab and a billionaire and that’s who he represents.”
“We know which side we’re on,” the UAW tweeted. “Not his.”
The dust-up comes after Teamsters President Sean O’Brien spoke at the RNC on Monday night, shocking the world of organized labor. In his speech, O’Brien called Trump “one tough SOB” and said the Teamsters would work across party lines with any politicians willing to help its members.
Fain said in January, “If Donald Trump ever worked in an auto plant, he wouldn’t be a UAW member – he’d be a company man trying to squeeze the American worker.”