the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Apr 14, 2025
Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers (UAW), has very vocally supported Trump’s tariffs for the auto industry. Fain said that Ford, GM and Stellantis have unused capacity in their plants and that Trump’s tariffs would force the auto companies to move work out of Mexico and Canada and into the U.S. In other words, Fain proposed that jobs be taken away from Mexican and Canadian autoworkers!!!
Is this really what someone who claims to be a working class leader is proposing? That workers have to fight each other over jobs?
Big 3 autoworkers know a lot of their jobs have disappeared. At one time, Ford, GM and Chrysler/Stellantis had over 900,000 UAW workers. Today, there are less than 150,000. Where did the jobs go? Fain claims the problem is that “free trade” caused jobs to be being moved out of the U.S. But many of these supposedly lost jobs weren’t lost at all. They were just moved inside the country. Ford, GM and Chrysler/Stellantis have outsourced almost all of their parts work. Today there are almost a million people working at independent parts suppliers in the U.S. They work for much lower wages, generating higher profits for the Big 3 auto companies.
And yes, there also have been many jobs that were actually eliminated in auto and other manufacturing. But the vast majority of those jobs were lost to speed up and automation, not to workers in other countries. Today, because of speed up, the auto companies produce more cars and trucks with many fewer workers, working people to death.
When Fain says the answer is tariffs, he is lying to the workers and he is covering up for the corporate bosses. He is covering up for their speed up and their killing working conditions.
Fain doesn’t propose it, but there can be a real fight for jobs. There doesn’t have to be unused capacity in an auto plant. If a plant is only running one shift, then cut the line speed in half and hire another whole shift. If workers are working insane overtime, then bring back all those workers laid off and work everyone fewer hours for a full paycheck.
In the past, autoworkers have led militant fights of the working class. They did it, not by fighting against other workers, but by fighting together against their bosses. Big 3 autoworkers, Canadian autoworkers, Mexican autoworkers, transplant workers and parts workers together number maybe two million workers in North America. That is an immense power that could make a real fight to stop speed up and crazy overtime, a fight for more jobs for all workers.