Thursday, during his 2024 GOP presidential nomination acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, former President Donald Trump railed against United Auto Workers (UAW) president Shawn Fain and called for his firing.
As part of his speech, Trump lamented the fact that China was building auto plants along the U.S.-Mexico border with the plan to sell Mexican-assembled vehicles to the United States.
"The United Auto Workers ought to be ashamed for allowing this to happen," Trump declared. "And the leader of the United Auto Workers should be fired immediately. And 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."
"They're building some of the largest auto plants anywhere in the world. Think of it - in the world," he added. "We're going to bring it back, we're going to make them. We don't mind. We don't mind that happening, but those plants are going to be built in the United States, and our people are going to man those plants. And if they don't agree with us, we'll put a tariff of approximately 100-200% on each car, and they will be unsellable in the United States."
Fain led the UAW's attempt to unionize at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance this year. After the vote failed, the UAW head blamed "egregious illegal behavior" by Mercedes.
Not long after Trump's remarks, UAW called Trump a "scab and a billionaire."
"We know which side we're on," UAW added. "Not his."
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email trent.baker@1819news.com.
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