The UAW is now one of Donald Trump’s main antagonists

When Elon Musk hosted a chat with Donald Trump on Monday night using X/Twitter’s “Spaces” tool, which allows users to broadcast a discussion, the Republican presidential candidate ventured into legally tenuous territory by praising his fellow billionaire.

Calling the tech figure a “great job cutter” — Musk laid off more than half of X/Twitter’s staff after buying the social media platform in 2022 — Trump then expanded on the topic.

“I mean, I watch what you do,” Trump told Musk. “You come in, you say, ‘You want to resign?’ They go on strike; I won’t mention the company, but they go on strike, and you say, ‘That’s okay, you’re all gone. You’re all gone. So every single one of you is gone.’” Musk laughed before quickly shifting the conversation.

Those comments are now the basis of an unfair labor practice (ULP) allegation by the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, which filed the complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) shortly after the conversation. Strikes are legally protected concerted activities, and workers cannot be removed for engaging in such action. That’s the basis of the union’s complaint, which alleges the comments constitute “unlawful attempts to threaten and intimidate workers who are fighting back,” according to a UAW press release that calls the duo “disgraced billionaires.” The union argues the exchange suggests to workers at its companies that it would fire them if they engaged in protected concerted activity, including striking — which constitutes unlawful coercion.

The UAW’s lawsuit is the latest in an open war between the Republican presidential candidate and one of the nation’s most visible and militant unions. Shawn Fain, the union’s recently elected international leader, has repeatedly called Trump “scabby,” citing the real estate mogul’s record of frequently crossing picket lines and bilking workers on his development projects.

“When we say Donald Trump is a scab, that’s what we mean. When we say Trump opposes everything our union stands for, that’s what we mean,” Fain said. “Donald Trump will always side with working people fighting back, and he will always side with billionaires like Elon Musk, who is giving $45 million a month to a Super PAC to get elected. Both Trump and Musk want working people to sit down and shut up, and they laugh about it. It’s disgusting, illegal, and totally predictable coming from these two clowns.”

In January, when Fain announced that the union would endorse Joe Biden for president before the incumbent dropped out of the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in his place, he called Trump a “scab.” It wasn’t the first time he’d referred to the former president that way, and it wouldn’t be the last. In a UAW video posted to social media following Trump’s conversation with Elon Musk this week, the union repeated the characterization, saying, “He’s for the billionaires. Not for you. Donald Trump is a scab.”

The criticism is starting to grate on Trump: In recent months, the former president has mentioned Fain in nearly every public speech he has made. During his speech at the Republican National Convention last month, the former president called for Fain to be “fired.” Never mind that Fain is an elected official and therefore cannot be fired; it beggars belief for a man whose motto is that of a boss obsessed with dominating his employees: “You’re fired.”

Fain is a real thorn in Trump’s side. Not only do he and the UAW members he represents support the transition to electric vehicles (EVs), a major issue for a Republican Party that seeks to halt the transition to electric vehicles; they also supported Harris and her running mate, former union member and current Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, in the election. Union members represent a key voting bloc in swing states like Michigan: according to the UAW, its members made up a significant portion of Biden’s vote in the state in 2020.

The UAW’s opposition to the Republican ticket isn’t just a raw voter numbers problem; it’s also a publicity nightmare for a party trying to remake itself pro-labor, even as its policy priorities remain as anti-labor and anti-union as ever. Fain’s willingness to challenge that lie isn’t easy to overcome—even if his counterpart, International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, has been willing to give the party time at times.

There is a clear difference between Fain and O’Brien’s approach to political education and action: Both union leaders have significant numbers of Trump voters among their members, but the former has been far more willing to explain the threat Trump poses to union members. This difference is rooted in the fact that Fain is part of a group of reformists focused on greater democracy and rank-and-file control, both within the union and in the hours of individual lives. The UAW leader has described the union’s core issues as a living wage for all, retirement security, the return of workers’ work hours, and adequate health care for all as a right. Conservatives are inexorably opposed to these goals, which means that if Fain and his fellow reformers want to advance their project — fighting for the entire working class, as he often puts it — they must take on the political figures who stand in their way, Trump chief among them.

However, Trump’s comments on Monday went far enough for O’Brien to denounce them as well, saying Policy, “Firing workers who organize, strike and exercise their rights as Americans is an act of economic terrorism.” The Teamsters Black Caucus has now endorsed Harris, though the union itself has yet to endorse any candidate. The AFL-CIO also joined in the criticism, writing of Trump’s comments Monday night: “Scabs recognize scabs.”

Recognizing scabies. https://t.co/lDDUSp2XF4

— AFL-CIO ✊ (@AFLCIO) August 13, 2024

The UAW also wants to unionize electric vehicle factories, including those owned by Elon Musk. While GOP leaders say they want to build new factories in the United States, they are almost universally silent about the quality of the jobs they are offering, as if those jobs are inherently good — rather than being made better, with decent pay and benefits, by unionization.

Elon Musk, for his part, has been a vocal opponent of his Tesla workers’ unionization efforts, having repeatedly tried to join the UAW and is now in the early stages of another such campaign. The NLRB filed a complaint against Musk earlier this year, accusing the employer of illegally restricting Tesla workers’ access to technology at a Buffalo, New York, factory (allegations he has denied); while Trump did not specify what he was referring to in his praise of Musk’s retaliation against workers who organize, it is possible that he had in mind the events at the Buffalo plant. (The board also found that Musk illegally fired a Tesla worker for unionizing in 2021.) Anti-union animosity appears to be a clear motivating factor in Musk’s decision to expand his future operations to right-to-work states like Texas and Nevada.

This disdain for unionization makes Trump and Musk, despite their differences over electric vehicles, comfortable bedfellows. Musk is also leading an attack on the constitutionality of the NLRB itself through a case over the firing of nine employees by SpaceX in 2022, which the billionaire hopes to appeal to a sympathetic Supreme Court that will then rule that the NLRB’s enforcement structure violates the Constitution, disarming the regulator that has been a thorn in the side of employers. Musk has endorsed Trump’s candidacy and, as Fain mentioned, is reportedly backing it with $45 million a month through America PAC, a new super PAC whose other backers include Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale. Trump has long been a fan of the Tesla founder, describing him in 2020 as “one of our great geniuses.”

“They’re thumbing their noses at labor law, and there needs to be a reckoning in this country where billionaires, corporations and employers are held accountable when they break the law,” Fain said when asked on CNN about the union’s decision to file suit against Trump and Musk.

A Trump campaign spokesman called the union’s accusations a “brazen political stunt designed to erode” American workers’ support for the former president. Elon Musk took to Twitter to speculate that Fain would end up in prison.

It has always been clear that Trump, who has promised CEOs that he would cut the corporate tax rate to 20 percent if elected—he described a recent meeting with 70 of the country’s most powerful bosses as a “love fest”—cares nothing for the working class, at home or abroad. But it is refreshing that he has sent such a clear reminder to anyone who falls for his party’s desperate attempts to cover up that fact. Whether the charges are upheld or not—the union will likely have to prove that Trump was speaking on behalf of Elon Musk—it is time for unions to fight the most ruthless propagators of American class war on the side of capital.