Growing up in suburban Detroit, most of my friends’ dads worked for the Big Three. They took orders from their bosses at General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford, and those bosses were always looking over their shoulders wondering when the real boss—the United Auto Workers union—might show up.
Who has benefited from this relationship? The labor union, of course, claims its members have. But the UAW’s decision to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee, proves what many Detroit auto workers have felt for years: The union bosses aren’t very concerned with promoting workers’ interests at all.
“We stand at a crossroads in this country,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement last week, adding, “We can put a billionaire back in office who stands against everything our union stands for, or we can elect Kamala Harris who will stand shoulder to shoulder with us in our war on corporate greed.”
The UAW’s endorsement isn’t a surprise. In fact, that’s the very problem. The union, which represents more than 370,000 workers in Rust Belt states such as Michigan, has served as an unofficial arm of the Democratic Party since its creation in the 1930s. Even now, as Harris and the rest of the Biden administration implement green-energy policies that put tens of thousands of its own members’ jobs at risk, the UAW would rather simp for the Democratic ticket instead of rally behind the guy who has vowed not to outsource jobs to China.
And that’s because UAW union leadership—and rest of Big Labor—is part of the upper crust that the Democratic Party represents. UAW President Shawn Fain, for example, was raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars in 2023 while his union’s members got paid a measly $500 a week during the strikes he organized.
It wasn’t always this way. Democrats at one point did represent and care for the working class, which is why the labor unions cozied up to them in the first place. But this isn’t JFK’s party anymore. Today’s Democrats, Harris included, now support banning the cheap, gas-powered vehicles that the majority of Americans rely upon—the kind of vehicles that are built in Michigan. They are doing so through expensive green subsidies that reward automakers for building electric vehicles and high earners for buying them. Unsurprisingly, this is not going well.
The Biden-Harris administration has also pushed through unfettered government spending, which has produced the high inflation rates that have eaten into any wage gains auto workers might have enjoyed.
Just as the Democratic Party’s priorities have changed, so too have those of the labor unions. Instead of fighting for the average worker, Big Labor has focused much of its energy on lining its leaders’ pockets. That became pretty clear in 2021, when more than a dozen top UAW officials were charged by the Justice Department for embezzling $2 million in member dues and spending it on luxury vehicles, private villas, firearms, and cocaine.
So why do Republicans even bother trying to placate union leaders who have made it pretty clear they hate the GOP?
I’m not saying Republicans such as former President Donald Trump and vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance shouldn’t be trying to win over union workers. Of course they should. These workers were instrumental to Trump’s win in states such as Michigan in 2016, and the Democratic Party’s desertion of these workers has created a massive opportunity.
But an appeal to these workers doesn’t need to include pandering to union leaders who would endorse any warm body on the Democratic ticket over the GOP. Harris isn’t even the Democratic Party’s official nominee yet, and the UAW already endorsed her.
Granted, Trump’s beef with UAW President Shawn Fain is very public. But Trump has tried to win over Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, even having the Republican National Committee invite O’Brien to speak at the GOP’s convention last month. The Teamster’s head used the opportunity to blast policies that protect workers’ rights such as right-to-work, which makes sure workers can’t be forced to join a union and pay dues to it as a condition of employment.
O’Brien hasn’t issued the Teamsters’ endorsement yet, and if it does go to Trump, that will be a welcome change. But I’m not holding my breath. So far this election cycle, the national Teamsters super PAC has given nearly 10 times more to Democrats than Republicans. And the Michigan Teamsters branch hasn’t given a penny to Republican candidates.
Republicans would be far better off speaking directly to the workers who feel left behind by both the Democratic Party and union leadership. They should start by asking them simple but tough questions: Are you better off because of Big Labor’s politicking? Is Michigan? And, for that matter, is the country?
Kaylee McGhee White is the Restoring America editor for the Washington Examiner, a Tony Blankley fellow for the Steamboat Institute, and a senior fellow for the Independent Women’s Forum. She grew up in Detroit and graduated from Hillsdale College. Follow her on X at @KayleeDMcGhee.
