President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada and Mexico are an “attempt to stop the bleeding” in the American economy, United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain told “This Week” on Sunday in defense of the controversial measures.
“We’re in a crisis mode in this country,” Fain said, suggesting America’s trade system is “broken” and in need of drastic reform. “We’re in a triage situation,” he added.
Tariffs “aren’t the end solution,” Fain explained, “but they are a huge factor in fixing this problem.”
“Tariffs are an attempt to stop the bleeding from the hemorrhaging of jobs in America for the last 33 years,” Fain said, suggesting the U.S. had lost “millions of jobs” since the inception of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994.
“NAFTA sucks,” Fain said.
“The United States is the market everyone wants to sell in and we should have reciprocal trade laws where people have the same standard of living,” Fain continued.
“Our neighbors to the south — Mexican workers — aren’t the enemy. They’re being exploited and it’s because of corporate greed, and that’s what’s got to stop,” he said.
The Trump administration said last week it would enact 25% tariffs on auto-related goods from Mexico and Canada, then reversed course, announcing a one-month delay to the measures following talks between Trump and executives of Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. The tariffs are now due to come into affect in April.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president notified the companies to “start investing, start moving, shift production here.”
The UAW — which has around 1 million members — has long backed a return of jobs and manufacturing by U.S. automakers. The organization has also praised Trump’s decision to impose tariffs.
“Tariffs are a powerful tool in the toolbox for undoing the injustice of anti-worker trade deals,” the union said in a statement posted to its website on Tuesday. “We are glad to see an American president take aggressive action on ending the free trade disaster that has dropped like a bomb on the working class.”
The UAW has said that higher prices for consumers will be the fault of companies rather than the president.
“There’s been a lot of talk of these tariffs ‘disrupting’ the economy,” the UAW said in its statement last week. “But if corporate America chooses to price-gouge the American consumer or attack the American worker because they don’t want to pay their fair share, corporate America bears the blame for that decision.”
The UAW endorsed Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. Fain had previously described Trump as a “scab.”
The union’s approach has softened since Trump was reelected. Last week, the UAW said it was in “active negotiations with the Trump administration about their plans to end the free trade disaster.”
“We look forward to working with the White House to shape the auto tariffs in April to benefit the working class,” the union added.
Fain has been critical of aspects of the Trump administration, most notably the influence of billionaire Elon Musk.
Speaking at a “fighting oligarchy” event in Warren, Michigan, last week, Fain pushed back on Musk’s attacks on Social Security.
“It’s not our grandparents, and it’s not a public school teacher,” Fain said. “It’s Elon Musk and the billionaire class. And you want to talk about a Ponzi scheme? I’ll tell you about a Ponzi scheme. The only Ponzi scheme we’ve seen in the last 40 years is the rich getting richer while the working class and everyone else gets left behind.”
On “This Week,” Fain said, “The election is over. Donald Trump is the president, and we want to get to work to fix the problems that are wrong with this country, with our economy. And the American people expect that. They expect leaders to stand up and lead. They don’t expect us to sit back.”
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