Former UAW President Supports Trump's NAFTA Overhaul, Less Enthusiastic About the Man
The former president of the United Automobile Workers, Bob King, says he supports President Trump’s plan to reconfigure the North American Free Trade Agreement — so long as it maintains labor’s best interests. Ironically, King’s support of the president’s trade plan came as he attended an Ann Arbor rally in support of an EPA testing facility in danger of being closed due to Trump administration budget cuts.
King, who served as the union’s president from 2010 to 2014, faults the trade pact for a loss of American jobs. It’s his belief that NAFTA allowed automakers to invest in more-affordable regions — like Mexico — at the expensive of the United States’ workforce. His successor, Dennis Williams, has echoed these claims and also wishes to see NAFTA reformed.
While the two union leaders may support the overhaul, King is a little less enthusiastic about the man behind it. He was, after all, attending a Democrat-led rally against one of the president’s core initiatives.
“Workers have to be protected, our economy has to be protected, and the environment has to be protected,” King told Automotive News on Monday. “NAFTA didn’t do that. If [Trump] renegotiates NAFTA to do all that, great. I’m skeptical, because everything I’ve seen him do so far is to take care of the wealthy, not to take care of the workers or the environment.”
He then went on to accuse the president of taking unearned credit for auto jobs and investments created as a result of collective bargaining. Trump has indicated domestic automakers added jobs as a result of his hardline “America First” stance, but King says the majority of those positions were tied into company promises made as part of a 2015 contract with the UAW.
“Him taking credit for jobs isn’t real,” King said. “The reality is that they were bargained. Dennis Williams did an amazing job last time getting additional commitments for jobs in this country and billions of dollars invested in cities in America.”
The ex-union boss believes there an overriding frustration within the UAW over how policies have been handled by both parties. King says a history of lackluster trade deals and broken promises encouraged Michigan, a historically blue state, to vote Republican in the last election. “He got less votes than Romney, less votes than McCain and he’s still president,” King said of Trump. “I think there’s an important lesson for Democrats: working people want to see results. They’ve seen their lives get worse and worse, not better and better.”
[Image: World Economic Forum/ Wikimedia Commons ( CC BY-SA 2.0)]
A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.
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F*** you Bob, and f*** Dennis too. Get behind President Kushner, otherwise you're an antisemitic terrorist who hates freedom. Then there's this: "The juicy version is the Canadian version. Kushner came begging! White House staff called the Prime Minister’s Office last month to urge Justin Trudeau to persuade President Donald Trump not to tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement, according to multiple Canadian government sources. The unconventional diplomatic manoeuvre — approaching the head of a foreign government to influence your own boss — proved decisive, as Trump thereafter abandoned his threat to pull out of NAFTA unilaterally, citing the arguments made by Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto as pivotal…" http://hotair.com/archives/2017/05/09/report-jared-kushner-called-canadian-officials-begging-phone-trump-talk-ending-nafta/
Keeping all auto manufacturing jobs in the US would have made new vehicles more expensive and reduced sales. That would have been enough to push all three domestic manufacturers into bankruptcy. Going to Mexico cost some American jobs. Not going would have cost many more.