DETROIT—The United Auto Workers brought federal labor charges against Donald Trump and Elon Musk Tuesday, branding them as “disgraced billionaires” for their illegal actions to bully and intimidate workers participating in protected concerted activity, including strikes.
“I mean, I look at what you do,” Trump told Musk in an interview broadcast on X (Twitter) Monday night, explaining how he would deal with striking workers. “You walk in, you say, you want to quit? They go on strike, I won’t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike and you say, that’s OK, you’re all gone. You’re all gone. So, every one of you is gone.”
Under the National Labor Relations Act, it is illegal to fire workers for participating in a strike or to threaten such actions. The National Labor Relations Board can order employers to cease illegal conduct and to inform workers of their protected labor rights.
“When we say Donald Trump is a scab, this is what we mean,” Auto Workers President Shawn Fain said. “When we say Trump stands against everything our union stands for, this is what we mean. Donald Trump will always side against workers standing up for themselves, and he will always side with billionaires like Elon Musk, who is contributing $45 million a month to a Super PAC to get him elected.”
“Both Trump and Musk want working-class people to sit down and shut up. They laugh about it openly. It’s disgusting, illegal—and totally predictable from these two clowns.”
Auto workers in Detroit celebrated the UAW’S filing of charges against Trump and Musk for their illegal and bullying remarks.
“I’m glad to see the UAW calling out the billionaires,” Frank Hammer, retired UAW Local 909 president, told People’s World. “It puts some substance to our president’s remarks where he repeatedly calls Trump a scab. I’m really pleased about this.”
Hammer called Trump’s remarks about firing workers if they go on strike “ridiculous.” Fain’s statement, he said, gives the members some ammunition in any arguments with co-workers who are Trump supporters. “It gives them the ability to say, look who you’re supporting, it’s promoting strike-breaking.”
Pamela Powell, an auto worker from Detroit and member of UAW Local 600, agreed it is a good stand. “It means ‘knock it off and stop it.’ Those of us who see Trump for who he is wouldn’t have expected anything less. He’s said this is who he is.”
Powell said it boils down to the haves and have nots. “The rich want to protect what they have…. This determines what side you are on,” she told People’s World.
UAW President Fain has repeatedly pointed out the class antagonisms in our capitalist society, Hammer told People’s World. “There has not been a UAW leader in my history, going back to the 1970s, that has brought the question of class into the mainstream,” he said. “This is a breath of fresh air.”
Hammer said that the posture of the UAW leadership, especially the Stand-Up Strike at the Big Three, has really rattled the pro-Trump sector of the ruling class. Hammer took special pride in the fact that Trump called out the UAW president in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.
The UAW International is headquartered in Michigan, a swing state in the 2024 elections. The majority of auto workers here are paying close attention to the top of the ticket. So far, polls show Vice President Kamala Harris with a small lead.
“The dream of a man like Donald Trump is that the vast majority of working-class people will remain divided,” UAW President Fain said in a new ad from the UAW. “They divide us by race, by gender, who we love, or where we were born. That’s the game of the wealthy: divide and conquer.
“There is only one answer to the threat we face as a nation. That answer is solidarity.”
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