Resolution: UAWD Position on Tariffs and Working Class Solidarity

This resolution was passed at the August 2025 Special Membership Meeting via Zoom on August 3, 2025.

Whereas, the Trump administration has put in place sweeping tariffs on imports, including on vehicles and auto parts from Mexico and Canada. Whereas, UAW President Shawn Fain and top staff have openly supported Trump’s tariff policy, stating “We applaud the Trump administration for stepping up to end the free trade disaster that has devastated working class communities for decades.” Since this initial statement, the UAW has rolled back its position to acknowledge that it does not support “random, reckless tariffs” tariffs, but still believes that Trump’s tariffs will break up the free-trade consensus. Be it resolved that UAWD adopts the analysis below as a membership-approved position to be used by the future Editorial Board (EB). The EB does not need to use the text verbatim, but rather as a basis to write or commission an article on tariffs and working class solidarity, adding facts and specific studies as applicable. “UAWD stands in firm support of international working class solidarity and denounces the UAW’s position backing the Trump administration’s tariffs. Trump’s tariffs are not a project of the working class, as evidenced by his escalating anti-worker attacks, but rather an effort to bend the international order and the ruling class to his administration’s will, and pit workers against each other internationally. In contrast to Trump’s and Fain’s confident belief that these tariffs will increase US auto production, multiple analyses report the opposite, pointing to painful inflation for all workers as corporations pass the costs of tariffs on consumers to preserve their profit margin. In the auto industry, inflation will increase car prices for consumers and lower car sales, which combined with uncertainty caused by Trump’s erratic behavior and lack of any industrial planning, will likely result in an overall decrease in industrial jobs, even if some facilities do ramp up production. Any attempts to onshore factories to the United States as a result of these tariffs would likely bypass labor unions and exploit weak labor protections, and at the same time cause mass layoffs in Canada and Mexico if factories there shut down. Moreover, auto tariffs combined with Trump’s anti-climate policy will incentivize internal combustion engine production, resulting in the US falling further behind on the urgent clean energy transition.  While the elimination of tariffs through NAFTA and USMCA has been a disaster for working people, imposing tariffs in return is not the answer. Ultimately, without pro-worker policy and democratic, industrial planning, tariffs are a tool of the ruling class, which result in the fracture of working-class communities and pit workers against each other in a race to the bottom. In certain circumstances, tariffs have resulted narrowly in positive outcomes for segments of workers within a nation, for example when targeting a particular cross-border pay disparity, but this is not a strategy that benefits the broader working class. Instead of tariffs, the UAW should focus on building worker power and organizing to expand worker rights. In particular, the UAW could play a leading role in bargaining for wage-floors across borders within our UAW contracts with US manufacturers that have plants abroad — securing both higher wages for workers abroad and stability for US workers, as corporations are less likely to offshore jobs.  The UAW should not be in competition with international unions — like Unifor, the union representing Canadian auto workers, which has recently come out against UAW’s position on tariffs — but rather build leverage through union councils, to fight together for safe union jobs, for example by advancing shorter workweek demands which would reduce competition over jobs and coordinating on cross-border strikes. Finally, rather than accepting a zero-sum perspective on the auto industry, the UAW should take on a broader strategy of expanding into clean public transit — such as electric bus, train, and e-bike production — and become a leader in addressing climate change.”