\n
![](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/AP24215645153136-e1722639689541.jpg?w=2048\")
<\/p>\n [ad_1]
\n<\/p>\n
Putting Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the Democratic ticket increases the Democrats\u2019 chance of winning Michigan and keeping the White House in November, the head of the United Auto Workers union says.<\/p>\n
In an interview Friday with The Associated Press, Shawn Fain said former President Donald Trump is beholden to billionaires, knows nothing about the auto industry and would send the labor movement into reverse if he\u2019s elected again.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump has never supported working class people. He has never supported unions,\u201d Fain said. \u201cBut he sure as hell was trying to pander for our votes now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fain has become a top nemesis of the Republican presidential nominee, who frequently rails against him at rallies and in speeches. Trump has called him an idiot, courting autoworkers\u2019 votes by saying Fain is putting their jobs at risk by embracing a move to electric vehicles.<\/p>\n
Although the UAW has members across the nation, many auto-making jobs are concentrated in the Great Lakers region and Michigan,\u00a0a key swing state<\/a>\u00a0that could decide the presidential race in November. This week, the UAW\u00a0endorsed Harris<\/a>.<\/p>\n Trump and Harris realize that increasing their share of union votes gives them a much better chance of taking Michigan, where the last two presidential elections have been close, said Marick Masters, a business professor emeritus at Wayne State University who follows labor issues.<\/p>\n Trump won the state by just 11,000 votes in 2016 over Democrat Hillary Clinton, and then lost the state four years later by nearly 154,000 votes to President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n Appealing to autoworkers helps to get votes from other union members, and union membership is high in the state at about 556,000, Masters said. That doesn\u2019t include thousands of family members and union retirees, he said. Any swing in those votes would be consequential in the race.<\/p>\n During his acceptance speech at the Republican convention last month, Trump\u00a0called on union workers to fire Fain,<\/a>\u00a0using false statements that Chinese auto companies are building factories in Mexico to ship vehicles to the U.S. without tariffs. Industry analysts say they aren\u2019t aware of any such plants under construction, at least not yet.<\/p>\n \u201cYou probably have to get rid of this fool, this stupid idiot representing the United Auto Workers,\u201d Trump said at a July 20 rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Trump claimed that he\u2019ll get 95% of the UAW vote because Fain is pushing electric vehicles. \u201cThey\u2019re going to be made in China,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He also pledged to bring the auto industry back from obliteration if he\u2019s elected.<\/p>\n But the industry is far from obliteration. Since Biden took office in January 2021, employment making cars and parts has grown 13.8% to just over 1 million people, according to the Labor Department. Detroit automakers General Motors, Ford and Stellantis have made billions in annual profits.<\/p>\n Fain dismissed the insults as typical Trump behavior. \u201cAll the man does his name call, label people. He never has solutions,\u201d Fain said. \u201cThat\u2019s the problem in leadership. You need to find solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n The move from internal combustion vehicles to those powered by electricity is inevitable, Fain said, and union members need to be ready for it. During the transition, auto companies are still making gasoline vehicles and keeping factory workers employed, he said.<\/p>\n Trump, he said, did nothing for autoworkers when General Motors closed its small-car assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio, in 2019. Biden, who last month announced he would drop out of the race and support Harris,\u00a0helped to get GM to build an electric vehicle battery plant<\/a>\u00a0in the Lordstown area, replacing some of the lost jobs, Fain said.<\/p>\n