President Donald Trump’s rates on Canada and Mexico are an “attempt to stop bleeding” in the US economy, said United Cad Workers, Shawn Fain, “This Week” on Sunday in defense of controversial measures.
“We are in a mode of crisis in this country,” said Fain, suggesting that the United States commercial system is “broken” and needs drastic reform. “We are in a triage situation,” he added.
Tariffs “are not the final solution,” Fain explained, “but they are an important factor to solve this problem.”
“Tariffs are an attempt to stop the bleeding of job hemorrhage in the United States during the last 33 years,” said Fain, suggesting that the United States had lost “millions of jobs” since the beginning of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994.
“The NAFTA stinks,” Fain said.
“The United States is the market in which everyone wants to sell and we should have reciprocal commercial laws where people have the same standard of living,” Fain continued.
“Our southern neighbors, Mexican workers, are not the enemy. They are being exploited and is due to corporate greed, and that is what has to stop,” he said.
This aerial view shows new Subaru cars in an Auto Warehouse Co. storage lot on March 4, 2025 in Richmond, California.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
The Trump administration said last week that it would promulgate 25% tariffs on goods related to the automobile of Mexico and Canada, then revert the course, announcing a delay of one month to the measures after the conversations between Trump and the executives of Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. Tariffs must now take effect in April.
The White House Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said the president notified companies to “begin to invest, start moving, change the production here.”
The UAW, which has about 1 million members, has long backed a return of jobs and manufacture of US car manufacturers. The organization has also praised Trump’s decision to impose tariffs.
“The tariffs are a powerful tool in the toolbox to undo the injustice of the commercial anti-trade agreements,” said the union in a statement published on its website on Tuesday. “We are glad to see an American president take aggressive measures to end the free trade disaster that has fallen as a bomb in the working class.”
The UAW has said that the highest prices for consumers will be the fault of companies instead of the president.
“There has been much talk about these tariffs that interrupt the economy,” said the UAW in his statement last week. “But if corporate America chooses the price of the US consumer or attacking the US worker because they do not want to pay their fair part, corporate America is to blame for that decision.”
The UAW supported Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in the 2024 elections. Fain had previously described Trump as a “crust.”
The union approach has softened since Trump was re -elected. Last week, the UAW said it was in “active negotiations with the Trump administration about its plans to end the free trade disaster.”
“We hope to work with the White House to shape automatic tariffs in April to benefit the working class,” the union added.
In this archive photo of November 5, 2024, the president of United Car workers, Shawn Fain, speaks at a night -toroit election campaign party.
Carlos Osorio/AP, File
Fain has been critical of the aspects of the Trump administration, especially the influence of billionaire Elon Musk.
Speaking at an event of “Lucha Oligarchy” in Warren, Michigan, last week, Fain receded Musk’s attacks against Social Security.
“They are not our grandparents, and he is not a public school teacher,” Fain said. “It’s Elon Musk and multimillionaire class. And do you want to talk about a Ponzi scheme? I will tell you about a Ponzi scheme. The only Ponzi scheme that we have seen in the last 40 years is the rich one that is enriched while the working class and everyone else is left behind.”
In “This week,” said Fain, “the election is over. Donald Trump is the president, and we want to go to work to solve the problems that are wrong with this country, with our economy. And the American people expect leaders to stand up and lead. They do not expect us to sit down.”
