Viewpoint: Will Trump’s Tariffs Be Good for Auto Workers?

During the 2019 General Motors strike, while my fellow workers and I were pounding the pavement, something inspirational was happening south of the border: Mexican auto worker Israel Cervantes, along with many others at a GM plant in Silao, Guanajuato, refused overtime in solidarity with us.

Their practical action was particularly helpful to our cause because they built large trucks, which are the main source of revenue for our common employer. Israel was fired soon afterward, and he went on to help build the National Independent Union for Workers in the Automotive Industry (SINTTIA), ousting an employer-friendly union in Silao. SINTTIA has just won 10 percent raises for Mexican GM workers.

As talk of tariffs grows to a fever pitch, we should all take a page from Israel’s book if we want to build a more powerful, connected, and assertive labor movement. Time and time again, he has acted in solidarity with his fellow workers, regardless of which side of a border they live on.

I had a chance to meet Israel in person in 2023 and thank him for his bravery. The circumstances that brought us together were telling: he had traveled to Michigan to support our Stand-Up Strike, and we met outside the corporate headquarters of an auto parts company called VU. A dozen United Auto Workers (UAW) members and community allies had gathered to protest the layoffs and blacklisting of 400 workers who made armrests in Piedras Negras, Coahuila.

The workers at VU had defeated management’s yellow union and organized with an independent union, the Mexican Workers’ League. Our small solidarity action wasn’t enough to stop the retaliation, but it offered a glimpse of what’s possible with closer coordination and deeper ties between U.S. and Mexican auto workers.

SPIRALING TRADE WAR

Cross-border solidarity strikes at the heart of one of the mechanisms that enable the corporate class to dominate: its global reach. Giant corporations help write international trade laws. When they cross borders, they are (in investor logic) diversifying—pitting one set of workers against another.

When one part of their operation is on strike, they continue in another: that’s why they wanted overtime from the workers in Silao when we were on strike here. Divide and conquer is the name of the game.

The strategy to fight these corporate giants must be global too. But that’s in jeopardy with President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again 25 percent tariffs. (There may be some partial carve-outs for Mexico and Canada, to be worked out after the tariffs take effect today. Over the weekend, Trump said tariffs would affect “all countries.”)

As a preview of the spiraling trade war Trump is stoking, China, Japan, and South Korea said they will respond jointly to the U.S. tariffs. Workers must now brace for uncertainty and fallout, fueling fears of inflation and layoffs which are tailor-made to break down international solidarity.

The tariffs are part of Trump’s America First agenda, supposedly meant to boost U.S. manufacturing—and the UAW has thrown its support behind Trump on the issue.

RESULTS NOT GUARANTEED

My union’s hope—after the U.S. lost 682,000 jobs because of NAFTA—is that punitive tariffs will incentivize domestic production and build the U.S. manufacturing base. “With these tariffs, thousands of good-paying blue collar auto jobs could be brought back to working-class communities across the United States within a matter of months,” said UAW President Shawn Fain in a statement.

Fain later clarified on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that building a new plant could take years, but he said tariffs could be a “motivator” to bulk jobs back up where companies have eliminated shifts, like at the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee, where the union is negotiating a first contract. At Stellantis, Fain said, the company could bring 2,000 jobs that were lost when it shifted production of the Ram truck to Mexico.

In bargaining there’s a truism that if the company doesn’t give it to you in writing, then don’t believe it. These tariffs promise exactly zero new factories will be built, but a couple things are certain: vehicle prices will go up, perhaps by as much as $6,400, because auto companies will pass on any tariff costs to car buyers; and production will be disrupted due to decreased sales and logistical wrangling, which likely means layoffs. Michigan could be hit hardest.

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To do something as major as build a factory, companies need a safe bet. They need a consistent policy that provides long-term incentives to justify such a move. Trump has already shown that his policies are anything but consistent. An impulsive man’s fleeting whim is hardly justification to build an entire plant, with all the logistics, supply chains, and investments that come with it.

And even if a company decided to build a new factory in the U.S., it would take years to complete—whereas other nations could have imposed retaliatory tariffs by the time you read this!

When Trump was asked about the impact of tariffs on prices, he said, “I couldn’t care less, because if the prices on foreign cars go up, they’re going to buy American cars.” Reality check: GM and Ford also build vehicles in Mexico and Canada, as well as relying on parts flowing across borders for vehicles assembled here. Peter Navarro, a senior trade adviser to the president, says the American people should simply “trust in Trump.”

Another drawback is the potential for corruption as companies vie for favor; a pay-to-play transactionalism is a defining feature of the Trump administration.

Want a carve-out in tariffs so you can make your product more cheaply than your competitor? Maybe a generous contribution will get the president’s attention. It obviously worked for Tesla owner Elon Musk. Even better, maybe you could have a tariff levied on your competition!

As Trump dismantles Biden’s investment in the electric vehicle transition, Musk has made big gains from Trump eliminating consumer tax credits that benefited Tesla rivals, including GM’s and Ford’s joint ventures. This threatens jobs that the UAW has just organized or is in the process of organizing, at battery plants in Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee.

A BETTER WAY

Every worker in the industrial Midwest can see that “free trade” has been a disaster for us. Town after town, whole sections of our states are hollowed-out husks of their former selves. Deaths of despair are commonplace where prosperity once flourished.

I can completely understand the desire to protect our industries and our communities. But I can also understand that our neighbors to the north and south have that same desire.

My proposal would be to tax or tariff only those vehicles and parts (both domestic and foreign) that are produced in facilities that violate workers’ rights. This approach would defend the good union jobs that are the backbone of our families and communities, and build solidarity with our union brothers and sisters overseas. It would also offer an incentive for nonunion companies to finally respect the rights of their employees to collectively bargain.

This kind of explicitly pro-worker tariff policy clearly isn’t in the cards under this administration, but it’s something to consider as a future political goal now that the taboo around tariffs has been broken. Coupled with a strong international solidarity movement between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, it would give us more power and leverage than ever. Just as large corporations are global, our solidarity has to span borders to match their sphere of control over production and our lives.

It wasn’t that long ago that auto workers in Canada and the U.S. were members of the same union. Is it inconceivable that we could add Mexico to a North American workers union as well? Imagine what we could accomplish together! Let’s remember our friend from Mexico and his spirit of brotherhood, and build solidarity beyond its current narrow parameters.

Sean Crawford is a UAW Local 160 member in Michigan who works for General Motors.