Trump’s new tariffs just got backed by the last group you’d expect

After President Donald Trump announced a 25% tariff on all foreign-made cars purchased in the United States, one organization has surprisingly come out in support.

UAW’s support for tariffs

The United Auto Workers of America’s President, Shawn Fain, applauded the president’s move, calling it a “long-overdue shift away from a harmful economic framework.” In a statement released by the union, leaders said President Trump’s decision marked “the beginning of the end of a thirty-plus year ‘free trade’ disaster.” As those from the industrial Midwest can attest, communities have been decimated by the offshoring of jobs over the last four decades, with the automobile manufacturing sector being one of the hardest hit. While U.S. car manufacturers once powered the economies of many states and communities, over the last thirty years, a wake of economic disappearance has replaced the once prosperous communities as jobs were shipped overseas.

“This is a long-overdue shift away from a harmful economic framework that has devastated the working class and driven a race to the bottom across borders in the auto industry,” said the union, adding that these tariffs “prioritize the workers who build this country” over “the greed of ruthless corporations.”

Though anti-Trump voters criticize the plan to impose tariffs, as they will likely lead to higher costs for consumers—a fact that the White House has acknowledged—the policy also has the potential to reverse the economic philosophy that has guided presidents of both major parties since the Nixon administration.

UAW President Shawn Fain argued that “fixing our broken trade deals” is the first step in “ending the race to the bottom” that has plagued the U.S. auto industry and destroyed the livelihoods of millions of auto workers. Between 1990 and 2025, the number of workers involved in automobile manufacturing reached its highest level in June 2000, when 1.3 million people were employed in the sector. In the years that followed, and particularly after the financial crisis of 2008, employment dwindled, and by 2010, less than 700,000 workers were involved in automobile manufacturing. In February 2025, the BLS reported that just over a million workers were involved in the industry, representing less than 0.75 percent of the total labor force and earning an average wage of $32.13.

Some might look at these figures and see a sector that is already growing and not in need of federal support. However, upon closer examination, we see that in real terms, auto workers make less today than they did in the 1990s. If wages for auto workers had kept up with inflation, today they would make around $34 an hour—and the fact that the average sits below this figure highlights the deterioration in conditions offered to autoworkers over the last thirty years.

Tariffs are only the first step for the UAW

And though the UAW has come out in support of Trump’s tariffs, they warn that the imposition of these duties will not be enough to protect workers in the sector. Prosperity for autoworkers in the United States, according to President Fain, requires the protection of labor rights, “with a strong National Labor Relations Board, a decent retirement with Social Security benefits protected, healthcare for all workers including through Medicare and Medicaid, and dignity on and off the job.”

The UAW sees the White House’s announcement as a positive first step but warns that they will be watching carefully to ensure that if U.S. and foreign car brands move production to the U.S., they respect the rights of workers and offer them fair contracts that can rebuild the economies destroyed by offshoring. It is not enough to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. if the jobs created leave workers without decent pay, access to healthcare, paid time off, and security in retirement.

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