The United Auto Workers (UAW) has been the primary voice for the auto workers in the United States. Founded in Flint, Michigan in 1935, the union was organized to negotiate for better pay and working conditions for auto workers.
Sadly, the UAW has strayed far from its original roots. Terry Bowman, a UAW member, recently wrote in National Review about his concerns about the leftward tact that UAW has recently taken. While the UAW has 390,000 members, the makeup of these members has changed. Today, 100,000 of UAW members are university professors or graduate assistants.
Think about this; auto workers are considered the ultimate “blue collar” workers. Auto workers tend to be center-right politically and a majority of UAW workers support Donald Trump’s political candidacy.
College professors, on the other hand, are the “anti-blue collar” workers. They work very few hours and are, for the most part, far-left politically. They overwhelmingly support Kamala Harris and they are often anti-Israeli.
One wonders how these disparate groups can exist under one union umbrella. It is becoming increasingly obvious that the leftist college professors are gaining control of the UAW. Terry Bowman, who works at the Ford plant in Rawsonville, Michigan, was surprised when the UAW was one of the first unions pushing for an immediate cease-fire in the Israeli-Hamas conflict.
Bowman noticed that most auto workers in the UAW are not concerned about the Israeli response to the Hamas terror attack. He also noted that the auto workers are not concerned about universities that crack down on student protestors who harass Jewish students.
Guess what, Shawn Fain, the head of the UAW is concerned about Israel’s response to the Hamas terror attack. He is also adamant about protecting college students who are supporters of Hamas and who also harass Jewish students.
Many UAW workers in auto plants are now noticing that Fain and the UAW leadership are dancing to the tune of the leftist university professors.
The behavior of the UAW leadership is similar to the behavior of the leadership of the Democrat Party. The Democrat Party has also been hijacked by leftist Democrats. The resulting focus by the Democrat Party on leftist causes has resulted in many working class Americans shifting their allegiance from the Democrats to the Republicans.
The Democrats have allowed mass immigration, have supported no limits on abortion, transgender drugs for children and consistently supported Hamas over Israel.
Hopefully, the hard working auto workers in the UAW can change the leadership of their union from leftist Democrats to people who really care about working Americans.
Bob Spencer
Publisher
Manatee Herald
publisher@manateeherald.com