Against the backdrop of an autoworkers strike, Sen. J.D. Vance joined former President Donald Trump in voicing his support for the striking workers while also denouncing the Biden administration’s approach to the electric vehicles industry, calling it “an unbelievable scam.”
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the United Auto Workers (UAW) initiated a work stoppage on Friday against General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis.
Vance (R-OH) claimed the Biden administration was trying to deceive auto industry workers in a series of posts on X — the social media platform formerly known as Twitter — where he also declared that he was on the side of the striking workers.
“In most American car lots right now, gas powered cars are on the lot for 20-30 days. EVs are on the lot for over 90, and in some cases, over 120 days. Forcing the auto industry to double down on cars manufactured in China that most consumers don’t want is a highway to hell,” he posted.
“This is really gross, and it’s not fooling anyone. The premature transition to EVs is destroying the auto industry in our country. The workers don’t need lectures about ‘just transition,’ they need someone who stands up for them and fights alongside of them,” Vance wrote in another post.
Vance claimed that the EV push would result in net job losses for the auto industry:
“Bidenomics: we’ll ship 100 car factory jobs to China for every 10 we create in the United States. Then we’ll congratulate all the impoverished auto workers for being part of a ‘just transition.'”
On Friday, Vance shared a letter he sent to Biden senior advisor Gene Sperling, the man tasked by the president to facilitate contract negotiations between UAW and the automakers, in which he questioned whether Sperling would address whether EVs might cause U.S. job losses to China.
Vance also commended Trump for emphasizing the alleged danger a rushed EV transition could pose to the domestic auto industry in a post on X, which included Trump’s response to a union advocacy group that asked about the former president’s position on the UAW’s demands.
In Trump’s reply to a query from More Perfect Union, Trump encouraged union workers to hold their leadership to account.
“Crooked Joe has sold you out to appease the environmental extremists in his party. Do not surrender! Stand strong against Biden’s vicious attack on American Labor and American Autoworkers. And if you want more jobs, higher wages, and soaring pensions, vote for President Trump and have your leaders endorse me,” Trump said.
“If they don’t, drop out of the Union and start a new one that’s going to protect your interests right. I delivered for you before, and I will deliver for you again,” he added.
However, More Perfect Union took Trump’s answer to mean he did not stand with the union. The group claimed that the UAW’s demands and Biden’s green agenda could both be satisfied.
“Unsurprisingly, [Trump] didn’t stand with the union. Instead, he suggests workers abandon their union at the most crucial moment, as they sit right on the edge of a strike,” the organization alleged.
“The [UAW] and the labor movement are calling for good union jobs for EV workers. We can have a just transition where green jobs are good jobs and unions are strengthened in the process. This doesn’t come from unions splitting and fragmenting or the Trump politics of division. It comes from workers sticking together and winning,” added More Perfect Union.
Vance’s declaration of support for autoworkers’ demands was also met with skepticism from some on the right. Vance Ginn, a former chief economist in the Trump administration, responded to Vance to take issue with UAW’s pay raise demands.
“Rooting for auto workers to get a 40% pay raise when auto companies already offered a 20% raise? And now the strikes imposed by [UAW] will hurt consumers and workers. This is not how things are done in capitalism. Stop the big-government, forced labor-union nonsense,” Ginn posted.