UAW President Shawn Fain, left, and former President Donald Trump. (Photos by Anna Liz Nichols and Ashley Murray)

The United Auto Workers Union (UAW) announced Tuesday that it has filed federal charges against former President Donald Trump and Tesla founder Elon Musk saying the pair illegally threatened and intimidated workers.

The remarks the UAW is concerned with stem from a Monday night discussion where Musk, a vocal supporter of Trump, held a two-hour discussion on his platform “X” with the presidential candidate where the pair praised each other, talking about foreign policy, immigration, plans for Trump’s reelection and the possibility of Musk to serve on a government efficiency commission in a potential second Trump administration.

Trump said he would “love” to have Musk on such a commission, telling him, “You’re the greatest cutter. I mean, I look at what you do. You walk in and you just say, ‘you want to quit? ‘ They go on strike. I won’t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike and you say, ‘that’s okay. You’re all gone.”

Workers can’t be fired for engaging in a legal strike under the National Labor Relations Act and the UAW said in a statement Tuesday that? the pair of “disgraced billionaires” advocated for the illegal firing of workers standing up for themselves.”

“When we say Donald Trump is a scab, this is what we mean,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement Tuesday. Fain has for months spoken in Michigan, supporting president Joe Biden’s campaign and now Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, praising both Democrats for walking picket lines with striking UAW workers.

A request for comment was made to the Trump/Vance campaign, but has yet to be returned.

Kayla Blado, press secretary for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), told Michigan Advance that the NLRB’s Region 5-Baltimore office received an unfair labor practice charge against Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., which is located in Arlington, Virginia, and another complaint filed in Region 32-Oakland against Tesla, which maintains its North American manufacturing facility nearby.

Fain spoke during Harris’ campaign visit to Detroit last week, reminding Michigan voters that while Biden became the first sitting president of the United States to walk a picket line with striking workers, Trump came to Michigan to speak at a non-union plant as the UAW was in the middle of its successful historic strike against Detroit’s “Big Three” automakers.

“Donald Trump will always side against workers standing up for themselves, and he will always side with billionaires like Elon Musk, who is contributing $45 million a month to a Super PAC to get him elected,” Fain said. “Both Trump and Musk want working class people to sit down and shut up, and they laugh about it openly. It’s disgusting, illegal, and totally predictable from these two clowns.”

Trump and Musk’s conversation was marked by technical problems. Musk said the 40 minute delay on the conversation was caused by a distributed denial of service attack of listeners flooding the server to shut it down.

Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan J. Demas for questions: [email protected]. Follow Michigan Advance on Facebook and X.

Employees join the picket line at General Motor’s Lansing Redistribution Center as the location was called to strike on September 22, 2023. (Photo: Anna Liz Nichols)

Two more plants, employing 7,000 workers, are joining the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike at noon Friday, UAW President Shawn Fain announced Friday morning on Facebook Live. This brings the total number of workers who will have walked off the job to 25,000.

The strike against Detroit Three auto manufacturers Ford, General Motors and Stellantis started two weeks ago after contract negotiations failed.

Fain said as he was gearing up for the planned livestream, Stellantis showed progress in negotiating with the union for a better contract, so the union did not target additional plants at the company.

Fain did call on Ford’s Chicago Assembly Plant, as well as GM’s Lansing Delta Township facility to stand up and go out on strike at noon Friday. Fain offered those who have already been called to strike a message of encouragement.

“Keep showing the company’s that you’re ready to stand up when you’re called. When we win this fight, when we right the wrongs of the past 15 years and longer. And when we set a new course for future generations, it won’t be because of any president, not the UAW president, not the president of the United States. It will be because ordinary people did extraordinary things,” Fain said.

At Fain’s invitation, President Joe Biden on Tuesday visited a UAW picket line in Belleville, Michigan, telling workers, “Wall Street didn’t build the country; the middle class built the country. … And unions built the middle class.”

Although Biden said he marched in UAW picket lines when he was a U.S. senator, he’s noted taking pride in doing it as president. It is believed that this is the first time in modern history that a sitting president has visited an active strike site.

Fain did not note former President Donald Trump’s Wednesday speech at a non-union Macomb County plant. The union president declined to meet with Trump, saying he was part of the problem of the “billionaire class.”

“They [the UAW] have to endorse Trump [in 2024], because if they don’t, all they’re doing is committing suicide,” Trump said at the event at Drake Enterprises in Clinton Township.

The UAW has not endorsed in the 2024 election. Michigan is again considered a pivotal swing state.

Even with Biden’s support for the striking workers, Fain noted UAW members are still facing obstacles, noting a hit-and-run incident Tuesday afternoon on the picket line at General Motors’ Flint Processing Center. The incident, where it’s reported a driver leaving the facility hit five members of the picket line, wasn’t the only violence Fain said has occurred.

“We’ve had guns pulled on us. Trucks and cars ran through us and violent threats hurled at us. And I want to be absolutely clear. We will not be intimidated into backing down by the companies or their scabs,” Fain said. “Our solidarity is our strength and right now, our strength is the hope of working class people everywhere. Let’s stand up and win this thing for ourselves, for our families, for our communities, for our country, and for our future.”

The UAW is using a staggered approach to its strike, called a “Stand Up Strike” plan, where instead of all the plants striking together, select plants are periodically informed to “stand up and walk out.”

Prior to Friday, a total of 41 locations were called to strike across 21 states, with 14 of the locations being in Michigan.

This is bigger than even the Detroit Three, Fain said, noting several other labor actions that have occurred since the UAW went on strike against the automakers. Notably, the Detroit Casino Council (DCC) UNITE HERE workers at Detroit’s three casinos — MGM Grand Detroit, Motor City Casino and Hollywood at Greektown — will vote Friday on whether to authorize their own strike.

This story is republished from Michigan Advance,?a sister publication of Kentucky Lantern and part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.?

On the picket line as the UAW strike began at Ford-owned Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Michigan, the night of Sept. 14, 2023. (Photo by Anna Liz Nichols/Michigan Advance)

Workers at a total of 38 auto parts plants will join the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike against Detroit Three auto manufacturers: Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.

All the parts distribution facilities for General Motors and Stellantis across the country are called to the stand up and strike at noon Friday.

The UAW declared the strike one week ago after negotiations with all three companies failed. About 13,000 workers were called to strike last week at Ford’s Michigan Assembly plant, GM’s Wentzville plant in Missouri and Stellantis’ Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio. Those workers will remain on the picket line.

UAW President Shawn Fain said on a social media livestream Friday morning that for two months, the union has informed auto companies of their demands. But the companies did not show interest in negotiating, he said.

However, Fain said over the last week, Ford, in particular, has made serious movement to meet the demands. Although the strikes will continue, Fain said Ford is showing it’s serious about reaching a deal.

And though Ford is not quite there yet, Fain said, efforts for today are focused on GM and Stellantis auto supplier plants across 20 states, including Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Colorado, West Virginia, Tennessee and Minnesota.

None of the newly announced striking plants are in Kentucky.

“We’ve said for weeks. We’re not going to wait around forever for a fair contract at the Big Three. The companies know how to make this right. The public is on our side and the members of the UAW are ready to stand up,” Fain said. “And we will keep going, keep organizing and keep expanding the Stand Up Strike as necessary.”

The union is using a staggered strike strategy to “keep the companies guessing.” They’re calling it the “Stand Up Strike” plan, where the president of the union will periodically announce plants to go on strike that day, which the union says will leave room to escalate the strike.

The union represents about 150,000 auto workers across the country.

The strike marks a historic moment for the union as this is the first time in its 88-year history, it has declared a strike on all three Detroit automakers at the same time.

Striking workers on the picket line at the Ford Michigan Assembly Plant have told the Advance that after helping the billionaire leaders of Ford make millions, they are owed living wages and equitable benefits including appropriate work hours.

Among the demands from the union, the UAW is asking auto manufacturers for 32-hour work weeks, as well as an end to the tiered system of wages between employees as they seek better wages and benefits throughout the length of their service.

There are news reports that the UAW has scaled back its requests for 40% pay increases over the course of four years, but the UAW website seems to maintain the 40% figure. The union is also asking for updated and improved benefits like pensions and more paid time off.

Fain has invited President Joe Biden to join UAW workers at the picket line. Several leaders, including U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, have joined union workers since the strike.

Former President Donald Trump announced he plans to forgo going to the second GOP presidential candidate debate Wednesday and instead come to Detroit to meet with striking autoworkers, to the disdain of Fain.

“Every fiber of our union is being poured into fighting the billionaire class and an economy that enriches people like Donald Trump at the expense of workers,” Fain said in a statement this week. “We can’t keep electing billionaires and millionaires that don’t have any understanding what it is like to live paycheck to paycheck and struggle to get by and expecting them to solve the problems of the working class.”

Details of the event have not been released.

This article is republished from Michigan Advance, part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact editor-in-chief Susan J. Demas at [email protected].