After decades of declining Union participation, the power of collective bargaining is finally finding purchase again in America. Businesses fear the echoed call of unionization so much that giants like Starbucks would rather shutter business for good rather than negotiate with unionized employees.
President of the United Auto Workers, Shawn Fain appeared at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on Monday night to speak for the labor movement. Fain, who has served as president since he was elected in the first-ever direct union vote in 2023, knows a thing or two about picket lines. So, when he dramatically called the former president Donald Trump a scab, he knew exactly what he was talking about.
“Trump is a scab” and we all know it
For many blue-collar workers, Fain stands as the face of the labor movement. He is vocally opposed to the billionaire class and has said “There’s a billionaire class, and there the rest of us.” After successfully mobilizing employees of the Big Three (General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis) who were “fed up with the status quo” in 2023, Fain gained notoriety for strategic negotiations and hardline tactics. His attempts to unionize auto workers have extended well past the usual base, and now include all automotive manufacturing plants in the U.S.
Very fittingly, Fain spoke at the DNC on Monday evening, the “For the People” night of the event. He appeared on stage wearing a casual blazer over a t-shirt emblazoned with the words “Trump is a scab,” – a sentiment he mirrored in his speech.
“For the UAW and for working people everywhere it comes down to one question: what side are you on? On one side we have Kamala Harris and Tim Walz who have stood shoulder to shoulder with the working class.”
He praised Biden for being the first president in history to walk a picket line, and thanked Harris and Walz for standing with the working class before pivoting to the opposition.
“On the other side, we have Trump and Vance, two lapdogs for the billionaire class who only serve themselves. So for us in the labor movement, it’s real simple. Kamala Harris is one of us. She’s a fighter for the working class.”
“And Donald Trump is a scab!”
The crowd erupted into cheers, taking up the chant “Trump’s a scab,” for several moments before allowing Fain to continue, “That’s not my opinion, that’s a fact. All we have to do is look at the track record.”
One year into Trump’s presidency, the Public Citizen, a nonprofit advocacy organization, took a look at Trump’s promises versus his deliveries. They found that despite his many calls to “drain the swamp” he populated his cabinet with the same lobbyists he’d promised to remove. His tax policies benefited the wealthy elite rather than the working and middle class. He dismantled protection within the banking industry designed to help protect the public from Wall Street. He caved to the pharmaceutical companies, and reneged on a promise to cap out-of-pocket expenses for life-saving medicines, something Harris and Biden successfully did.
And there is no overstating the damage done by his consistent rollback of regulations on everything from energy and the auto industry, to the environment and consumer protections. Pew Research Center’s delve into the former -president’s policy found that Trump was the first modern president to leave office with fewer jobs than when he took office – a statistic that was shepherded in by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fain addressed several of Trump’s anti-worker policies, nodding to his failure to “bring back the auto industry,” to protect workers from corporate America, or to acknowledge the 2019 General Motors strike, punctuating each point with “And Trump did nothing!”
“Talk is cheap,” he told the roaring crowd before praising Harris and her solidarity with striking workers. “Donald Trump is all talk and Kamala Harris walks the walk,” he shouted before removing his blazer to reveal his “Trump is a scab” t-shirt.
“The American working class is in a fight for our lives… because we’re fighting corporate greed. Corporate greed turns blue-collar sweat, blood, and tears into Wall Street stock buybacks and CEO Jackpots.”