The UAW has flatly ruled out endorsing Trump, saying he is not “pro-worker, pro-climate, and pro-democracy.” Still, the former president’s message to Michigan voters echoed some of the union’s own criticisms of the administration’s effort to move the nation past the internal-combustion engine.
Driven in part by the incentives in Biden’s climate law, the electric vehicle industry is poised to expand its presence in Michigan. General Motors has proposed spending $4 billion on a factory to build electric pickup trucks. Ford is spending $7 billion on four battery or vehicle manufacturing factories in the state.
That means Trump is hitting the right notes in a state with a long history of car manufacturing, said Matt Grossmann, director of Michigan State University’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Research. . The administration proposed regulations this year that would make two-thirds of new cars all-electric by 2032.in May that Biden needs to ensure that autoworkers will be paid fairly. He pointed to the hourly wage of $16.50 at a General Motors Corp. battery factory as cause for alarm, noting that workers at a separate GM factory that closed in 2019 made twice as much.