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By Shawn Fain
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In the aftermath of the 2024 presidential election, union leaders, pundits, and the data all pointed to the same crisis: Democrats lost the working class.
I’ve been a member of the UAW for 32 years, and I remember when union members and working-class Americans could count on Democrats to have our backs.
We now live in a time of the worst wealth inequality in the history of our nation, where the working class, union or not, have been left behind at the altar of corporate greed.
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In blue-collar towns across Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania—once the heart of the "blue wall"—workers stopped believing Democrats were on their side. Communities built on strong union jobs that could support a family, buy a home, and retire with dignity were hollowed out. America was under siege by bad trade deals, like NAFTA, and the plant closures that followed devastate blue-collar towns while corporations came to dominate Washington.
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Over the decades, too many Democrats stopped listening to working people and started listening to political donors.
We call on elected officials to pick a side. You can fight for the working class or do the bidding of billionaires and corporations, but you cannot do both. If Democrats want to win, they must prove they are on the side of workers.
You don’t have to look far back to see Democratic governors choosing otherwise. In 2025, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont vetoed unemployment benefits for striking workers—twice. In 2026, Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger vetoed collective bargaining rights for public-sector workers. And just weeks ago, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer vetoed nine bills restoring pensions, lowering health care costs, and restoring bargaining rights for public-sector workers.
Those vetoes came after Michigan Democrats fought an 18-month legal battle to force the bills to the governor’s desk. When the courts finally ordered them delivered, Whitmer vetoed all nine the same day—without so much as a phone call to legislative leaders or the unions that helped elect her.
For me, Whitmer’s vetoes were disappointing but not surprising. She had already shown where she stood during the Stand Up Strike in 2023.
Autoworkers made massive financial concessions to accommodate automakers during economic downturns, but especially in 2008. Workers were told that when the companies recovered, so would we, but that never happened.
That was the catalyst for the historic 2023 UAW Stand Up Strike, where workers took on some of the biggest corporations in America after years of soaring corporate profits, while workers remained stuck with the sacrifices they had made over a decade before. We fought to eliminate the tier system, restore COLA (cost of living allowance), strengthen retirement security, and win workers their fair share.
At the height of the Stand Up Strike, Bill Ford began making barely veiled threats that if workers asked for too much, jobs would go elsewhere. It’s a fear tactic that companies use, threatening job loss if workers demand their fair share. That’s when we need allies to stand strong with workers, but that’s not what we got from Governor Whitmer.
After being made aware that Governor Whitmer was going to be making a statement, I reached out. I told the governor that we knew Ford could afford to do better for workers, and that she should stay out and let us handle our business. She chose to make statements anyway, carrying Bill Ford’s water.
I was floored. A Democratic governor in Michigan—the home of the UAW, whom we had enthusiastically endorsed—picked a side. It was the side of the companies.
We won anyway.
But these examples should serve as a warning to the labor movement and working people everywhere: corporate Democrats are not our friends. We should draw a line in the sand.
Today, 12 billionaires and now a trillionaire own more wealth than the bottom half of society. With that wealth comes political power, and billionaires are willing to spend whatever it takes to own both parties.
We’re watching that play out in Michigan today. Outside groups have poured record sums into the U.S. Senate race on behalf of Haley Stevens, including nearly $30 million from AIPAC’s affiliated super PAC and millions more from dark-money groups that have even used the UAW’s logo in misleading advertising.
That’s why our union has endorsed Abdul El-Sayed. He refuses corporate PAC money, and we know he’s on the side of working-class people.
Corporations and billionaires don’t spend record amounts without expecting something in return. And they don’t mislead voters if they are not afraid.
This isn’t unique to Michigan. It’s the same dynamic that helped Democrats lose the trust of working-class voters in 2024.
Our country is at a crossroads. We need leaders willing to stand with working people against corporations and billionaires who are holding our economy and democracy hostage. As I’ve said publicly, part of the reason we’re in this situation is because Democrats can’t decide who the f*** they want to represent.
If we want a future where our communities are whole, our neighbors are secure, and workers have power over their own lives, we’re going to have to fight for it—by organizing, bargaining, striking, and flexing our political muscle at the ballot box.
That also means being clear about which politicians stand with us. That’s why the UAW is supporting candidates like El-Sayed and Jocelyn Benson in Michigan, Amy Acton in Ohio, Troy Jackson in Maine, Dan Osborn in Nebraska, and others who have rejected corporate PAC money.
Today, the UAW is calling on every elected official and candidate to pick a side—and prove it by rejecting corporate PAC money. It’s time for the party to adopt a platform that addresses the needs of working-class people. If they want workers to support them, the platform should be clear that people not profits should come first.
We are in a fight for the soul of this country. Billionaires want us divided—by race, immigration status, who we love, or what bathroom we use. They also want politicians in both parties in their pocket so they win no matter what.
Matthew 17:20 grounded me during the Stand Up Strike: “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
These billionaires and corporations can feel like mountains. Some days it seems impossible to move them.
But when working-class people stand together and fight for what we deserve—on the job and at the ballot box—we can move mountains. Nothing is impossible.
Shawn Fain is president of the UAW.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
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