The former president has long sought to separate rank-and-file union members from union leaders, who largely endorse Democrats.
| Seeking more of the voters who first paved his way to the White House in 2016, former US president Donald Trump rallied at a Michigan car parts factory on Wednesday night, setting up a clash of messages aimed at blue-collar workers one day after President Joe Biden appeared on a picket line with United Automobile Workers.
Hours after appearing with Mr Biden on a picket line on Tuesday outside a GM facility in Belleville, Michigan, Shawn Fain, the president of the UAW, told CNN: “I find a pathetic irony that the former president is going to hold a rally for union members at a non-union business.” Mr Trump repeated his recent attacks on the Biden administration’s push for electric vehicles, as well as a claim he made that car workers were being sold out by their leadership. The UAW, which argues that the transition to electric vehicles is inevitable and that it is driven by consumer demand, seeks to ensure that zero-emission vehicles are made by workers earning union wages.
Mr Stemple said a hasty switch to electric vehicles would decimate his family company. He noted that electric vehicles do not require gearshift levers, one of his main products. “A lot of shops like us wouldn’t survive that transition if it happened rapidly,” he said.