I honestly did not have this on my Bingo card this morning.
The president of the United Auto Workers, Mr. Shawn Fain, thought it would be a good idea to hop into the debate and the actions currently occurring at numerous college campuses throughout the U.S. Of course, those actions occurring, which are mostly protests, are in favor of those who live in Gaza who grabbed hostages last October 7th and started a conflict in the Middle East that rages on today.
Yet when I woke up this morning and rubbed my eyes to focus, I came across an editorial RIGHT HERE that talked about that very thing.
UAW President Shawn Fain chose to dive into the debate over anti-Israel campus protests this week and how police should respond. Writing on X (formerly Twitter), he said his union opposes “the mass arrest or intimidation of those exercising their right to protest, strike, or speak out against injustice.” That would be a fine statement in a vacuum. In the context of the protests, it’s a defense of mass trespassing and harassment of Jewish students at Columbia, UCLA and elsewhere.
Mr. Fain foreclosed any doubt about where his sympathies lie. “This war is wrong,” he said of Israel’s campaign to root Hamas out of Gaza. He said the UAW “has been calling for a ceasefire for six months,” meaning the union wished to halt Israel’s war of self-defense not long after Hamas mutilated women and killed 1,200 Israelis in a surprise assault.
Those views may come as a surprise to Volkswagen workers in Tennessee, who chose to unionize last month, or Mercedes workers in Alabama, who will decide whether to join the UAW by May 17. The union is eager to organize workers at fast-growing southern plants, and it’s promising higher wages. But its pitch is conspicuously light on solidarity with Hamas and Ivy League delinquents, though worker dues will support Mr. Fain’s ideological causes.
Here are just a couple of his tweets from X where he states the case for his view.
The UAW will never support the mass arrest or intimidation of those exercising their right to protest, strike, or speak out against injustice.
— Shawn Fain (@ShawnFainUAW) May 1, 2024
We call on the powers that be to release the students and employees who have been arrested, and if you can’t take the outcry, stop supporting this war.
— Shawn Fain (@ShawnFainUAW) May 1, 2024
Keep in mind that Shawn's job as the president of the United Auto Workers is to ensure that workers who mostly work at auto plants are happy. I don't see how in the hell his members who are working their rear ends off to send their kids to college and have their studies interrupted or even shut down and, in some instances, their lives put in danger, is a good position to take for the union.
I'm sure all those southern plants they hoped to bring onto the UAW bandwagon are super excited about possibly having their resources (dues) go to supporting the destruction of private property and even, in some cases, flat-out violence to achieve this goal.
My colleague Jeff Charles tackled the issue of the "peaceful protests" by supporters of those who are Hamas Glampers and revealed the "peaceful" part might be a bit of spin. Crackdowns on Pro-Hamas Demonstrations Are Not a Free Speech Issue.
If police were simply rounding up people who were protesting peacefully, then it would certainly be an issue. The First Amendment protects people’s right to speak their minds no matter how odious their views are. This means these morons can falsely claim Israel is engaged in genocide against the Palestinians without the government stopping them.
However, what the pro-Hamas lobby does not want the public to know is that the backlash, at least for most, isn’t about these people expressing their views. The issue is the other activities that come with these protests.
There have been several instances of violent behavior on the part of the pro-Hamas activists. A Jewish student journalist at Yale was stabbed in the eye by a pro-Hamas protester using a Palestinian flag. There have been plenty of other examples of pro-Hamas violence on campus.
After dark, violent agitators from outside the campus showed up and by midnight the scene was complete chaos. UCLA PD were nowhere to be found at that time.
As those outside the pro-Hamas encampment attempted to dismantle the barricades surrounding it, the illegally occupying protestors, armed with lumber, goggles, and helmets, rallied to protect the perimeter of the 'tent city.' Videos captured the chaotic scene and physical fights between the groups.
In other cases, pro-Hamas activists have resorted to blocking roads to prevent motorists from traveling to their destinations. This did not go too well for them in Florida.
As RedState reported earlier, unlike the pro-Hamas protesters who deliberately stalled traffic Monday in Democrat-run cities like Chicago and San Francisco (where the Golden Gate Bridge was "occupied" for several hours), the ones who tried it in Miami quickly learned that no games would be played by law enforcement officers who took control of the scene almost immediately.
Video clips show Miami police officers dragging the radical leftists, some of whom had tethered themselves to each other, off the streets like sacks of flour and dumping them on the sidewalks before they could successfully block the PortMiami entrance. Arrests were made soon after.
The super shocking thing here is that there are LOTS of videos showing what is going on and how people are being put in some form of danger, but I guess that is no big deal to the folks down at Solidarity House in Detroit.
Then again, Fain endorsed Joe Biden for president this year, who wants to crush his union via his workers being laid off, as I covered last year. The UAW Should Be Striking the Biden Administration Over the Push to End Auto Jobs
When I read this piece here and looked at some of the numbers of how many jobs would be lost to the transition to electric vehicles I was amazed that the union leadership even gives a dime to the Democrats.
President Joe Biden praised General Motors chief executive Mary Barra at a 2022 event, saying "we owe you big" for pushing the auto industry towards all-electric production over the next decade. The president’s kind words for Barra, and their decision to team up to back a transition to electric vehicles, could come back to haunt both parties amid a historic United Auto Workers strike.
The 150,000-member union has singled out Barra as an example of corporate greed at the "Big Three" automakers, a group that also includes Ford and Stellantis. UAW, which launched a strike at four auto plants last week, took a shot at Barra over her industry-leading $29 million annual salary. UAW president Shawn Fain declared "war" on the Big Three last month, citing the $200 million Barra has raked in over the past decade. The union wants a hefty increase to salaries and benefits for its members, along with assurances that jobs will be protected during the transition to EV production.
That dramatic shift will likely come at a steep cost in terms of auto industry jobs, and the transition to electric vehicles is at the center of the auto workers' complaints. According to one estimate, the transition to EV production will come at the cost of 117,000 auto jobs.
Ahhhh, no big deal — just 117,000 good-paying jobs and union members who pay dues being thrown overboard.
Shawn will be long gone and retired by the time that happens, but at least he will have the memories of hanging out with Rashida Tlaib and the Hamas Glampers on college campuses to warm his heart.
Only in America.
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