US autoworkers union head wants end to free trade deal

By Barry Eitel

SAN FRANCISCO (AA) – The head of the United Automobile Workers (UAW) union said Thursday he would work with President-elect Donald Trump to overturn or renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico.

Dennis Williams announced at a press conference that the union – the largest autoworkers union in the U.S. with about 408,000 active members -- would try to dismantle free trade agreements he said “have destroyed lives and have destroyed the middle class”.

Trump denounced NAFTA on the campaign trail and said he would work to repeal or destroy the legislation brokered by Democratic President Bill Clinton in 1994. Leaders in both major political parties have generally supported the deal but Trump’s loud criticism represents a significant departure.

His message, however, apparently got through to the thousands of autoworkers in Michigan, where the UAW is headquartered and where Trump won handily. The region has experienced the loss of thousands of jobs to outsourcing, trade agreements and free trade agreements.

“I’m prepared to sit down with President-elect Trump on trade,” Williams said. “NAFTA is a huge problem for the American people.”

While many unions that usually favor Democrats have criticized NAFTA, the denunciation does not match the analysis of many economists. In 2012, a University of Chicago survey of leading economists found 95 percent believed the average American benefited from NAFTA. Other research has hinted that the effects are minimal considering trade with Canada and Mexico makes up a small amount of total U.S. trade.

However, the Economic Policy Institute claimed in 2011 that almost 700,000 jobs have been lost due to NAFTA, especially in states like California, Michigan and Texas with a high number of manufacturing jobs.

Williams is interested in working with Trump, although he pointed out that the union would continue to stick to its normally progressive views on social issues.

“We will work with President-elect Trump as much as we can and retain our core values,” Williams said.