GOP senator: UAW should force Biden to stop subsidizing EV industry

Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) argued Tuesday that the striking United Auto Workers (UAW) members should force President Biden and his administration to stop subsidizing the electric vehicle (EV) industry. 

In a Toledo Blade op-ed, Vance expressed his frustration with the Biden administration’s EV manufacturing push.

He blamed the pro-EV policies for revenue losses being incurred on electric vehicle production at two of the three major automakers targeted by the strike, which he said in turn was causing lower wages for employees, fewer job opportunities in the auto industry, and higher prices for consumers.

“Those who have claimed there will be a ‘just transition’ to EVs should visit Northeast Ohio for a glimpse into the industry’s bleak future. Up the road from the once-iconic Lordstown Assembly Complex, where 15,000 union workers once assembled millions of cars, now stands a battery plant that employs a fraction of the workers at a fraction of the wages,” Vance writes in his op-ed. 

Lordstown Motors, a much-celebrated electric truck startup based in Ohio, filed for bankruptcy in June and put itself up for sale.

Vance’s op-ed echoed arguments put forward by former President Trump, who is planning to visit striking workers in Michigan, that the shift to electric vehicles will undermine union leverage due to the global EV supply chains that rely largely on nonunion labor outside the U.S.

“With this moment, the UAW leadership has an opportunity they cannot let slip through their grasp,” Vance wrote. “Rather than relenting to the Biden administration’s unjust transition to EVs, the UAW should use their leverage and force the President to stop subsidizing an industry that benefits Communist China more than it does American workers.”

“I will support any agreement between the UAW and the Big Three that accomplishes these goals. By pivoting away from the Biden administration’s destructive electric vehicle policies, we can achieve higher wages, greater job security, and a brighter future for autoworkers,” he added.

Vance’s remarks came after the UAW officially launched its strike against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis last week. The union is asking for higher wages, shorter work weeks, union representation for battery plant workers and better retirement benefits, including restored pensions for new hires.

Biden has called on the automakers to increase their offer sheets to the union. 

“I believe they should go further,” Biden said last week. “Record corporate profits, which they have, should be shared by record contracts for the UAW.”

The Hill reached out to the White House for a response to Vance’s op-ed.