UAW President Tries to Portray Kamala Harris as Working Class Hero Despite Her Green Agenda Risking U.S. Auto Jobs

United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain used his speech at the Democrat National Convention (DNC) this week to portray Vice President Kamala Harris as “a fighter for the working class.” Harris’s green energy agenda, though, paints a different picture — one that risks millions of American auto jobs and millions more jobs in supporting industries.

“For us in the labor movement, it’s real simple, Kamala Harris is one of us,” Fain said. “She’s a fighter for the working class … in 2024, who will stand with the working class in our fight for justice? Kamala Harris.”

Fain also accused former President Donald Trump of being a lapdog of the “billionaire class who only serve themselves.” In reality, Harris is increasingly becoming the darling of Wall Street, with CNN running a story on Wednesday titled “How Kamala Harris is winning over Wall Street.”

In particular, Wall Street and big-dollar billionaire donors see Harris’s lack of policy specifics as an in for their vested financial interests. For example, Harris has yet to unleash a full policy platform on a range of issues, including matters facing American auto workers.

Fain’s support for Harris comes as her record is dicey, at best, for auto workers.

While running for the Democrat nomination in 2020, Harris advocated for abolishing sales of gas-powered cars by 2035 and ensuring that Americans can only purchase Electric Vehicles (EVs) when looking for a new car.

“[W]e will ensure that 50 percent of all new passenger vehicles sold are zero-emission by 2030, and 100 percent are zero-emission by 2035,” Harris’s policy platform read at the time.

Meanwhile, as vice president, Harris has backed President Joe Biden’s EV mandate, which will require that a majority of new cars produced and sold in the United States market are EVs or hybrids by 2032.

Last month, a Harvard-Harris poll revealed that 72 percent of registered voters said they oppose the Biden-Harris EV mandate — including 57 percent of Democrats, 77 percent of swing voters, and 83 percent of Republicans.

Both EV mandates run the risk of wiping out millions of American auto jobs, including the jobs of UAW members. EVs, as experts note, require far less manpower to produce than traditional gas-powered cars.

Likewise, such EV mandates would be a boon for China, which controls nearly 70 percent of the world’s lithium, 95 percent of manganese, 73 percent of cobalt, 70 percent of graphite, and 63 percent of nickel — the raw minerals needed to produce batteries for EVs.

Already, some EV initiatives backed by Harris have failed.

Biden and Harris’s infrastructure package, approved in late 2021 by Congress, provided $7.5. billion to set up half a million EV charging stations across the U.S. As of June of this year, just seven EV chargers have been deployed with the billions in funding.

Likewise, Biden and Harris have cheered their key piece of legislation — the Inflation Reduction Act — for its “Buy American” provisions. Auto executives, though, worked hard to make sure that EV tax credits included in the legislation could be used for cars made in America but also Canada and Mexico.

The EV tax credits, in general, are already running into major problems as China continues to control much of the supply chain of critical minerals needed to produce EV batteries. By 2025, China is set to control about a third of all of the world’s lithium.

Harris has spoken about her goal of creating a so-called “opportunity economy” but has not addressed the threat of Chinese economic dominance, particularly as it impacts American auto workers.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.