Great news: Fiat Chrysler has announced a $1 billion, 2,000-job investment in plants in Michigan and Ohio. Donald Trump didn’t quite claim credit in his predictable tweet about the news, but Reuters, for instance, reported the story with the headline “Fiat Chrysler ups the ante as automakers respond to Trump.”
Except that’s not what happened at all. In 2015 contract negotiations, the UAW pushed Fiat Chrysler to invest in American manufacturing, and got promises on that front. That led to what we’re seeing now, the Detroit News reports:
The announcement is the final phase of an industrialization plan announced in January 2016, which was a significant part of the automaker’s contract negotiations with the United Auto Workers in 2015. The plan called for the realignment of the company’s U.S. manufacturing operations to move away from cars to more-profitable Jeep and Ram products. […]
[CEO Sergio] Marchionne appeared to try and distance the announced moves from having anything to do with President-elect Donald Trump, saying they “have been under discussion with Dennis Williams and the rest of the UAW leadership for some time.”
Working people fought for this. Don’t let Donald Trump get the credit that goes to those union workers.
This article originally appeared at DailyKOS.com on January 9, 2017. Reprinted with permission.
Laura Clawson is a Daily Kos contributing editor since December 2006. Labor editor since 2011.
