On Monday, Sen. Josh Hawley became the rare high-profile Republican to visit a United Auto Workers picket line. But don’t rush to give him credit for supporting workers: Hawley used the occasion to slam efforts to fight climate change, pitting American workers against the environment.
Hawley, like Donald Trump and some other Republicans, points to China’s big head start in electric vehicle and battery manufacturing to suggest that the U.S. shouldn’t promote electric vehicles, because they’ll just be manufactured in China. Democrats, on the other hand, are fighting—against fierce Republican resistance—to build the domestic supply chain and support U.S. manufacturing. The Inflation Reduction Act included provisions to support electric vehicle and battery production in this country. A shift to electric vehicles could cut jobs, it’s true—but doing it the right way, with policy supports in place, could mean more auto jobs, according to an Economic Policy Institute analysis.
Republicans want to block climate efforts and then wail about how Democrats are harming workers—and that was Hawley’s real intent in bragging about his support for the UAW strikers.
Hawley’s ulterior motive is clear when you look at his record:
Hawley has a lifetime score of 12% on the AFL-CIO legislative scorecard, though he did score a whopping 17% in 2022. That’s below the Senate Republican average. One visit to the picket line to claim that he thinks autoworkers should be paid better—and that climate change initiatives are to blame for their situation—does not make him some hero of the working class.
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