(WANE/AP) United Auto Workers leadership strongly approves of President Donald Trump's announcement that the U.S. will impose a 25 percent tariff on all vehicles not made here starting next week. “We applaud the Trump administration for stepping up to end the free trade disaster that has devast ated working class communities for decades. Ending the race to the bottom in the auto industry starts with fixing our broken trade deals, and the Trump administration has made history with today’s actions,” said UAW President Shawn Fain in a statement posted on its website. The UAW represents about 145,000 workers at factories operated by GM, Stellantis, and Ford, including the plant that produces Chevrolet and GMC pickups for General Motors located in Allen Country. Trump places 25% tariff on imported autos Fain emphasized that the UAW will continue to work to unionize workers at non-union plants owned by foreign automakers. In the website statement, the UAW stated it will work with politician, regardless of party affiliation who helps roll back decades of failed policy. New Toyota vehicles are stored at the Toyota Logistics Service, their most significant vehicle imports processing facility in North America, at the Port of Long Beach in Long Beach, Calif., Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) The tariffs on autos would start being collected on April 3, Trump said. If the taxes are fully passed onto consumers, the average auto price on an imported vehicle could jump by $12,500 according to some estimates. The UAW believes the next step should be to immediately renegotiate the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which has continued what it describes as NAFTA's "harmful effects." The UAW listed its demands for a new trade deal: A significant number of cars that are sold in the U.S. should be made in the U.S., with strong wages and good working conditions like those that generations of UAW autoworkers have fought and died for. Companies must not be allowed to close factories and ship jobs to high-exploitation, low-wage countries, and to pad already-massive profits by driving a race to the bottom among autoworkers. This includes a North American minimum wage to significantly raise pay and benefits for Mexican autoworkers, along with stronger protections for labor rights and penalties for offshoring, so that workers are no longer forced to compete with one another over crumbs while the automakers walk away with a bigger and bigger slice of the pie. Fix the auto parts supply chain, following the same principles: fair wages and benefits for all, and an increase in American-made parts for American-assembled and American-sold vehicles. The new tariffs would apply to both finished autos and parts used in the vehicles, according to a White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the taxes on a call with reporters. The tariffs would be on top of any existing taxes and were legally based on a 2019 Commerce Department investigation that occurred during Trump's first term on national security grounds. For autos and parts under the USMCA trade pact applying to the United States, Mexico and Canada, the 25% tariffs would only apply to non-U.S. content. The administration is reasoning that there is excess capacity at U.S. automakers that will enable them to ramp up production to avoid the tariffs by manufacturing more domestically, with the official noting that automakers have known since the Trump campaign that tariffs were coming. The UAW mentioned the available capacity at U.S. plants in its statement. ...read more read less