The United Auto Workers tries to reassert political power in Michigan as it faces internal divisions

(AP) — Walter Usakowski was mowing his lawn in a northern suburb of Detroit when three canvassers from the United Auto Workers approached. “I don’t even need to talk to you,” Usakowski said. As a retired member, he was already supporting the union’s slate of Democratic candidates in the Nov.

But he is not sure how many of the other “guys in the shop” will vote for Democrats. He worked at Ford Motor Co.’s Sterling Axle Plant for more than 45 years, and he knows many members who backed Republican President Donald Trump. The election-year canvassing was one part of the UAW’s efforts to reassert its political power in Michigan, a premier political battleground.

Although the union generally backs Democrats, its membership is more divided over which party best represents working-class interests. It also is reckoning with past corruption scandals, a drop in membership and a lack of transparency that has eroded trust within its ranks. “It’s not going to be an overnight thing,” said JJ Jewell, who is part of the UAW’s Community Action Program executive committee.

“Even if this election goes fantastically, that’s not mission accomplished. That means we’re 1% of the way done.” Internal divisions and distrust pose challenges Jewell and others made the rounds on a recent sunny Saturday in Macomb County, where Trump won by nearly 14 percentage points in 2024. Many of the union members they met in a neighborhood of well-kept suburban houses were retirees, and while most said the cost of living was their top concern, they did not agree on whether Democrats or Republicans would better address it.

One resident, who said she blamed billionaires for the country’s problems, planned to vote for Democrats. Another street over, a couple said they both supported Trump and declined to take a flyer of the UAW-endorsed candidates. In a microcosm of broader political rifts, union voters remain politically divided.

Union voters have traditionally been seen as a Democratic-leaning constituency, but Trump made direct appeals to them with his anti-elite rhetoric and promises to overhaul international trade agreements that sapped factory jobs. In 2024, voters who were union members or were in a household with a union member split between Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, with more than half voting for the then-vice president and 44% for Trump. 3 midterms.But he is not sure how many of the other “guys in the shop” will vote for Democrats.