Promising to reinvigorate Michigan’s automotive manufacturing industry at Thursday afternoon’s political rally in Potterville, Donald Trump was joined by Brian Pannebecker, founder of Auto Workers for Trump.

Pannebecker and his group stand in stark contrast to what is traditionally understood as Big Labor’s staunch support of Democratic candidates. Pannebecker, a retired Ford worker, presented both pro-union voters and autoworkers with another perspective than is usually discussed, especially on the cusp of Labor Day weekend.

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Pannebecker’s organization began as a Facebook group opposed to the United Auto Workers’ endorsement of President Joe Biden, but goes back further to what he claimed was union harassment over his refusal to join the UAW as a Ford Motor Company employee.

The United Auto Workers has consistently stood  foursquare behind Democratic candidates. Biden, in fact, launched his campaign for reelection by walking briefly with striking UAW workers last fall. The union unsurprisingly endorsed Biden and his replacement on the Democratic ticket, former U.S. Senator and current Vice President Kamala Harris, who also marched with the UAW in 2019 and is scheduled to appear in a Labor Day parade in Detroit this weekend.

UAW President Shawn Fain even wore a “Trump Is a Scab” tee-shirt while voicing the same slogan during his speech at the Democratic National Convention last week.

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In his speech, Fain called the Republican presidential ticket, Trump and Sen. JD Vance: “Two lapdogs for the billionaire class who only serve themselves.”

For his part, Trump told the Potterville crowd on Thursday: “Shawn Fain, he’s horrible. What a terrible job! He sold out the union and they automatically endorse, you know, they automatically endorsed Democrats for many many years. But if you look at your car industry now in 25 years ago it’s like a different world. You’ve just what you’ve lost is so bad. We can get it all back . We can get so much of it back because you’re still the big market and that’s why we have to do it fast because we have to remain the big market.”

During his speech, Trump invited Pannebecker to join him onstage, when he spoke briefly on the Biden administration-forced electric vehicle transition.

“There’s some auto workers here,” Pannebecker said. “I’m sure Lansing has got a lot of them, but unfortunately a lot of them have lost their jobs. Listen, Chrysler and General Motors have already gone bankrupt once, but if we allow electric vehicle mandates to be put on this industry by the federal government They’re going out of business again,” he said.

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“We gotta fight against that and this guy standing right here [Trump] is the only person who will do it. We cannot allow the federal government to put mandates on the auto industry to build electric vehicles when the consumers do not want them,” he added.

“Everybody, I’m asking auto workers and I’m asking everybody that supplies the auto industry get 10 or 15 of your friends, make sure they get out and vote. Our very survival depends on it. We can’t allow it to happen, so vote Trump and JD Vance and we’ll turn this country around. He’s done it once. Unfortunately he’s gonna have to go back and do it again.”

“I just saw a poll and we have 88% of the autoworkers,” Trump said during another appearance in Michigan this week, “and (Fain) endorsed Sleepy Joe or Crooked Joe, I guess it doesn’t matter anymore.”

Pannebecker predicted “70% to 80%” of autoworkers will vote for Trump.