What Trump Gets Wrong About Tariffs

I grew up in East Tennessee, where the history of labor is written not in textbooks but in the folk heroes who sacrificed their time, money, and blood. In high school, I learned about the Coal Creek War, when miners in Anderson County rose up and ended one of the most exploitative labor practices in American history.

Back in the 1890s, the state would lease out prisoners—mostly Black men arrested on flimsy charges—to coal companies. These men were forced to work in the mines for pennies, under conditions mirroring slavery, while free miners were thrown out of work.

In what became known as the Coal Creek War, thousands of them rose up. They marched on the stockades, freed the convicts, and burned the company camps to the ground. They risked everything to end the convict lease system, and they won. By 1896, Tennessee became the first Southern state to abolish the practice of convict leasing.

But yet again, working people in Tennessee are being written out of the story. When NAFTA passed, politicians from both parties promised prosperity. What we got were empty factories, small-town main streets entirely gutted, especially in rural Tennessee, and families left holding the bag while corporations pocketed the profits made in third-world countries. Now we’re staring down another great displacement — this one not from jobs displaced to Indonesia or India, but from automation and AI.

Trump sells tariffs as a panacea to all of our domestic labor woes. You can watch me on CNN below discussing tariffs. But if you’re reading this, then you get the full Aftyn diatribe. 😃

In theory, some tariffs can be beneficial, especially if companies that receive public funding, which are using that money to create jobs overseas, are forced to return to the country to set up shop here. However, tariffs without real domestic manufacturing capacity are a con. They’re a tax on families, not a plan to rebuild the middle class. As I’ve been learning, even if these jobs “come back”, they will most likely be automated… robots don’t pay union dues and algorithms don’t buy groceries in Dickson or pay rent in Clarksville.

Meanwhile, millions of Tennesseans are already locked out of the digital economy. Throughout my years of organizing, I have encountered friends who still lack reliable internet, are unfamiliar with setting up an email account to apply for housing or access their benefits, and don’t own the necessary devices to even attempt it. I’ve spoken to workers who’ve lost job opportunities simply because applications are only available online. AI threatens to make that divide even sharper—leaving entire communities behind before the race even begins.

So, what’s the remedy? Unions.

Unions are the only force strong enough to ensure that new technology serves the interests of working people instead of replacing them. They can bargain for retraining, for digital literacy programs, for guarantees that automation won’t just mean layoffs but shorter hours with the same pay. They can win healthcare and retirement security that aren’t tied to a single employer, so families aren’t left defenseless when industries change. And most importantly, unions give workers a seat at the table when companies decide how AI will be used. Unions are how we make sure this new economy is built for us, not on our backs.

In Congress, I’ll fight for a workers-first economy. That means raising labor standards and requiring Project Labor Agreements on infrastructure projects. It means passing the PRO Act, repealing Tennessee’s so-called “right to work” law, and restoring collective bargaining rights to federal workers that this Administration stripped away. It means fully funding the NLRB so labor rights are real, not just ink on paper. When this Administration canceled clean energy and manufacturing investments from the Inflation Reduction Act, they attacked the very foundation of union jobs in Tennessee. That’s why I plan to propose the Restore American Manufacturing Act — to reinstate those funds, stabilize union plants, and ban political interference in industrial policy.

Building a domestic industrial policy that actually works (side-eyeing Trump) would mean ending giveaways to corporations that offshore work and requiring taxpayer dollars to fund projects built with American steel, concrete, and union labor. It would mean investing directly in industries Tennessee families can count on—clean energy and healthcare manufacturing. Every major federal contract should guarantee union apprenticeships, local hiring, and fair wages. And corporations should face a simple choice: if you take public money, you build here, you hire here, and you stay here. That’s how we protect working people from being replaced by machines and make sure Tennesseans, not algorithms, are the ones writing the future.

I spend a lot of my time thinking about the future: what kind of jobs will exist in ten years, what safety nets we will need in place when many of our current jobs are automated, how to ensure rural kids in Waynesboro have the same opportunities born in Nashville, and do we ensure AI doesn’t strip away dignity but instead creates space for people to live fuller, more enriched lives. It takes policies that put workers first, systems that guarantee fairness, and infrastructure that keeps communities strong for generations.

Tennessee used to be first in historic, transformative projects and policies; now, we’re first in maternal mortality. We can be first again for something good, but it will take forward-thinking leadership and dogged organization, which is why I’m running for Congress. Chip in or volunteer if you can!

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Happy Labor Day (brought to you by unions),

Aftyn

P.S. Early voting for the special congressional race begins September 17th! We need your help contacting voters. Sign up to phonebank and canvass as we’ve got FIVE weeks left to win this primary! Let’s do this!