Miles Bryan
Appearances
Today, Explained
Tariffs hit like a Mack truck
Yeah, the job cuts I'm here to talk about are at Mack Trucks Production Facility in a part of the state called the Lehigh Valley. The valley is a politically swingy part of a famously swingy state. It's also exactly the kind of place that Trump says his tariff policies will help.
Today, Explained
Tariffs hit like a Mack truck
You know, after World War II, it was this prosperous manufacturing community anchored by the massive Bethlehem Steel Plant.
Today, Explained
Tariffs hit like a Mack truck
But, you know, that plant started struggling in the late 70s and ended up bankrupt by 2001, by which point the whole area had been really hollowed out by deindustrialization. There's even a famous Billy Joel song about it.
Today, Explained
Tariffs hit like a Mack truck
I've always loved it. All this history made me do a double take when I saw a local news story out of the valley about how Mack Truck was planning to cut around 10% of its unionized shop floor jobs there. And the company was citing tariffs specifically as the reason for the cuts. So last week, I drove up to the area to check it out.
Today, Explained
Tariffs hit like a Mack truck
My name is Dan Hand, and I'm a District 1 committee man. Dan's originally from the Chicago area. I can still hear it in his accent. He moved out here for his now ex-wife about three decades ago and got hired on at Mack. No college degree. Mack makes the big semi-trucks you see on the highway. It makes dump trucks, garbage trucks, plow trucks.
Today, Explained
Tariffs hit like a Mack truck
It's a very iconic American brand. Like, it feels very American.
Today, Explained
Tariffs hit like a Mack truck
And Dan's telling it was an excellent job when he started. You know, he told me this story of applying with literally thousands of other applicants back in 1998.
Today, Explained
Tariffs hit like a Mack truck
These days, it's not quite as competitive, but the jobs are still really good for this area. And recently, Dan said Mac seemed to be on an upswing. It was preparing for the launch of a new flagship model. And as recently as January was hiring a lot. What happens between then and last week that led to the company announcing layoffs?
Today, Explained
Tariffs hit like a Mack truck
Yeah, Dan said it was a total shock. And, you know, I reached out to Mac's corporate spokesperson. They wouldn't do an interview, but they sent me a statement blaming possible regulatory changes and, quote unquote, market uncertainty and those tariffs. And these layoffs are supposed to come sometime in the next couple of months.
Today, Explained
Tariffs hit like a Mack truck
Well, they're uniformly pissed about the layoffs, but they have mixed feelings about the tariffs because they know that the point of the tariffs, at least in theory, is to protect them, to protect this kind of work. And these workers in the Lehigh Valley, they might need that protection.
Today, Explained
Tariffs hit like a Mack truck
Yeah, this is a whole other part of the story I hadn't told you about yet. Last year, Volvo, which owns Mack Truck, announced it was building a big new truck plant in Mexico. The company says it's meant to supplement American workers, not replace them. But Dan and the rest of his union chapter are really freaked out.
Today, Explained
Tariffs hit like a Mack truck
You know, they're worried that their jobs are going to end up down in Mexico like so many other autoworker jobs have moved over the years. And last month, the local put out a press release with this sort of dramatic video that condemned Mack's decision.
Today, Explained
Tariffs hit like a Mack truck
Well, they make it more expensive to import vehicles from Mexico, and that mitigates the cost savings companies get from moving production to Mexico, where wages are way lower than they are here in the U.S.
Today, Explained
Tariffs hit like a Mack truck
But, you know, the union put out that press release in March, before Trump's tariff liberation day, before we saw how this was going to play out, and before Mac announced layoffs because of those tariffs.
Today, Explained
Tariffs hit like a Mack truck
That's a complicated question. Take our union guy, Dan Hand. He's a registered Republican, big Second Amendment guy. He voted for Trump in 2016, but then soured on him because of how he treated organized labor in his first term. And, you know, he was in that video in March. He's not against tariffs in general, but he's not thrilled about how Trump's been rolling them out so far.
Today, Explained
Tariffs hit like a Mack truck
Well, I guess the counter argument would be that Mac could buy American steel, right? American aluminum.
Today, Explained
Tariffs hit like a Mack truck
Dan's identifying a chicken or the egg problem that's like true across manufacturing right now. Lots of American companies that make stuff here rely on foreign inputs. And making that stuff more expensive hasn't immediately created new steel plants or whatever. Bethlehem Steel is still closed. It's actually a casino now.
Today, Explained
Tariffs hit like a Mack truck
But it does immediately make it more expensive to build stuff here that relies on foreign material. And on top of all this, President Trump announced Tuesday that he's watering down some tariffs for automakers who import parts. So all this is still up in the air, and we're not sure how it's going to play out.
Today, Explained
Tariffs hit like a Mack truck
No, absolutely not. They're really split on politics and on the tariffs. And I want you to meet one guy who really gets at this, John Tanizer. We met in the parking lot of a grocery store across the street from Mack's plant right after he finished his shift.
Today, Explained
Tariffs hit like a Mack truck
It was a bit windy, so we climbed into the back of John's Cadillac to chat.
Today, Explained
Tariffs hit like a Mack truck
John grew up here in the Lehigh Valley. He voted for Trump, and he likes what Trump's doing with the tariffs.
Today, Explained
Tariffs hit like a Mack truck
It's worth noting that he has seniority. He's not as worried about losing his job. But he says his job has gotten a little bit worse every year. You know, the pay doesn't go as far. The benefits aren't as good. And he's watched manufacturing jobs in this area, his home, dry up over the years. So he told me he's willing to tolerate a fair amount of pain in service of turning things around.
Today, Explained
Tariffs hit like a Mack truck
Yeah, it's already resonating politically. I met up with one local politician, a Democratic state representative named Josh Siegel, who's been all over this story. He sounded like every other Democrat in that he condemned Trump's tariffs as stupid and self-defeating.
Today, Explained
Tariffs hit like a Mack truck
But he said something interesting to me, which is he pointed out that this fixation on the fate of manufacturing jobs like at Mack Truck, it kind of misses the bigger economic picture. The biggest employers here now are hospitals and Amazon fulfillment centers. They're not factories.
Today, Explained
Tariffs hit like a Mack truck
And he was like, if we care about the working class, those are the jobs we should focus on improving, getting them to pay more and have more dignity and stature.
Today, Explained
Tariffs hit like a Mack truck
Well, I ran it by a few of them and surprise, surprise, they weren't very moved. Here's what John had to say.