First, I think we need to be careful before assigning motivations to the actions of a politician. I think the Republicans are generally against the UAW because labor typically votes Democratic. However, keep in mind I am being VERY general.

What we saw recently on the surface appears to be politicians from states with transplant automakers were voting against bills that would "help" (help certainly is a debatable term) the domestic automakers. These politicians were generally Republican and the speculation is they were looking out for their local auto plants (almost exclusively import/transplant manufactures). One can easily make the claim that these politicians were putting their local constituents ahead of the health of the country at large. When I say one, I do not mean that I am making that claim personally.

I can think of examples where politicians seem to be trying to pull strings to help out their home town factories so it's quite possible there is merit to the claims. I don't think this is a Republican vs Democrat thing so much as it's a case of the politicians from state X looking out for state X potentially at the expense of the country at large.

I'm sure Europeans can point to their own examples of politics as usual.