Labour unions and the US presidential election
12 August, 2024
LEFT FOOT FORWARD
'Trump is on the back foot and US unions are now openly fronting up their members and their families to vote for Harris.'
'Trump is on the back foot and US unions are now openly fronting up their members and their families to vote for Harris.'
Two months ago US President Joe Biden and his VP running mate Kamala Harris were being written off in their bid to win the White House.
How times change. Harris has the votes in the bag at the forthcoming Democratic convention to fight Donald Trump who appears to be more deranged than ever and publicly apprehensive of facing Harris in a head to head TV debate. He knows she is a formidable debater and speaker.
Its a long way from Trump’s 2017 presidential win. In the run up to the election Trump’s support among working people was gaining traction. Decent jobs in manufacturing were being lost – a result of what in 1992 the then presidential candidate Ross Perot’s called “a giant sucking sound” – as production was moved to low tax areas of Mexico as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) signed by Bill Clinton and for which Hilary Clinton paid the price when she was beaten by Trump.
At the time Trump’s promises of re-opening shuttered steel mills, refineries and mines and rounding up illegal immigrants providing new jobs for US citizens struck a chord with union members who had seen good ‘middle class’ jobs lost and wages slashed with only precarious employment on offer. It was easy to see why many union members backed Trump’s non existent solutions.
Unions later did their analysis. Private polling by one union showed up to 60% of union families had voted Trump. After 2017 meetings in with US union officials it was wise to stay off the subject.
Trump still has diehard supporters in some unions but since Biden’s decision to stand down Kamala Harris has run an impressive campaign.
Trump is on the back foot and US unions are now openly fronting up their members and their families to vote for Harris.
Autoworkers president Shawn Fain has said: “When GM was on strike for 40 days, Trump was nowhere to be found. Kamala Harris was on the picket line standing with workers. Trump is beholden to billionaires, knows nothing about the auto industry and would send the labour movement into reverse if he’s elected again”.
Fain is the nemesis of Trump who has called for him to be sacked for ‘putting union members jobs at risk by accepting the move to electric vehicles’.
Fain’s main strategic aim is to organise the large numbers of non unionised US auto and supply chain plants. A Harris win is essential.
When Harris got the nod to run as the Democratic nominee many US unions nationally and at state level began to throw their endorsement behind her including the US trade union umbrella organisation the AFL-CIO; State and Municipal Workers (ASFME); Service Workers (SEIU); Communication Workers; Culinary Workers (hotel and hospitality); Nurses; Retail Workers; Food & Commercial Workers and in the last few weeks two of the most powerful manufacturing unions the United Autoworkers and the United Steelworkers have endorsed Harris.
The Autoworkers will be holding a Detroit rally on August 7 to support her while the steelworkers union president Dave McCall told his members: “She was essential in the administration’s efforts to return the National Labor Relations Board to its mission of empowering working people, rather than serving the interests of wealthy corporations. Her efforts chairing the White House Task Force on Worker Organising and Empowerment are proving to be an essential part of the administration’s goal of helping more workers realise the benefits of union membership.”
But it is not all plain sailing. The USA’s biggest union the International Brotherhood of Teamsters is balloting its members and retirees on who to endorse – Harris, Trump, Robert Kennedy junior, Cornel West or no one and to rank their top five political issues from a list supplied by the union.
The Teamsters have also invited Kamala Harris to a ‘round table’ meeting but she has yet to respond. Teamster’s president Sean O’Brian has already spoken at the Republican convention and is slated to speak to the Democratic convention. US union comrades are not commenting on which way the Teamsters will bounce.
As for Donald Trump? Well, he has been endorsed by the Florida Police union, the International Union of Police Associations and the National Association of Police Organisations. Says much!
Tony Burke is the Co-chair of the Campaign For Trade Union Freedom
No comments:
Post a Comment