Are more unionists turning on Trump?

Upon taking office for his second term, Donald Trump has moved more swiftly and broadly than many labor leaders expected.

Three months into Trump II, however, unions are continuing to fight through lawsuits, participating in rallies with many other Americans, and at “town halls,” with or without elected representatives.

Construction has been a sector seen as more pro-Trump than most unions, but two of Trump’s most vocal critics are from the trades. Painters President Jimmy Williams said many construction unions are souring on Trump as a result of Trump’s cancellation of subsidies and various projects, including about $100 billion in planned construction having been scrapped.

“It’s been chaos, economic chaos,” Williams said. “Then there are the immigration raids, and Trump’s sheer lack of wanting to follow the rules and the law. It’s scary. We are more conservative than most unions, but what you’re seeing right now from the Trump administration is not conservative. You’re seeing fascism.”

Sean McGarvey, President of the North America’s Building Trade Unions, has angrily demanded Trump bring home Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a wrongly deported immigrant who was a member of the Sheet Metal Workers’  union. Garcia must “be returned to us and his family now,” McGarvey said. “Bring him home!”

Although union households in 2024 backed Harris over Trump 53% to 45%, and most unions endorsed the Democrats’ ticket, according to exit polls, two influential unions didn’t – the Fire Fighters and the Teamsters. (However, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien later blasted Trump’s nomination of management attorney Crystal Carey from a “union-busting” law firm to be General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board [NLRB].)

Also, UAW President Shawn Fain – who campaigned for Harris but supported one of Trump’s proposed tariffs (on auto imports) – weeks later slammed Trump for killing federal workers’ bargaining rights, replacing NLRB members, and attacking Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.

“That’s not good for the working class,” Fain said.

Reporting in Slate, Steven Greenhouse said, “Most unions are angry as hell about Trump 2.0,” and AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler forcefully agreed.

“We’ve been facing a barrage of attacks from the administration,” she told Greenhouse. .“They’re slashing jobs. They’re ripping up union contracts. They’re cutting services. Trump’s delivered on nothing that he promised. We would say his scorecard is a fail.”

AFL-CIO Treasurer Fred Redmond, a Steelworker, commented, “Now we’re seeing buyer’s remorse. A lot of our members that voted for Trump are scratching their heads thinking ‘Well, we didn’t know he was going to make it an attack on collective bargaining, that he was going to devalue programs like OSHA’ – things that are important to working families.”

Indeed, a new AFL-CIO poll shows that most unionists think the country is moving in the wrong direction.

Most Americans agree with those results, according to Pew Research. A majority, 52%, agrees with the statement that “Trump is a dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy” and also oppose Trump’s attempt to end the U.S. Constitution’s birthright citizenship provision and his administration’ policy on migrants.

Meanwhile, public confidence in about a dozen U.S. institutions shows organized labor is at the top, according to Gallup polls. Labor is the only institution that’s gained people’s trust since 2009, with the rest, including Big Business, the Military and Criminal Justice, all falling. Labor is up about 18% in those 16 years; the Presidency is down about 44%.

Ethan Young from the global union federation Public Service International said unions’ increasing defiance is a hopeful sign.
“Organized labor's resistance represents more than unionism. It's become a defense of the [U.S.] social contract itself. As unions deploy their organizational might through strikes, lawsuits, legislative pushes and voter mobilization drives, they're fighting not just for contracts and benefits, but for the fundamental character of democracy. Their victories, from courtroom triumphs to workplace organizing wins, provide guidance and inspiration for the broader fights to defend democracy in the U.S. and globally.”

In April, Shuler foreshadowed that observation.

“Democracy does not defend itself,” Shuler said. “Nor can we expect politicians to save us from autocrats’ clutches. Democracy means rule by the people. Fifteen million working [members of 63 AFL-CIO unions] know ‘my voice matters.’

“Organized labor gives voices a platform,” she added. “We amplify them wherever we go. Make sure every politician claiming to carry the banner of the working class knows: ‘What we’ve seen the past 100 days ain’t it’.”

Longtime consumer advocate Ralph Nader recently wrote, “Expanding numbers of Americans from all backgrounds who see the deadly months ahead of Dangerous Donald need to sum up their demands in the siren call “YOU’RE FIRED!” just as was done to President Richard Nixon for far less serious transgressions in 1974.”

In a barrage of Executive Orders, the Trump White House “came immediately for our federal workforce, cutting funding Congress appropriated, firing workers with no due process, lying about their performance. trying to get other workers to quit,” Shuler said. “Authoritarians always start with organized labor.”

Michael Podhorzer, a senior fellow with the Center for American Progress and a former AFL-CIO political director, in The Contrarian wrote, “There’s a reason that taking out unions is one of the first pages in the oligarchic coup playbook – as in Chile, Turkey, Argentina, Brazil, Greece, Indonesia, Spain, Myanmar and more.

“The major elements of the labor coalition have come together,” Podhorzer said, “and Trump has certainly reinforced that.”