COVID 2024: Isn’t it time to get our shot together?

In a year when a U.S. election, foreign wars, local corruption and global climate crises seem like life-and-death matters, there’s another issue.

Life and death.

COVID and health.

Of course, if we’re bored reading about MoPox, EEE or other ailments, maybe we’ve lost a sense of urgency about COVID, which has become endemic – still with us, in some form. COVID changed the world, making Zoom meetings and social distancing familiar, and working from home routine for some jobs.

Somewhere between surrender and pandemic fatigue, we can feel lazy, “sick and tired,” or resentful of instructions we give our own kids: “wash your hands,” “wipe your nose,” “cover your mouth.”

But there can be dire health consequences if we stop obeying our own rules and think the risks are acceptable.

True, some who contract it have few symptoms; it’s an inconvenience. Some have a cough and/or a fever that sidelines them for a week or more. Others, mostly the chronically ill or seniors, are so severely affected they’re hospitalized and can die.

The number of COVID hospitalizations and fatalities has dropped a lot since 2020, and fewer test kits are sought, isolating after infection is sporadic, and masks have almost vanished. However, COVID cases have been surging, too – the virus is found in wastewater throughout the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And this summer, the rate of COVID hospitalizations was double that of last summer, and COVID deaths occurred twice as often as in the spring. Then, a Gallup poll showed that 59% of U.S. adults say the pandemic is “over.”

But it’s changing, repeatedly. The COVID virus evolves frequently, so some assume vaccinations will be obsolete by winter anyway But that doesn’t mean we let protection fade.

“New strains have emerged already—in August, KP.3.1.1 became the dominant strain, accounting for 36.8% of cases, according to the CDC’s Nowcast, which provides model-based early estimates,” said Katy Endress, Director of Epidemiology & Clinical Services at the Peoria City/County Health Department. “It has surpassed KP.3 (which overtook KP.2 earlier this summer). However, the new shots will continue to help protect against severe illness even if the virus mutates and additional strains appear.

“COVID-19 vaccines are updated to give you the best protection from the currently circulating strains,” she continued. “Pfizer’s and Moderna’s updated mRNA vaccines were approved in August for everyone ages 12 and older, and each has a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) emergency use authorization (EUA) for infants and children ages 6 months through 11 years. The mRNA vaccines target a SARS-CoV-2 strain called KP.2.”

Endress says the vaccinations are safe. Before vaccines are made available to everyday people, the FDA assesses findings from clinical trials to ensure they meet the FDA’s safety and effectiveness standards, and the agency keeps working to keep up.

“The FDA also authorized an updated COVID vaccine from Novavax for everyone 12 and older,” Endress said. “That shot targets another strain—JN.1. JN.1 was the dominant strain in May but was surpassed in June by a collection of other Omicron virus strains, including KP.2.”

Unlike other vaccinations the public has long accepted – including MMR (measles, mumps, rubella), DTP (diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis) and PCV (pneumonia) – COVID vaccinations aren’t yet required for school, and parents getting the shot for their children is fading, according to Chicago pediatrician Scott Goldstein told KFF Health News.

“The most important thing we do, you could argue, is vaccinating kids,” he said.

Yet only about 15% of eligible kids in the United States got the shot last year.

It’s also still vital for high-risk individuals to get the vaccination. Take the shot now.

“Everyone ages 6 months and older should get the 2024–2025 COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible,” says Endress, who adds that the vaccination can be part of preparing for winter.

“There is no recommended waiting period between getting a COVID-19 vaccine and other vaccines,” she says. “You can get a COVID-19 vaccine and other vaccines, including a flu and/or RSV vaccine, at the same visit.”

Sometimes, it's good to know

Long before FOMO became an online acronym, Fear Of Missing Out was a mantra of generations of newspaper editors. That and another cliched journalism truism – “If your mother says she loves you, check it out” – shows why and how some stories are pursued.

It’s always good to know.

But being anxious to not miss something and yearning for verification can lead to “pack journalism” and unjustified coverage. Years ago, I was an environmental reporter, and an editor saw stories about grain-bin explosions and wondered why I wasn’t covering this. He told me to check it out.

I spent a day talking to farmers, the Farm Bureau and a college ag teacher and was told such accidents can result from grain dust in an enclosed space, a spark and oxygen. When I nodded and said that seemed common, one guy looked at me like I had a “We love corn blight” ballcap and said “Obviously,” noting that farmers take precautions and such explosions are less frequent than years ago “no matter what you see on TV.”

My editor said, “Oh,” and shrugged. “Good to know.”

That’s a roundabout way of explaining my response to an incident in Illinois where people at an indoor ice rink were sickened and hospitalized. It seems that ice resurfacing machines and other equipment at indoor ice rinks have been linked to carbon monoxide (CO) risks to skaters or onlookers. I thought this could be an isolated incident unlikely to reoccur, but then found that some states have recognized the safety hazard and are addressing the risk. So, it could be both rare and an early warning.

Five years ago Center Ice of DuPage, firefighters found CO levels were more than 200 pars per million and evacuated the rink because CO levels above 70 ppm can cause fatigue, headaches and nausea (and levels above 150 ppm people can become dizzy, faint or die).

Peoria’s best-known indoor ice rink is the Peoria Civic Center’s, and when contacted, PCC’s Kelsy Martin replied that, “We have not had any issues with air quality at any events with the ice in place. Typically, [such] issues occur in small buildings or spaces with lower roof lines. Our facility benefits from high ceilings and has multiple protective measures in place to ensure air quality. As plans continue to finalize with a new ice plant, we will certainly keep safety top of mind.”

High ceilings alone may not help much, since CO – an odorless, tasteless and colorless gas called the “silent killer” – has a specific gravity of 0.9657 compared to normal air’s 1.0, which means carbon monoxide is “lighter than air” and floats up to the cheap seats.

Elsewhere, the U.S. Ice Rink Association recommends periodic testing of rinks’ air and making necessary adjustments; Connecticut, New Hampshire and Wisconsin have non-binding guidelines on indoor air-quality at ice rinks; and Massachusetts, Minnesota and Rhode Island have relevant state regulations.

State Rep. Ryan Spain (R-73^rd Dist.) was contacted about the topic and replied, “I am not familiar with this issue, but would certainly be open to further research and possible legislative action.”

Emily Cahill, the Peoria Park District’s Executive Director of Parks and Recreation, is familiar with the issue and shared how it’s addressed at Owens Ice Center, where there’s a 24-hour air-quality monitor that measures gases.

“We do at least one daily building walk-through with our hand-held, air-quality monitor,” Cahill said, “When the Zamboni goes out, we have an overhead exhaust fan that draws out any potential fumes.”

Further, the District routinely verifies that the precautions and sensors are functioning.

“Our risk manager comes in, I believe, monthly and checks air quality and checks that our monitors are working correctly,” Cahill added.

Ah. Good to know.

Workers' votes in November: 'Won't get fooled again'?

Will some workers again vote against their own interests in November or – as The Who sang in 1971 – “won’t get fooled again”?

Union households didn’t overwhelmingly support Donald Trump in 2016 or 2020 (or this year). However, a surprising percentage of homes where union members live did: 43% in 2016 (to Hillary Clinton’s 51%), according to Roper; 40% in 2020 (to Joe Biden’s 56%, also according to Roper); and now, 47% for Trump/Vance (to 49% for Harris/Walz), according to a September poll from Emerson College.

There was a reason Trump was attractive to a sizable number of working-class voters, according to researcher Jared Abbott from the Center for Working-Class Politics. Last month he released his analysis of Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, collecting all available statements and speeches until election day, and he found that though Trump tried to link immigrants to job shortages, he had no proof so that didn’t really resonate. However, he had a knack for reaching some understandably disaffected workers. That resulted in getting some working people to deny their own economic interests – to vote against their futures.

In his 2016 campaign, Trump spoke about jobs and trade much more than immigration, Abbott says, adding, “Trump used pro-worker rhetoric nearly three times as often — and anti–economic elite rhetoric more than twice as often — as he brought up controversial social issues.”

Abbott adds that while there is little doubt that cynical, fear-based appeals to the worst impulses of working-class whites are an important part of the story, “if we look at the content of Trump’s appeals to working-class voters, we see that a narrow focus on the darkest aspects of Trump’s rhetoric belies consistent and often quite powerful appeals that tap directly into decades of economic dislocation experienced by millions of American workers.”

Throughout Trump’s 2016 campaign, he:

* bemoaned a stagnant standard of living he pledged to turn around;

* claimed to identify with working people from his years as a developer contracting with workers in the building trades; and

* railed against trade deals such as the North America Free Trace Agreement (NAFTA) and the World Trade Organization, and blasted an “elite” preventing the nation from returning to some idyllic and unspecified past.

“These remarks could just as easily have come from Bernie Sanders or [the late] AFL-CIO head Richard Trumka and are consistent with legitimate research on the negative impacts of trade policies on American manufacturing jobs in the 1990s and 2000s,” Abbott says.

“Taken together, these appeals make it pretty clear why so many disaffected working- and middle-class voters — who either experienced these economic crises directly or, in the case of many comparatively more affluent Trump voters, saw it all playing out in their communities — would find Trump appealing,” Abbott says. “Unlike virtually any politician they had ever heard before, Trump not only spoke over and over again to the economic pain felt by so many working-class Americans but also called out the elite culprits by name, something that traditional politicians typically shy away from.”

Taking advantage of resentment about years of exploitation by the rich and powerful has been smart.

Former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich said Trump “became president by exploiting the anger of millions of white working-class Americans who for decades have been economically and culturally bullied by corporate executives, Wall Street, and upper middle-class urban professionals.”

Of course, even in politics, talk is cheap, and Trump’s own actions showed he was playing us. After taking office in 2017, Trump stacked the National Labor Relations Board with anti-union corporate/management attorneys; failed to revive the U.S. manufacturing base, as promised; threatened to veto the Protecting the Right to Organize bill (the PRO Act) updating labor law (which the House passed); and engineered massive tax cuts that added $1.9 trillion to the national debt and overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy – the highest-income U.S. households received almost half of its benefits, according to the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.

“Trump and his lackeys work for the oligarchs – cutting their taxes, rolling back regulations that protect the public but that cost the oligarchs, and dividing the rest of us into warring factions so we don’t look upward to see where most power and wealth have gone,” Reich said.

That’s become more obvious in recent months.

Rolling Stone magazine reporters Catherina Gioino, Andrew Perez and Asawin Suebsaeng summed up July’s Republican National Convention as an attempt to court “the working class with hollow, populist rhetoric.”

And David Graham in The Atlantic magazine described Trump’s working-class appeals as the “fakest populism you ever saw.”

Trump’s ability to use his taste of populism and his celebrity hasn’t just affected a chunk of working Americans, of course. Some seniors liked making America “great” like they remembered from times past (perhaps forgetting the Great Depression, World War II and Jim Crow segregation). And today, 53% of men younger than 30 plan to vote for Trump, according to a New York Times/Sienna College poll (possibly lured by his bullying machismo exemplified by supporters such as Kid Rock and Hulk Hogan, speculation that rings true given that 67% of women under age 30 favor Harris).

But many likely voters have tired of Trump’s schtick, however  weird, fascinating or even funny it can be. USA Today humor columnist Rex Huppke last month got serious, describing Trump as “a former one-term President who tried to overturn a free and fair election, and has since become a convicted felon, a fear-mongering nonsense sprinkler who will gladly badmouth his own country if it helps him win.”

Remembering why unions endorse

Samuel Gompers was a founder of the American Federation of Labor, and a century ago he summarized organized labor’s response to politicians and other power-brokers: “Reward our friends and punish our enemies.”

Today’s labor leaders may be more subtle or sophisticated, deciding which candidates are friends or foes depending on their own records, and not outright requesting the rank and file to vote certain ways as much as helping to inform them of candidates’ positions and specific issues important to their union, the labor movement and working Americans.

“Why do we endorse?” asked Mark McManus, General President of the United Association

“Like it or not, our duty at the United Association and all our local unions is to our membership. We advocate for our members’ jobs and way of life. And that means getting involved in politics to ensure we are not left behind.”

He said people from the union of plumbers, pipefitters and allied trades routinely meet with manufacturers, contractors, inspectors, elected officials and trade associations, and “because we get involved, our voice is louder than ever with every one of our end-users. In politics it’s simple: Our end-user is in the White House.

“The sideline is no place for the UA to be when the stakes are this high,” he added.

Not all unions endorse all races (See sidebar for comments.) For example, because many News Guild members cover politicians, their union typically doesn’t endorse candidates to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest. However, the Communications Workers of America affiliate does advocate on issues affecting its members and their work: labor law, the First Amendment, workplace safety and health, etc.

Plus, union members are no more uniform across-the-board in their beliefs than all women, all rural residents or all minority Americans agree on all things.

“That’s good,” McManus said. “Our job is to call balls and strikes and to do what is best for our membership. Our job is to sort through the noise and present the facts on the issues that directly impact United Association’s members’ jobs, wages and retirement security.

“Our membership has so much more in common than things we allow to keep us divided.”

Unions can be pivotal in elections, too, whether a municipal contest with a candidate against Prevailing Wages, or a national race where a candidate whose history shows opposition to labor.

AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said, “Our workers are powerful because they have something that is so rare today — the trust of those around them. Union members are credible political messengers. They can connect with each other and with the people in their communities in a way no one else can.”

Indeed, Gallup on Aug. 28 released its newest poll on how Americans feel about unions, and it shows 70% support unions (and among people younger than 30 years old, it’s 90%).

Further, labor has shown it can be effective.

Speaking with the Labor Paper, Illinois AFL-CIO President Tim Drea said, “Union members trust their unions to provide election information, including endorsements. People vote for many reasons, but we’ve seen across the board, that union members and their families look for facts about the issues and candidates that affect their work and home life. Unions provide the information they can take when they weigh their choices on the ballot.”

Unions have experience organizing, members of unions are also members of neighborhoods with community contacts, labor has for decades led get-out-the-vote efforts, and union households vote at a higher percentage than the general electorate.

In fact, according to data from Roper, union households “punched above their weight” in both 2016 and 2020. U.S. union members total about 16 million (compared to the anti-union National Right to Work Committee’s claim of 2.8 million members!), but that’s less than 12% of the work force. However, in 2016’s election 18% of ballots were from union households, and in 2020 union households made up 20% of the votes.

Peoria labor leader Bud Toft, Local President of the American Postal Workers Union Heart of Illinois area, commented, “Unions like to endorse political candidates to help members make an educated, informed decision. Some members are not aware of what politicians have voted on and not voted on. Unions are most interested in politicians who’ve voted in favor of labor issues, retention or expansion of jobs, and future union growth.

“I encourage my members to vote for whomever they choose,” Toft continued. “All I ask is for the members to consider is what is most important: keeping your and others’ good jobs paying living wages and benefits, or the need to make another gun-control law? The main point is that they vote. It is their right and unions have always fought for the rights of all workers, not just their members.”

Endorsements are part of engagement and voting is having a voice.

“What’s the point of building all this power on the ground, if we don’t use it when it really matters – when absolutely everything is on the line?” Shuler said. “When we fight, we win.”

Another decades-old slogan comes to mind as well. Fighting India’s caste system and denouncing capitalist economics, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar of the Independent Labor Party in the 1940s said activists must “educate, agitate and organize.”

 

Other voices

Americans resent being told what to do or who to vote for, and union members are no different. What IS different is fully informing the rank & file and then accepting individuals’ decisions with respect.

 “What’s said about members who do not want to be told who to vote for is true. For this reason, our Local tends not to endorse candidates on a Local level and usually defers to the work that the AFL-CIO and the UFCW International Union does, and then our Local informs members based on those recommendations.

“When our Local does endorse a particular candidate, it usually occurs by the politician scheduling to meet our entire Executive Board. However, in 20+ years with Local 536, I only remember less than a handful of candidates who even approached our Local concerning an endorsement.

“Lastly, even if our Local union does endorse, we must request any political funds from the International. We do our best to inform our membership on candidate positions concerning labor issues, but it is the member who votes on the day of the election.”

-- Marc Parker, President of Local 536 of the United Food and Commercial Workers

 

“Labor unions endorse political candidates in the hopes of forging relationships that can be mutually reinforcing. By throwing our weight behind  a candidate that puts forward policies the union supports we hopefully gain a voice for our members in the halls of power. While members politics can span the gamut, in terms of local and state affairs there are clear areas where legislation would either help or harm our members and their profession."

 -- Sarah Hurd, Illinois Nurses Association organizer

 

“As workers, we rely on politicians to protect and advance our rights as others try to take them away. It’s important that we support those who support us because our livelihoods depend on it. New threats are posed all the time, and we can’t fight against them alone.”

-- Electrician Chase Carlton, president of the West Central Illinois Labor Council

 

“We pay attention to politics day-in and day-out, not just during polarizing presidential elections. In a lot of cases, our members may not watch what happens in politics until the big elections, like the presidential, occurs.  As union representatives we spend most of our time focusing on how policy impacts our ability to put members to work and grow our unions.

“Our research is based on voting records of candidates who literally demonstrate their support for policies such as Project Labor Agreements or Responsible Bidder Ordinances, not empty promises or rhetoric. The heavy lifting we do between election cycles should give our membership the assurances that when they vote they’re casting their ballots for the union.”

-- Matt Bartolo, Business Manager of Laborers Local 165

 

“We focus mostly on school board races. We may jump into the mayoral race this time. We need improvements in our schools and in our city.  At the local level, we don’t generally endorse state or federal politicians, but the IFT and AFT select who they think is best for education, and they send that information to our members.”

-- Jeff Adkins-Dutro, President of the Peoria Federation of Teachers

 

“When unions endorse, they are not telling their members who to vote for. Unions endorse candidates because protecting workers’ rights and paychecks are heavily dependent on government policy.”

-- Retired Laborer John F. Penn

 

“Government action lays the foundation for our labor relations system.  Legislation and legal interpretations of labor law determines everything from who is a worker to how workers can protect their rights in the workplace. Furthermore, government policy provides the infrastructure of our political-economic system. Endorsing candidates for office is part of the important ways that labor unions impact state action and give workers an effective voice in the political process.”

– University of Illinois Professor Robert Bruno, Director of its Labor Education Program

Labor unions can – and should – exist at most Catholic employers

A new annual study from the Catholic Labor Network, titled “Gaudium et spes 2024,” notes that there are more than 600 U.S. Catholic institutions where operations seem to reflect the Church’s teachings related to collaborative, mutually rewarding relations of collective bargaining with their direct and indirect (contract) employees.

However, none of those hundreds of employers is in central Illinois, and just one downstate.

“Gaudium et spes” (“Joy and Hope”) is the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, one of four such documents from the Second Vatican Council in 1965.

“Catholic social teaching endorses the right of workers to form labor unions and calls upon labor and management to establish cooperative relationships to advance their craft and the common good,” wrote Clayton Sinyai of the Catholic Labor Network. “When Catholic institutions and trade unions establish mutually rewarding partnerships, they teach in deed as well as in word.”

The employment sectors of the U.S. Catholic Church:

 

* HEALTH CARE

The Catholic Health Association reports that there are more than 600 Catholic hospitals and nearly 1,600 nursing homes, and more than half the workers who enjoy union representation in the health-care sector work there. Catholic hospitals alone employ more than 500,000 full-time employees and another 200,000 part-time workers.

Catholic hospitals aren’t usually controlled by a diocese but managed by lay managers. Still, they’re required to follow guidelines established by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, who can revoke their status. One directive requires administrators to treat workers with respect and recognize staffs’ right to unionize.

Illinois has eight health-care institutions with labor relations with unions (AFSCME, Operating Engineers, SEIU and Teamsters), and all are in Chicago.

 

* K-12 SCHOOLS

The National Catholic Educational Association says there are almost 6,000 Catholic schools with 146,000  workers teaching 1.6 million kids.

Typically operated by the Church, whether a parish, diocese or religious order, they are exempt from federal labor law, according to court rulings based on the First Amendment right protecting the free exercise of religion. However, about 300 K-12 Catholic schools are unionized, from AFL-CIO affiliates to the independent National Association of Catholic School Teachers.

None are in Illinois.

 

* HIGHER EDUCATION

The Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities says the United States has about 260 Catholic institutions of higher education serving more than 850,000 students, from the University of Notre Dame (with a study body of almost 9,000) to St. Elizabeth University in New Jersey (where enrollment is about 600).

“Tenured faculty are considered management employees,” Sinyai writes. “Although they can and sometimes do form unions, the National Labor Relations Board will not protect them from retaliation if they do so.

In recent years adjunct faculty in colleges across the United States — who have been assigned increasing amounts of the college teaching load — have sought to organize in unions,” he continues. “While a handful of Catholic colleges have resisted unionization – and even cited their Catholic identity as a reason! – a growing number of Catholic colleges have recognized unions of adjunct instructors.”

In Illinois, four universities have some workers represented by unions (Operating Engineers, SEIU and Unite Here), all in the Archdiocese of Chicago.

 

* OTHER CATHOLIC SERVICES

The Catholic Church has dozens of other employers. Catholic Charities USA alone has more than 60,000 U.S. workers serving some 9 million people in need.

Illinois has seven Catholic employers, from Catholic Social Services in Belleville to Maryville Academy in Des Plaines (AFSCME, SEIU and the Teamsters).

 

Throughout Catholic institutions, responsible managers are expected to be faithful to their own teachings. Indeed, in the 170-page “Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church,” the Vatican elaborates in “The Rights of Workers” section that there is an unmistakable “right to assemble and form associations; and the right to strike ‘when it cannot be avoided, or at least when it is necessary to obtain a proportionate benefit’.”

News analysis: WIU breaks down impact of layoffs

Students are back on campus at Western Illinois University in Macomb, but the Fall enrollment of about 6,000 remains much lower that 7,800 in 2019, much less than 12,000-plus in 2010. What used to be sidewalks crowded with students between classroom buildings is about as bustling as closing time at a library.

In fact, Western’s library was one of the hardest-hit departments, losing eight tenured and tenure-track faculty and one contingent teacher who worked on a reewable annual contract.

Seeking to address a $10 million budget deficit, WIU’s Board of Trustees last month approved its administration laying off 124 workers – about one-fourth of the number of workers represented by the University Professionals of Illinois union, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers.

WIU said those losing their jobs are 32 staff jobs, 57 faculty and another 35 adjunct instructors notified this summer.

Besides the library, other job losses across the University, according to WIU, include seven in Computer Sciences; eight in Accounting, Finance, Economics and Decision Sciences; nine in Management and Marketing; and 11 in Communication and Media (all including tenured/ tenure-track and staff. Twenty departments have fewer employees; personnel from Athlettics and the Office of Public Safety were apparently spared.

Elsewhere, 16 faculty and staff positions from the Quad Cities campus in Moline will move to the Macomb campus.

The overall employment cuts this year are almost 8% of the workforce from a year ago.

Other WIU administrations and Boards of Trustees have tried layoffs before, to inadequate results, for eight years. In 2016 WIU cut 147 workers, including 30 faculty; in 2018 another 24 faulty members were let go, along with 2 academic staffers; and in 2019 Western laid off an additional 132 workers.

Student enrollment didn’t stabilize, much less rebound to a student body consistently numbering more than 10,000 before 2016.

Meanwhile, all department budgets reportedly were cut at least 25%, and at WIU’s Quad Cities campus – which has shifted to a focus on regional workforce development -- some degrees will be earned via online-only instruction after this year.

Some administrators concede that recruiting and retaining students must improve.

However, a Marketing Associate was among those laid off.

Labor faces dark days unless we see the light

What’s worse than writing about Donald Trump – again – would be four more years of covering the terrible effects of another Trump presidency – especially on workers and organized labor.

Voters’ choice between Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and the leader of a failed coup (convicted of a felony) is an existential election. For democracy and for everyday working Americans, a Trump victory would have an extinction-level result.

Overall, union households didn’t support Trump in 2016 or 2020 (or this year). However, a surprising and sizable percentage of homes where union members live did: 43% in 2016 (to Clinton’s 51%), according to Roper; 40% in 2020 (to Biden’s 56%, also according to Roper); and now, 41% for Trump/Vance (to 50% for Biden/Harris), according to NBC News.

Unions and pro-worker advocates are trying to remind organized labor of the bread-and-butter stakes.

The AFL-CIO 11 months ago listed dozens of attacks on labor during Trump’s presidency, including threatening union rights (such as an all-out assault on government workers), stacking the NLRB with union-busting corporate lawyers, derailing the Labor Department’s overtime rule, failing to advance any infrastructure bill and to crack down on China dumping streel into the United States, giving tax breaks mainly benefiting the wealthy, agreeing to an anti-worker trade deal with South Korea, proposing $1 trillion cuts in funding for Medicare and Medicaid, and pushing double-digit cuts in funds for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Labor Department.

“Donald Trump and JD Vance will seek to protect the wealthy and corporations,” said Service Employees International Union president April Verrett. Vance “may portray himself as a working-class hero [but his] record tells another story.

“The truth is that Senator Vance’s loyalties lie with the Wall Street bankers and Silicon Valley billionaires who have bankrolled his political career,” she added.

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader wrote an open letter saying, “Let’s look at your record, Mr. Trump. You and your Republicans in Congress have long opposed raising the paltry federal minimum wage frozen at $7.25 an hour. As President, you displayed your hatred of unions and weakened job-safety protections.”

Sharon Block, a former member of the National Labor Relations Board who teaches labor law at Harvard, said she expects Trump to turn “the levers of government” back over to business lobbies and conservative think tanks like the Heritage Foundation.

“He subcontracted those levers to the Chamber of Commerce,” she said, “and you could see that at the NLRB, at the Labor Department. There was just nobody that had any background or history in advancing the interests of working people.”

Gwen Mills, president of the UNITE HERE union, said, “The attacks that will come from the Trump administration will [force us] to play defense.”

Also, as troubling as bullying Trump actions, and his and his supporters threatening a civil war, is the firehose of false claims coming from their cult, from the Big Lie about the 2020 elections being stolen to campaign claims that are deceitful but inflammatory “red meat” to those susceptible to fear-mongering.

In fact,

* joblessness is at its lowest level in more than 50 years (U.S. Commerce Dept.) and prices are actually falling (Consumer Price Index). And in recent weeks, the economy’s 2.8% growth in the second quarter was good news, outpacing expectations;

* liberal columnist Paul Krugman said because news media tend to report on price hikes more than price drops, people have bad impressions, and he added that wages have increased faster than inflation;

* conservative commentator Jonah Goldberg is more blunt, writing, “Subjectively, perfectly valid arguments can be made that things are not going well or that they can or should be going better. But we're talking about objective judgments here, and objectively huge numbers of Americans are objectively wrong.”

* the nonpartisan Moody Analytics firm, which evaluates financial modeling, compared forecasts for the U.S. economy under a new Trump term and a Biden/Harris administration, and Moody’s Chief Economist Mark Zandi said reverting to Trump policies would be a “disaster” but continuing current policies would be “better for the economy.”

* marriages and births are up (according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention);

* violent crime is down more than 15% (CNN); and

* and U.S. troops aren’t at war

 

As far as military veterans and those who support them, moderate columnist Froma Harrop reported, “As for national security, Trump ran through five secretaries of Defense. One of them, Gen. James Mattis, said ‘Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people – does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us.’

“Flatter veterans as he tries, Trump can't hide his contempt for Americans who serve in the military. Asked in the debate about the crude things he's said on this subject, Trump lied about not having said them. It's true that Trump didn't want to visit the graves of American soldiers buried at Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France, saying, ‘Why should I go to that cemetery? It's filled with losers.’ And it's true that he referred to the 1,800 U.S. Marines killed in World War I's Battle of Belleau Wood as ‘suckers’ and ‘losers.’

“The source of that quote? A retired four-star general.

“Trump went to Arlington Cemetery with then-Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly to see the gravesite of Kelly's son Robert, who was killed in Afghanistan. Trump surveyed the field of buried U.S. servicemen and told Kelly, ‘I don't get it. What was in it for them?’

“As president, Trump called former President George H.W. Bush a "loser" for being shot down as a Navy pilot in World War II. And his denigration of war hero John McCain, mocking the sacrifices he made was, simply put, disgusting.

“Kelly, a retired four-star Marine Corps general, said this about Trump: ‘The depths of his dishonesty is just astounding to me. The dishonesty, the transactional nature of every relationship, though it's more pathetic than anything else. He is the most flawed person I have ever met in my life.”

Concerning overall national security, recognizing that Trump repeats Russian propaganda against the United States is revealing. Lt. General (ret.) Mark Hertling, who served for 37 years and commanded U.S. Army operations in Europe and Africa, wrote: “This is – to put it mildly – stunningly misinformed and dangerous.”

Others who worked in the Trump administration echo such judgment. Reportedly,

* Mattis also said Trump had the understanding of “a fifth- or sixth-grader,”

* Kelly, also Trump’s one-time White House chief of staff, called Trump “an idiot” and said he thought the president was “unhinged,”

* former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said Trump was an “idiot,” and

* former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called Trump a “moron.”

 

AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler wrote, “The idea that Donald Trump has ever, or will ever, care about working people is demonstrably false. For his entire time as president, he actively sought to roll back worker protections, wages and the right to join a union at every level.

“We are not buying the lies that Donald Trump is selling,” she continued. “We will continue to support and organize for the causes and candidates that represent our values.”

 

Here’s a link to the labor federation’s summary -

https://aflcio.org/press/releases/donald-trumps-catastrophic-and-devastating-anti-labor-track-record