A reminder of how Trump’s hurt everyday Americans -- especially working people – for decades

The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research says 43% of union households voted for Donald Trump in 2016; 40% of us cast ballots for him in 2020. That may mean it’s time for a refresher for the damage Trump’s done in business and politics his whole life.

 

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain said, “Trump has been a player in the class war against the working class for decades, whether screwing workers and small businesses in his dealings, exploiting workers at his Mar a Lago estate and properties, blaming workers for the Great Recession, or giving tax breaks to the rich.

 

“He is a con man who has been directly part of the problem we have seen over the past 40 years,” he added.

 

Indeed, in 2014, President Obama instituted a rule to record federal contractors who violated the Davis-Bacon Act that provides Prevailing Wages, plus other worker protections – all to discourage lawbreakers and encourage compliance. Trump repealed the rule.

 

The Communications Workers of America analyzed the Trump administration (2017-20) when the Republican packed the U.S. Supreme Court with “anti-labor judges,” cut the budget and number of inspectors at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and “lowered standards meant to protect workers from getting sick at work and given employers a free pass if they fail to follow even those minimal requirements,” appointed the union-busting corporate attorney Eugene Scalia as U.S. Secretary of Labor, and engineered an anti-worker National Labor Relations Board that made it easier to avoid paying overtime and to retaliate against employees exercising labor rights ranging from protected “concerted activity” or unionizing.

 

The Economic Policy Institute compiled a reminder of some of the anti-union actions the Trump administration took. His NLRB: 

 

* overturned the agency’s own precedent in more than a dozen cases, “weakening workers’ rights,”

* made “it far more difficult for employees and union organizers to talk with employees at the workplace,”

* manipulated its own standard “for what constitutes an ‘appropriate’ bargaining unit, giving employers even greater ability to thwart workers who wish to form a union,”

* upended a 70-year-old policy that prohibited employers “from making unilateral changes to wages, hours or working conditions, giving them greater leeway to make unilateral changes,”

* created a new rule making employers legally permitted to withdraw [union] recognition at the conclusion of the collective bargaining agreement if they have evidence that the union does not have majority support. If the union wants to get its status back, it must file a petition for a new election and prevail in that election,”

* overruled one of its own Administrative Law Judge’s decision about misclassifying employment status, saying that improperly calling an actual employee a “assistant manager” or “independent contractor” would not violate the National Labor Relations Act, plus other harmful actions.

 

“The Trump NLRB systematically rolled back workers’ rights under the NLRA,” the EPI showed. “The Trump Board and General Counsel [favorably] acted on 10 out of 10 of the Chamber of Commerce’s wish-list items and have gone even further to narrow the NLRA’s protections for working people while granting employers new powers under the Act.”

 

It’s all part of a long pattern.

 

Before Trump ran for the White House, the businessman mostly hired non-union labor, according to a study by the IBEW, which said, “According to analysis of lawsuits filed against him and his companies, when union contractors were hired, Trump developed a reputation for stiffing some, delaying payment to others, and shorting workers on overtime and even minimum wage.”

 

Also, the union tracked more than 60 lawsuits for Trump not paying his bills on time, dozens of violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and when building Trump Tower in New York City, hiring Polish immigrants, who he exploited.

 

In a lawsuit against Trump that lasted almost 20 years, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York concluded that Trump “knew the Polish workers were working 'off the books,' that they were doing demolition work, that they were non-union, that they were paid substandard wages with no overtime pay and that they were paid irregularly if at all.”

 

Union households may harbor resentments – which Trump exploits – but supporting him rather than President Biden lets corporations and the 1% escape responsibility. 

 

Brandeis University professor and author Robert Kuttner concisely explains the party differences that affect everyday Americans: “Democrats try to use the government to help working people,” Kuttner writes. “Republican legislators, judges and presidents work to help corporate America evade or overturn those laws, at the expense of workers.”