Trump’s disapproval rises with shutdown, other ‘war on workers’ actions

This month started with a shutdown that followed weeks of unending controversies from the White House and the President personally, and the chaos – whether planned or not – has resulted in popular support dropping like an anvil in a koi pond.

The 15^th shutdown since 1981, the current standoff took effect after the GOP’s temporary funding “Continuing Resolution” proposal got 55 votes – 5 short of what’s required to overcome a filibuster – an important tool for a minority party.

Trump and his toadies have blamed Democrats for the shutdown, which has meant about 750,000 federal workers missing paychecks. The President has said Democrats seek free health care for violent criminals and Vice President Vance said Democrats want “health care for illegal aliens” (both statements labeled “a lie” by CNN).

In fact, the key issue is extending tax credits that have made health insurance more affordable for millions of U.S. citizens since the COVID pandemic. After the Republican Congress and Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” those subsidies – for low- and middle-income people who purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act – are scheduled to end in December unless Congress extends them. That would more than double what subsidized enrollees currently pay for premiums, according to KFF, a nonprofit that researches health-care issues.

Besides the shutdown, recent weeks’ actions and blunders include Trump’s wacky speech filled with exaggerations and falsehoods at the United Nations; blaming “antifa” and the Left for violence when the government’s own statistics show that Right-wing violence is far more common; the unhinged and insulting remarks he and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made to U.S. military leaders (saying that the nation is “under invasion from within” and that U.S. cities should be “training grounds” to target domestic “enemies”); praising the (temporary) silencing of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel; Trump’s ongoing false statements about violence in "blue" cities – a pretext for sending troops to punish political foes; rescinding funding approved by Congress – again, to blue states; dodging a discharge petition to release the Epstein files by having House Speaker Mike Johnson refusing to seat Arizona’s newly elected Democratic Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva; indicting a former FBI director after firing a federal prosecutor who found no evidence of wrongdoing; and threatening to fire – not temporarily furlough – thousands more federal workers, an illegal move.

It's a “war on workers,” The Nation magazine says.

During his 2024 campaign, Trump promised to fight for workers, saying, “You’re going to have the American Dream back,” adding, “I’ve dealt with unions my whole life. I have a great relationship with unions.”

Once his inauguration occurred, reality reared an ugly truth. Some 80% of unionized federal workers lost their jobs, and dozens of federal agencies, including Health & Human Services, Veterans Affairs, Defense, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Education, even the decades-old Voice of America, and especially the Department of Labor have had billions of dollars taken away.

Indeed, the President, adviser Stephen Miller and disciples of the Right-wing Project 2025 have engineered a nationwide assault on working Americans and unions:

* firing or de-funding federal workers and programs, attacking the long-standing apolitical Civil Service to replace it with a “spoils” system rewarding those who pledge loyalty to Trump;

* attacking organized labor by neutralizing the National Labor Relations Board;

* advocating for lower wages and inferior benefits;

* diminishing protections for job safety and health;

* criticizing equal opportunity and goals of a diverse labor force; and

* expanding immigration improvements to wholesale detentions and deportations, affecting crucial day-labor positions in various industries, meat-packing and agriculture as much as misguided or haphazard tariffs threatening soybean farmers with bankruptcy.

 

“He hasn’t done squat to help working people,” said former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, an author and Emeritus Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. And “Trump’s approval ratings are tanking.”

True. The New York Times’ poll found 26% blame Trump and the GOP for the shutdown, with 19% blaming Democrats.

The Washington Post’s poll showed “significantly more Americans blame President Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans for the shutdown than Democrats: 47% to 30%.

Gallup shows Trump’s support is lower than any modern Presidents at this point in their administrations.

Generally, apart from the shutdown, Morning Consult’s poll shows half of the country’s states disapprove of Trump – 55% of Illinoisans disapprove of him.

A poll from YouGov/The Economist shows 47% of Americans “strongly disapprove” of Trump – up 11% from January.

And RealClearPolitics’ poll show Trump’s disapproval ratings range from 50% to 53%, with an increasing negative assessment.

 

Campaign words are cheap; the jobs and security Trump’s targeting? Priceless.

And Americans increasingly see that.

Wells Fargo is much different than the ‘Good Old Days’

There are only a couple of Wells Fargo banks in west-central Illinois, and people of a certain age probably tie Wells Fargo to the old TV western starring Dale Robertson as the intrepid special investigator solving problems with his fists or pistol. Now, instead of an express company protecting its stagecoaches, Wells Fargo wears the black hat of villainy, according to organized labor.

Wells Fargo has branches in Canton and Galesburg, plus Wells Fargo Advisers offices in Peoria and Bloomington, but nationwide, the megabank faces a different challenge: unionized workers.

Banking is one of the least unionized industries in the nation; less than 1% of U.S. financial-activities sector employees are union members. (Globally, more than 3 million bank workers belong to a union.)

That’s potentially changing. Since Well Fargo employees in Albuquerque organized with the Communications Workers of America in 2023, 27 other Wells Fargo branches or divisions in 15 states have unionized.

None have negotiated a contract.

“Under federal law, workers have the right to organize, advocate for better wages and working conditions, and engage in collective bargaining without interference,” wrote U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) and other lawmakers in a letter to Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf. “However, rather than remaining neutral as your employees exercise their federally protected rights and organize for better wages and working conditions, your company has initiated an anti-union campaign.”

The CWA’s Wells Fargo Workers United organizing is the first such campaign at a major U.S. bank, with successful union drives at branches and dozens of conduct management investigators who handle customer and employee concerns.

“We are the face of Wells Fargo,” said personal banker and CWA Local 3901 member Brittany Ball. “We deserve to be compensated fairly and to be treated with dignity and respect.”

The 15 U.S. Senators who signed the letter – including Illinois’ Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth – add, “Workers report that company management’s practices prevent them from effectively serving customers and small businesses. They see union representation as a way to address long-standing issues before they escalate into scandals.”

Staff issues are familiar to regular working people: inadequate pay, staff shortages that mean increased workloads, and sales pressures that similar demands a decade ago resulted in a scandal: fraudulently opening millions of accounts customers didn’t request – a situation that caused the Federal Reserve to impose a fine of billions of dollars.

The CWA has filed more than 30 Unfair Labor Practices such as alleging the employer is illegally interrogating and coercing workers.

“There was definitely a perception of surveillance,” says WFWU organizing director Nick Weiner, who’s communicated directly with employees at the Apopka, Fla., branch where such activity happened.

“It was a pretty negative and intimidating interaction to the point of, we thought, encouraging workers to decertify the union.”

Tensions are commonplace throughout the country.

“Workers in Anniston, Ala., or Cartersville, Ga., are feeling the same pain as workers in Wilmington, Del., or San Diego, Calif.,” Weiner says “What’s exciting is that they’re getting all connected with technology so that they can support one another and communicate in real time when something is amiss. Or Stan [Sherrill, Wells Fargo’s head of labor relations] shows up in their branch causing mischief. They can spread the word so people are on alert.”

In one case, the National Labor Relations Board in February issued a complaint against Wells Fargo for unlawfully threatening and retaliating against workers, and asked the bank to recognize and negotiate with the union.

“Wells Fargo Workers United-CWA members have been trying to negotiate a contract with the company since late last year,” said the AFL-CIO this summer. “Wells Fargo has been aggressively working to undermine unionization efforts. In June, company executive Stan Sherrill began interrogating union members, calling union signage ‘propaganda,’ and unlawfully encouraging workers to file for a decertification petition. Wells Fargo workers are standing strong and fighting back.”

Wells Fargo claims it’s bargaining, but Wells Fargo Workers United (WFWU) member Misty Elms says, “This fight isn’t just about our rights on the job – it’s about holding the bank accountable to its workforce, customers and the public it serves.

Elms, a Lake Elsinore, Calif., personal banker, continues, “It’s time for Wells Fargo to respect its workers and bargain in good faith.”

One of the country’s “Big Four” megabanks (along with JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Citibank), Wells Fargo has 25,000 branch workers, plus loan processors, call-center staff and technology workers. With about 4,000 branches, Wells Fargo reported $10.4 billion in profit in the first six months of this year, and Schar, Wells Fargo’s CEO last year received compensation of $30,313,559 – 23% more than he got in 2022, based on corporate proxy filings.

Meanwhile, as if to cement its standing as a questionable corporate “citizen,” Wells Fargo this spring released a memo suggesting ways to privatize the U.S. Postal Service to make the longtime popular public service a profit-oriented company by raising rates 30% to 140%, depleting its unionized work force, and closing Post Offices and selling that real estate.

The Wells Fargo memo concedes that privatization will mean “less job security amid inevitable loss of union protections, loss of pension benefits, higher health-care costs and employee/wage restructuring.”

Also, Wells Fargo has increased its financing of the fossil-fuel industry despite evidence that it contributes to climate change that affects jobs and health as well as the well-being of the planet. Wells Fargo and five other U.S. banks “significantly increased their fossil-fuel financing, including ramping up finance for fossil fuel expansion,” according to “Banking on Climate Chaos,” a report from the Sierra Club, Rainforest Action Network and other environmental groups. Corporate-level financing increased by almost $117 billion from 2023 to 2024, the report says. Last year, Wells Fargo spent $39.3 billion in fossil-fuel financing.

Negotiations are slow – by design, WFWU says.

“They want to discourage people from [organizing] by pointing to: ‘Look how long this is taking, the union hasn’t gotten a contract, the union can’t win you anything’,” Sabrina Perez, a personal banker at Wells Fargo’s El Dorado branch in Albuquerque, told Labor Notes. “But their reason for fighting isn’t as strong as ours. We will last one day longer than they will.”

As troubadour Woody Guthrie sang decades ago, “Some will rob you with a six gun. And some with a fountain pen.”

5 questions: ‘It’s all about love,’ long-time restauranteur says

PEORIA HEIGHTS - A couple of blocks south of where the Spotted Cow served ice cream for about 20 years, founder Frank Abdnour shared some time at his new Italian beef venture, Frank’s, hours before opening the doors one morning.

Abdnour, 66, likes serving people – even serving as Peoria Township Supervisor from 2017-2021. He lost races in 2021 and this year (but agrees that one-for-three is a decent average, as his friend and Hall of Famer Jim Thome might note).

Born in Streator, Abdnour was the youngest of seven kids – 2 girls and 5 boys – who moved to Peoria when Frank was 7. He attended St. Bernard and Spalding, then “USC – the University of Spotted Cow,” he says.

Before selling that business, Frank and his wife Donna worked together to make it a success. She passed away four years ago this month.

Between emptying a trash can, having an electrician finish some repairs, and accepting the day’s delivery of fresh hoagie rolls from Trefzger's Bakery down the hill, Frank chuckles, shrugs and says, “It never ends,” and sits down and answers the Community Word’s “Five Questions”:

 

1. Is the restaurant business as challenging as it’s said?

It’s always had the highest failure rate for businesses, something like 85% fail in the first few years. It’s hard work; you can’t do it for the money. But if you love it, it’s not work – and I’d forgotten how much I love it.

Also, restaurants have been romanticized by TV. There, you don’t see equipment problems, the steam table’s gas running out, the problems, the bills. For me, Donna handled all that behind-the-scenes stuff, the bookkeeping, correspondence and so on. She didn’t really want the people contact  -- which I love.

On the one hand, you don’t need a degree; I can’t be a lawyer or doctor. But restaurants can be open to creativity. On the other hand, restaurants love money; they want you to sink every dime into them. So, again, you have to have a love.

 

2. What’s the opposite – the easiest job?

Work for somebody else. Let them embrace the risks.

 

3. Have you even given any advice to Jim Thome?

No, no – although I pitched to him once. And another time he was thinking about opening a breakfast place. He decided against it. Maybe he had a thought like when I threw to him: ‘Ah, that’s not for me.’

 

4. What’s the last “escape” for you – that last good book, maybe?

I don’t read a lot of books – I read articles and stuff online – but I enjoyed “Kitchen Confidential” by Anthony Bourdain.

 

5. Your son and daughter are part of the new eatery. Any recommendations for working with family?

Noah wanted to get involved, and Sydney works in marketing, so she’s handling that part of things. I know: Significant others can be a big, important part of success in anything. But maybe everybody should stay in their lane.

Central Illinois' 'Good Trouble'-makers

Seeing five people sharing a table at a downtown coffeehouse, you might think they’re a law firm’s pickleball team or a PTA book club or a prayer group. Instead, together, they’re providing information and opportunities for other everyday Americans in greater Peoria to defend democracy and exercise the Bill of Rights we all enjoy – including assembling, speaking and pressing to remedy grievances.

Among their various plans is another mass get-together to celebrate living in a country with “No Kings,” as the October 18 rally will note.

Since so much – too much? – has happened since the impressive initial “D-Day for Democracy/No Kings” rally at Peoria Stadium in June, expectations are that October’s could be bigger, voicing opposition to ICE, troops in cities, and a stream of Executive Orders seemingly upending laws, if not the Constitution.

It makes sense, said Ezra Levin, co-founder of Indivisible, which has more than 2,000 local affiliates.

“The only known solution to creeping authoritarianism is broad-based, peaceful, geographically dispersed mass engagement by everyday Americans,” he said. “That’s it. That’s what works.”

One of the people involved with Democracy 309, which has dozens off area organizations involved, is Ann Schreifels, who said, “Democracy 309 started as a small group of people horrified by the actions of the current administration. We recognized that the people most directly and immediately harmed are those without wealth, power and influence. However, by threatening our peaceful coexistence and the environment in which we live, we will all suffer the consequences.

“There are many people affected negatively by what's happening in Washington, and we welcome all voices who don't like the intentionally divisive, fact-free policy-making that enriches few while harming many.”

Democracy 309’s statement of purpose says they seek to “come together in common cause to defend our republic… in a commitment to human rights, strengthening democracy, and protecting and empowering people to exercise the rights guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. Using nonviolent disciplines and respecting various viewpoints, our network collaborates to uphold these rights by amplifying each other’s voices and actions.”

“The groups involved with Democracy 309 are incredibly diverse,” she says. “We are non-political in that we are not aligned with any particular [political] party. Additionally, we don't ‘vet’ groups that want to be included other than we ask if they agree with our purpose.

Peoria 50501 (for “50 protests, 50 states, 1 movement”) – has a decentralized approach, like its national grassroots movement. So, appropriately, they collaborated in responding to the Community Word. Jim Haptonstahl, Theresa Kuhlmann, Melissa Millinger and Eleanor Salazar collectively replied that they’re a “peaceful, nonviolent resistance movement welcoming people from all walks of life who stand for democracy and who stand against the authoritarian actions of the Trump Administration and an all-too compliant Congress.

“Our nation – including Central Illinois - is effectively ‘on fire.’,” they said. “We need all ‘hands on deck’ to put out the destructive fires of fascism.”

In Tazewell County, Fired Up for Democracy is slightly more partisan, but its crowded meetings at the United Auto Workers hall have had a cross-section of people, from veterans, business people and seniors to Gen-Zers, Democrats and some Republicans.

“This united front isn’t just about what we oppose,” explains Fired Up founder Mari Osborne. “It’s about what we believe in: fairness, inclusion, free and fair elections, rule of law, civil rights, protecting institutions, strengthening communities, truth and the promise of democracy for all.”

 

Working together

Osborne says the three groups partner often.

“We share information and volunteers, and support each other as much as possible.”

Schreifels says that makes sense.

“We realized that we didn't need to duplicate actions already underway. Thus networking became one of the main benefits – an organization of organizers.”

Peoria 50501 said, “The cornerstones of our organization’s mission is to form partnerships with other local groups, nonprofits and activists to strengthen our collective efforts. For this mass movement to succeed, we need a ‘big tent.’ There is a ‘cross-pollination’ among these groups – that is, Peoria 50501 members may also be part of other organizations, and vice versa.”

Rallies and marches are the most visible events for the groups. Fired Up took part in the Morton Pumpkin Festival parade Sept. 13 and though another 50501 group, in Fulton County, was excluded from Canton’s Friendship Festival parade due to a confrontation with people saying they were conservative, it was settled when festival leaders and city officials praised 50501, saying the controversy derived from “actions of outside individuals not reflective of 50501 or our local community,” adding, “We are immensely grateful for the collaborative spirit shown by the 50501 group.”

But the Labor Day parade in West Peoria was a highlight of the summer.

“We felt that our theme, ‘Workers over Billionaires,’ celebrated and advocated for the labor movement,” Peoria 50501 said. “This was an excellent match with the overall meaning of Labor Day. Among the 33 groups in the parade – unions, bands and local political parties – we marched along Farmington Road chanting and rallying for democracy, decrying the fascist regime, passing out candy and providing goodwill.”

Osborne adds, “The impressive turnout Labor Day showed respect for working people/unions and it was wonderful! Being with and seeing so many participating, and the crowd waving and cheering was encouraging. It gives groups like ours the resolve to stand strong and continue to do whatever it takes to save democracy.”

Democracy 309’s Schreifels says, “One of the reasons people attend rallies and marches is because it's affirming to see so many like-minded people. It's frustrating to see politicians be unresponsive to our concerns. But more than politicians, we have to try to get the attention of the people supporting the harmful actions President Trump has taken, as well as the attention of the people who have tuned out of politics.”

 

Beyond high-profile gatherings

The groups’ low-key activities range from information booths to charitable outreach.

“Smaller, steady efforts aren’t as visible as protests/rallies, but they add up,” says Osborne, noting Fired Up hosts tables at area events, shows up at local government meetings and learns from each other.

“We had two members spend five days in D.C.,” she says. “They saw first-hand how ICE,  FBI and DEA are terrorizing communities.”

Future Fired Up activities include voter outreach and registration, plus training people to canvass and organize digitally, she says.

Peoria 50501 has conducted letter/postcard writing sessions, workshops, voter-registration drives, participated in a rapid-response team to protect immigrants, and had booths at the Juneteenth Fest in Gwynn Park, connecting with groups and individuals within Peoria’s Black community, and at the River City Pride Festival, “demonstrating our alliance with the vibrant LGBTQIA+ community.

“Peoria 50501 is also committed to providing mutual aid to local communities by building strong ties and delivering direct support to those in need,” they added.

Indeed, 50501 said it’s collected cash and in-kind contributions donated to the Veteran’s Assistance Commission, the Peoria-area ACLU, the NAACP Peoria Branch, and the Peoria Public Schools Foundation.

“We believe we need to help people [who are] negatively impacted by funding cuts, job layoffs, cutbacks in essential services, and other harmful actions of the regime,” the group said.

A young group, Peoria 50501 has almost 1,200 in its Facebook group to give “power to the people” by soliciting input, and said, “Given the constant barrage of malevolent policies and cruel actions coming from this federal government, we need to further strengthen our movement and broadening it so elected officials, CEOs and other pillars of power have no choice but to respond, helping to save our democracy from the ravages of the regime. Somehow, some way, we must remain hopeful that we can make this happen.”

Fired Up for Democracy’s Osborne says she’s also pragmatic.

“In these challenging times, optimism can feel out of reach,” she says. “We have a long way to go for a ‘turning point.’ My goal is to stay focused on what we can control. We may not be able to change every situation, but we can always choose our next action.”