Trump wants you to forget that he was the most anti-union President ever

Biden is the most pro-union President since FDR

On Tuesday, President Biden made history as the first sitting President to walk on a picket line as he literally stood shoulder to shoulder with the United Auto Workers currently on strike against the Big Three automakers. But then again, President Biden is the most pro-union president of our lifetimes who has backed unions and has run with union support since the 1970’s--so this makes sense.

In contrast, Donald Trump was one of the most anti-union Presidents of the modern era—even doing his best to undermine unions in the private sector long before running for office. But that record won’t stop Trump—who is currently out on bail while facing 91 felonies—from travelling to Michigan to appear at a non-union company to lie to union workers that he’s on their side. Trump is not. He is on the side of the CEOs of corporations as his record screams.

That is why in 2016 the then head of the AFL-CIO declared that Trump was “an unstable charlatan who made his fortune scamming” working families. 

During that 2016 campaign, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) highlighted Trump’s anti-union record in the private sector that included Trump stating that when given the choice on his construction projects, he would always pick non-union workers.  The IBEW quantified that “more than 60% of his projects developed outside New York City and Atlantic City—which includes most of his recent projects—were built nonunion.”

The IBEW also noted Trump’s long history of screwing over working class people. “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.” As the IBEW further detailed, “Trump Tower, where he announced his presidential campaign, was built on a site cleared by undocumented immigrant laborers from Poland” who were promised “$4.00 or in some cases $5.00 an hour for working 12-hour shifts seven days a week,” yet he stiffed so many that a lawsuit was filed. In that litigation, the District Court concluded that Trump "knew the Polish workers were working 'off the books,' that they were doing demolition work, that they were nonunion, that they were paid substandard wages with no overtime pay and that they were paid irregularly if at all."

Then there was Trump’s horrible anti-union record while President that was rightfully slammed in 2020 by union after union. The AFL-CIO summarized it well in 2020 when endorsing Biden as “a lifelong supporter of workers” while noting in Trump’s four years in the White House was marked by an all-out assault on unions as well as countless deaths of working class Americans during the Covid pandemic because of “Trump’s delinquent, delayed, disorganized and deadly response to the coronavirus.”

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) detailed list of “Trump's Anti-Worker Record”  is a must read, explaining that, “At every turn Donald Trump and his appointees have made increasing the power of corporations over working people their top priority.” Some examples include Trump “stacked the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with anti-union appointees who side with employers in contract disputes and support companies who delay and stall union elections, misclassify workers to take away their freedom to join a union, and silence workers.”

The real-world impact was that Trump’s NLRB appointees made it harder to unionize, explaining the union organizing explosion under Biden that we are seeing from Starbucks to Amazon and more. In fact, Biden welcomed union organizers in 2022 from companies at the White House and has offered vocal support to the unionization effort.

The CWA also slammed Trump “packing the courts with anti-labor judges who have made the entire public sector “right to work for less” in an attempt to financially weaken unions by increasing the number of freeloaders.”

Also alarmingly the Trump administration cut safety inspections designed to protect workers. For example, at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Trump left the top administrator job vacant the first time ever which explains why under Trump safety inspections fell to a 45-year low.  As the AFL-CIO explained in 2020, “Trump’s record of slashing rules designed to protect us on the job, cutting workplace health and safety inspectors to their lowest level in history.”

Trump literally sacrificed the health and well-being of workers to help corporations and its executives—his donor base-- make more money.

And something that affects all American manufacturing workers, as the CWA documented, “Trump pushed for a corporate tax cut bill that gives companies a 50% tax break on their foreign profits - making it financially rewarding for them to move our jobs overseas.”

Other unions such as the National Federation of Federal Employees slammed Trump for signing three anti-union executive orders that “eroded longstanding federal worker job security protections, made it easier to fire federal workers, and limited the use of official time for union activities by stewards and officers.”

And Trump as President had promised to veto the PRO Act—pro-union legislation that Biden has championed--that if enacted, would “reverse decades of legislation meant to crush private sector unions and shift power away from CEOs to workers.”

Even Trump’s rhetoric surrounding the UAW strike is not pro-union. All Trump is trying to do is drive a wedge between rank-and-file workers and the leadership by railing against electric vehicles. In reality, the unions support EVs, they just want to ensure that workers are protected as this technology is implemented.

But Trump has not addressed the core issues raised by the union in this strike. As The Detroit Free Press noted in a recent article, Trump has “remained silent in discussing the UAW's other demands, such as increased wages, better benefits and job security.”

You won’t hear Trump talk about issues such as auto workers’ wages that have fallen about 5.4% between 2019 and July 2023 when inflation it taken into account. In contrast, compensation for CEOs of the Big three companies has exploded in that same period.

This is why the current head of the UAW, Sean Fain, last week slammed Trump stating, “Every fiber of our union is being poured into fighting the billionaire class and an economy that enriches people like Donald Trump at the expense of workers."

In contrast, President Biden last week declared about the strike, “Over generations, auto workers sacrificed so much to keep the industry alive and strong, especially through the economic crisis and the pandemic.  Workers deserve a fair share of the benefits they helped create for an enterprise.” Biden added, “Record corporate profits — which they have — should be shared by record contracts for the UAW.”

Given Trump and the GOP’s well-documented anti-union record why would he now be pretending to care about union workers? After all, he never visited striking workers when he was in the White House.  Simple, Trump gets that unions and the striking workers are widely popular. A recent Gallup poll found 67 percent of Americans approve of unions—up form 48 percent just over a decade ago. That same poll found three in four Americans side with the United Auto Workers in their negotiations with U.S. auto companies.

Trump just wants a photo-op with people more popular than himself—not people he gives a crap about.

In contrast, Biden has already been endorsed in 2024 by several of the nation’s most powerful unions — including the AFL-CIO, American Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. As the head of the AFL-CIO noted when endorsing Biden earlier this year: “Joe Biden is the most pro-union president of our lifetime…who has delivered time and again for working people.” And Biden’s decades long pro-union record explains why he won union households in 2020 by 16 points, up from Hillary Clinton’s nine point margin of victory.

Union workers saw how Trump turned his back on them when he was in the White House from rolling back safety protections to undermining the ability to unionize to never traveling to show them support in those four years. They get that Trump is not coming to Michigan to help workers, he is there to help one person: Donald Trump.

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