By Josh Eidelson
February 2, 2017
Donald Trump’s presidency
presents unions with the threat that unified Republican governance will bring
sweeping, hostile changes to laws they hold dear. Labor has responded with a
muddle of denunciation, cautious quiet and, in some cases, even exultation.
Randi Weingarten, head of the
American Federation of Teachers and a speaker at the Women's March on
Washington, said last week that "we've got to be whistle-blowers for
righteousness." Just the day before, the Laborers' International Union of
North America was gushing over the new president: "He has shown that he
respects laborers who build our great nation, and that they will be abandoned
no more."
Long divided over how to save
themselves, unions can't agree on how to handle Trump. The stakes are high:
Membership last year slipped to a record-low 10.7 percent of workers -- and
just 6.4 percent in the private sector. While making promises that resonated with
many members, Trump has tapped as his labor secretary Andrew Puzder,
a fast-food executive who has blasted efforts to increase employee protections
and talked favorably about replacing workers with robots. The president could
be the key decider of anti-union proposals like a national "Right to
Work" bill, which House Republicans
introduced Wednesday.
"He's obviously shown a very
thin skin," said Larry Hanley, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union.
"Our criticisms are going to be measured, and they're going to be leveled
when they're important."
Puzder, the chief executive officer
of CKE Restaurants Inc., has been vociferously opposed by organized labor and Senate
Democrats, who've highlighted alleged labor law violations at Carl's Jr. and
Hardee's stores. His confirmation hearing was delayed for a fourth time Tuesday
so that he'd have more time to submit conflicts-of-interest and ethics
paperwork. But with 52 Republicans in the Senate, he's still likely to be
approved.
Across industries and ideologies,
most unions insist they'll support the good Trump tries to do and oppose the
bad. In practice, their dissonant messages reflect long-running disagreements.
For years, some unions have sought to get along better with Republicans,
whereas others have focused on strengthening and partnering with liberal
allies. Some advocate forcefully for causes like immigration reform and
environmental protection, while others see job-creating projects like the
Keystone XL Pipeline as an urgent priority.
"With every administration --
some more, some less -- but we've always been able to find a path to get some
business done," fire fighters union president Harold Schaitberger said
last week.
"Donald Trump's Muslim and
refugee ban is a deliberate and coordinated attack on our core values as
Americans," the 3-million member National Education Association said a few
days later.
Trump is well-poised to exploit
such tensions. He campaigned by defying bipartisan support for trade deals that
unions despise, and with rhetorical attacks on undocumented immigrants, which
some unions heard as a direct threat to members and their families.
"He is trying to be the
blue-collar president," said F. Vincent Vernuccio, director of labor
policy at the free-market Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Michigan and a
former member of Trump's transition team. "This may be the start of a
schism within the union movement."
White House press secretary Sean
Spicer didn't respond to a Tuesday inquiry about Trump's union outreach or his
views on labor laws.
Part of the challenge for unions is
division among their own members, 37 percent of whom voted for Donald Trump in
exit polling released by the AFL-CIO, the nation's main federation of unions.
In December, after United
Steelworkers local president Chuck Jones disputed Trump's claims
about how many jobs he'd saved at an Indiana Carrier Corp. plant, Trump
personally attacked him on Twitter. Jones later heard from some members worried
he was alienating Trump.
"They are very vocal that they
want us to keep working with him in any way we possibly can for the betterment
of people's jobs," said Jones.
Building-trades union leaders, whom
Trump hosted in the Oval Office on Jan. 23, said they asked him to oppose
fellow Republicans' efforts to revoke "prevailing wage" rules, which
require contractors on government projects not to undercut pay and benefit
standards.
Sean McGarvey, president of North
America's Building Trades Unions, said that Trump had listened to his concerns,
and that it was "by far the best meeting I ever participated in" over
17 years in Washington.
"With all due respect, I
represent construction workers," McGarvey told reporters when asked about
Trump's Twitter attack on Jones and his nomination of Puzder. "They're the
ones that pay me. They're the ones that I worry about."
Some union leaders suspect Trump is
pursuing a "divide and conquer" strategy, courting unions like the
building trades and the National Border Patrol Council even as he moves to harm
the broader movement.
"They have a narrow view of
who constitutes the working class," said Hector Figueroa, president of the
Service Employees International Union's East Coast property services affiliate.
The White House, he said, is "hoping that unions are going to just be
quiet, seeking to have some avenue to pursue their interests."
For the AFL-CIO, that leaves a fine
line to walk if it wants to assert its relevance without alienating its
affiliates.
On Friday, the White House
announced that federation President Richard Trumka would participate in Trump's
new "Manufacturing Jobs Initiative." An hour later, activists rallied
in the federation's lobby against Trump's immigration agenda.
"We will resist and we will
fight for all working people," said Yves Gomes, a member of the United
Food & Commercial Workers International.
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