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The predominantly Democratic constituency of organized labor is expected to split its support between former Vice President Joe Biden and President Trump on election day.
While it’s hard to say how members will vote, candidates’ positions on policies like energy, trade and manufacturing could determine how union members vote.
Biden, for example, sounded the alarm when he admitted during the third presidential debate that he would try to get the country out of fossil fuels. This statement, combined with his opposition to new fracking leases, has raised concerns about jobs in the industry and how American families could afford unconventional forms of energy.
“It certainly caught the attention of a lot of people,” said Roxanne Brown, international vice president for the United Steelworkers, in response to Biden’s statements on the oil and gas industry.
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Biden’s statements and positions on the energy industry present the need for a real discussion of what the future holds for energy workers, Brown said. But it also raises the question of what a potential Biden-Harris administration might do to ensure that the fossil fuel industry might be brought into the future.
“There is a way to do it and I think in the clarifying statement they made they talked about carbon sequestration and storage. And it’s a technology that can dramatically help industries like the petroleum sector make the transition to a clean energy economy. “
Biden told a Texas news organization last week that the oil industry is not going away.
“In fact, we will maintain and create millions more jobs – unions,” he said.
Despite these issues, however, Biden, a longtime union champion, has secured the endorsement of key players in the field. The International Union of Service Employees, the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association all supported the former vice president.
Trump’s union support, meanwhile, comes mainly from law enforcement. More than a dozen people approved of the president amid a wave of unrest resulting from police shootings in U.S. cities this year, which led to calls from protesters to dismantle the police. He also convinced Boilermakers Local 154 in Pennsylvania, which publicly refuted Biden’s claim of their approval.
Recent reports have also indicated that union leadership does not necessarily reflect grassroots membership. Terry Bowman, co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party and Ford Motor Co. worker, predicts that at least 60% of unionized workers, especially those in the auto and energy industries, are in fact Trump supporters.
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Bowman speaks with unionized workers in Michigan and beyond as the national co-chair of the Workers’ Advisory Committee for Trump.
“It wasn’t the unions that approved Joe Biden, it was the union officials who officially approved of Joe Biden,” Bowman told Fox News. “In this case, I don’t think they represent the will of the worker. They literally pile approval down the throats of their workers.
In 2016, Trump narrowly won Michigan over Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who fell by less than a point. As the weekend approaches, RealClearPolitics poll averages show Trump is dragging Biden to Michigan and other swinging Midwestern states like Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Although the unions were generally seen as a Democratic constituency, Trump’s shock victory in 2016 drew attention to white working-class voters who resisted the party line. With the negotiation of the US-Mexico-Canada deal, which replaced the NAFTA approved under the Clinton administration, to his credit, Trump continues to pursue an “America First” message that berates the free – swingers on both sides of the aisle.
Biden was seen as a moderate and a trade unionist, which could bridge the gap between the various factions of the Democratic Party.
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“When we approved Joe in May, we got a lot of applause, but we also got a few taunts because no candidate is perfect and no candidate is going to get 100% support,” Brown said. “I think if you talk to any union, it doesn’t matter who it is, that’s what they’re going to hear. It’s just the reality.
Describing Biden as “out of touch,” a group of Democratic Minnesota Railroad mayors endorsed President Trump at the end of August.
“The radical environmental movement has dragged the Democratic Party so far to the left, they can no longer claim to be the workers’ advocates,” said one of these mayors, Robert Vlaisavljevich of Eveleth, during the Republican National Convention.
The approvals sparked backlash from District 11 of the United Steelworkers, a local union that rejected the idea that Trump had boosted the region’s economy. Echoing Democrats, the group blamed the economic losses on Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
“President Trump has refused to recognize the threat posed by the coronavirus, to mobilize resources or to show leadership in the face of the global pandemic,” they said in early September. “Due to the pandemic, nearly half of Iron Range mine workers have been made redundant.”
Brown also highlighted the impact of the pandemic on political tendencies in his union ahead of the election.
“What has unfolded since March with the global pandemic shows significantly for us that change is needed,” Brown told Fox News. “We need a leader of this country who takes a pandemic seriously, who takes Americans seriously faced with a threat like this, and who holds in high regard those who are on the front lines of it all. It is not finished.”
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Brown said the Steelworkers Union is the largest industrial union in North America and is extremely diverse and represents much more than metalworkers. There are 850,000 members of the Steelworkers Union in the United States and Canada and about 500,000 in America alone, she said. Members include workers in the steel, aluminum and paper industries, but members also work as bus and taxi drivers, and 50,000 members are in the health sector who are on the front lines of health. the pandemic.
“They need a president who will support them, and it is clear that Joe Biden is the choice in terms of the person who will support them and make sure they have what they need to do their jobs safely. and that they ‘are able to return home safely to their families,’ said Brown.
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