Early voting is underneath method throughout the US forward of Tuesday’s presidential election. Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris have each made last-minute efforts to courtroom union voters – a core voting bloc, particularly in swing states like Michigan, the place teams just like the United Auto Employees (UAW) have vital sway among the many voters.
Vice President Harris has garnered endorsements from necessary unions throughout the nation, together with the UAW, AFL-CIO and Service Staff Worldwide Union.
Harris additionally has the assist of the Worldwide Affiliation of Machinists and Aerospace Employees, the union behind the newest Boeing strike, which is now coming into its eighth week. Boeing picketers say that if she hits the picket line with them, it may assist her win extra votes.
In the meantime, former President Trump has additionally solidified union assist, restricted although it might be. Members of the Teamsters union have proven stronger support for the Republican nominee. Though the Worldwide Brotherhood of Teamsters opted to not endorse both candidate, the union’s president, Sean O’Brien, has campaigned with Trump and appeared on conservative-friendly media retailers in assist.
Trump additionally acquired an endorsement from the Worldwide Union of Police Associations. It comes regardless of Trump’s false claims in regards to the excessive fee of crime in American cities, his 34 felony convictions and his marketing campaign owing cities across the US lots of of 1000’s of {dollars}, a lot of it for police additional time pay.
Whereas Harris has wider assist amongst union members – a 7 percent lead on Trump as 50 p.c of union members say they consider Harris’s insurance policies could be higher for unions than Trump’s – the latter has garnered assist amongst union members by tapping into points which might be prime of thoughts for the broader voters like immigration.
“Union members who’re doubtless or may assist Donald Trump are actually not targeted on collective bargaining or financial energy however points that should do with immigration, points that should do with a way of hazard due to ranges of crime,” Bob Bruno, professor of labour and employment on the College of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, informed Al Jazeera.
Regardless of Trump’s success in stoking concern about “migrant crime”, violent crime within the US has steadily declined in the course of the administration of President Joe Biden. The latest FBI knowledge reveals a ten.3 p.c decline in reported violent crime in contrast with final yr.
Al Jazeera analysed the place the candidates stand on key points necessary to union employees like collective bargaining and wages. Right here’s what we discovered:
On organising
Harris has a reasonably constant document of being pro-union and was an authentic co-sponsor of a key employees rights invoice – Defending the Proper to Arrange (PRO) Act.
The PRO Act, which initially was proposed in 2019, would stop employers from interfering with union elections, permit for the Nationwide Labor Relations Board handy out monetary penalties to firms that violate labour legal guidelines and expedite reinstatement of labor if employees lose their jobs on account of a strike.
The invoice was reintroduced in 2023 however has not handed the US Congress. Harris stated she would signal it into regulation if elected.
“The Harris marketing campaign is by far the extra supportive of organised labour and collective bargaining, and the Trump marketing campaign is outwardly hostile to the thought,” Bruno stated.
JD Vance, Trump’s working mate, voted towards the PRO Act and has been a vocal critic of the laws. Vance also rejected several Biden administration nominees to the Nationwide Labor Relations Board. In 2020, then-President Trump threatened to veto the PRO Act if it made it to his desk.
The Trump White Home additionally made it more durable for employees to organise, together with in 2019 when it removed a safety applied throughout Barack Obama’s presidency that allowed employees to make use of firm e mail to organise.
“With regards to Trump, his presidency was an absolute catastrophe for working folks and for union members. His whole time period was doing the bidding of company CEOs and large firms from the large tax giveaways that he bestowed upon them to creating it harder for employees to organise as a union,” Steven Smith, deputy director of public affairs for the AFL-CIO, informed Al Jazeera.
In her capability as vp within the Biden administration, Harris spearheaded the White House Task Force on Employee Organizing and Empowerment, which aimed to assist higher talk employees rights all through federal companies.
However, Trump has been brazenly hostile in direction of employees who’re pushing for higher working circumstances.
In a current interview with billionaire supporter Elon Musk on X, the social media platform Musk owns, Trump floated the thought of firing employees who’re on strike, which might violate federal labour regulation.
The declare led the UAW to launch a proper criticism with the Nationwide Labor Relations Board to analyze Trump and Musk for interfering with employees rights.
On wages
Harris has stated that if elected, she would attempt to increase the federal minimal wage to $15 per hour – an necessary concern for employees within the service business and their respective unions as a result of the minimal wage has been caught at $7.25 an hour since 2009. Since then, its buying energy has declined by almost 30 percent.
When he was requested about whether or not he would increase the minimal wage at a marketing campaign occasion at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s franchise, Trump dodged the query.
In 2020, he stated he would favor minimal wages to be determined by the states.
“I believe it ought to be a state choice. Alabama is completely different than New York. New York is completely different from Vermont. Each state is completely different. It ought to be a state choice,” Trump stated on the time.
Thirty-four of the 50 US states have raised their minimal wages above the federal minimal.
Meaning the remaining 16 nonetheless have a minimal wage of $7.25 an hour. So for individuals who work full time at 40 hours per week at these wages, their annual pay could be only $20 higher than the poverty line for a single particular person family.
When Biden first took workplace, he pledged to boost the federal minimal wage for all employees. However his efforts to get Congress to cross the laws have been blocked by Republicans and a handful of Democrats. Nevertheless, Biden did what the administration may do unilaterally and raised the federal minimal wage for federal employees.
Each Trump and Harris have pledged to finish revenue taxes on suggestions if elected.
Harris has lengthy fought to enhance wages throughout the financial system. Throughout her time as attorney general in California, she launched a job drive that was supposed to crack down on wage theft within the state.
Nevertheless, it’s not clear how effectively these efforts carried out. By 2022, it was reported that even when employees gained wage theft instances towards their employers, just one out of seven have been paid out these misplaced wages inside 5 years.
Trump, nevertheless, has repeatedly argued towards elevating wages.
In 2015, he stated wages have been “too excessive”. Throughout that point, he additionally stated auto producers ought to transfer operations to the southern a part of the US to “lower-wage states”.
Regardless of these coverage positions, Trump gained the union-heavy state of Michigan in 2016. Biden gained the state by 2.8 proportion factors over Trump in 2020, and now it’s a useless warmth between Harris and Trump within the state. An combination of political polls compiled by the poll-tracking web site FiveThirtyEight reveals Harris has a small lead in Michigan however effectively throughout the margin of error.
In 2018 whereas president, Trump used an govt order to scrap annual pay raises for civilian federal employees.
The Biden administration, nevertheless, has fought to enhance wages for center class employees. In a number of job creation programmes, the administration included a prevailing wage clause that requires firms bidding for contracts to pay a dwelling wage to their workers.
“The center class goes to earn prevailing wage on all of these development and factory-related jobs that include that enormous federal subsidy,” Bruno stated.
On additional time pay
On the finish of Obama’s second time period, the Division of Labor stated any full-time employees making lower than $47,476 certified for computerized additional time pay.
A decide in Texas blocked the rule earlier than it may take impact. When the plan threshold got here up for re-evaluation in 2019, the Trump administration slashed it. The cuts meant employers solely wanted to pay additional time for salaried employees making $35,358 a yr or much less.
When the rule was up for reconsideration once more this yr, the Biden-Harris administration raised the edge to $43,888 on July 1. It can enhance once more on January 1 to $58,656. The plan will doubtless proceed if Harris is elected subsequent week.
As for Trump, his allies on the Heritage Basis assume tank need him, if he wins, to reverse the rule.
Trump has a protracted historical past of failing to pay additional time throughout his time within the personal sector. A 2016 report from USA Immediately discovered that his firms violated additional time and minimal wage legal guidelines 24 occasions.
He echoed that sentiment in a marketing campaign speech this month. The Republican nominee informed supporters in Michigan he “used to hate to pay additional time”.
“Individuals are shocked and so they’re scared as a result of if Trump takes away their additional time, they’re not going to have the ability to make their lease on the finish of the month. That’s the form of factor that’s at stake right here,” Smith stated.
Trump, nevertheless, has stated he desires to finish taxes on additional time pay as a part of a much bigger tax plan if he’s re-elected.
“It’s time for the working man and lady to lastly catch a break, and that’s what we’re doing as a result of this can be a good one,” Trump stated at a marketing campaign rally in Arizona in September.
Neither marketing campaign replied to Al Jazeera’s requests for remark.
