NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS |
October 16, 2020 | PAGE 3
NOVEMBER 2020 GENERAL ELECTION
Four years of Trump: The record speaks for itself
PUNCHING DOWN: Trump has re-
peatedly savaged union leaders by
tweet. In December 2016, he said
Steelworkers Local 1999 President
Chuck Jones had done a“terrible job
representing workers” after Jones crit-
icized false claims about jobs saved at
his Indiana factory. On Labor Day
2018, Trump said AFL-CIO President
Rich Trumka, “represented his union
poorly on television” after Trumka crit-
icized the progress of trade talks. In
April 2019 when the Fire Fighters
union endorsed Joe Biden, Trump
tweeted that IAFF’s “dues-crazy union
leadership … rip off their member-
ship with ridiculously high dues.”
By Don McIntosh
In 2016, 42% of union house-
holds voted for Donald Trump,
according to exit polls. That’s a
bit higher than the 40% that voted
for Mitt Romney in 2012 and
37% for John McCain in 2008.
Trump in 2016 campaigned as a
different kind of Republican,
pledging to rewrite NAFTA, in-
vest $1 trillion in infrastructure,
and slash tax loopholes and de-
ductions for the rich. Union vot-
ers who backed him based on
those pledges now have a four-
year record to judge him by.
Trade wars and a new NAFTA
At Trump’s initiative, NAFTA was renegotiated
and renamed USMCA. When the first version
was declared unacceptable by House Democrats
and the AFL-CIO, Trump’s trade negotiator went
back to the table and got Mexico and Canada to
agree to further improvements. The final
version—the first big trade agreement in
decades to have the AFL-CIO’s endorsement—
commits Mexico to reform its labor law and
allow independent unions, mandates that at
least 40% of Mexican auto content be made by
workers earning over $16 per hour, and scales
back NAFTA’s controversial Investor-State
Dispute Settlement process. The rest of Trump’s
trade agenda has been less successful. He
launched trade wars with China but also with
nations considered close allies, imposing on-
again off-again tariffs. But the annual deficit in
trade in goods with China actually rose in his
first two years, from $346 billion to $418 billion,
before dropping to $345 billion in 2019. In July
2020, the overall trade deficit surged to its
highest level since 2008.
Tax cuts for the rich
Arguably Trump’s most important first-term
legislative achievement was the Tax Cuts and
Jobs Act of 2017. It included temporary cuts
in tax rates for individuals, and permanent
cuts in tax rates for corporations. Working
people earning under $200,000 saw a tax
rate cut of around 2%, but 83% of the
savings from the tax cut law went to the top
1% of income tax payers: Individuals earning
over $500,000 a year saw their top marginal
income tax rate drop to 37% from 39.6%.
Infrastructure promise broken
During his 2016 campaign, Trump repeatedly
pledged to invest $1 trillion on America’s
neglected infrastructure. It never happened. A
year into his presidency, the White House
released its proposal—$200 billion — in
the form of grants that states would have to
match four to one. The Trump infrastructure
proposal also involved selling off publicly
owned federal government assets including
Ronald Reagan International Airport and
parts of the Bonneville Power Administration.
No one in Congress from either party took it
as a serious proposal. This summer, amid
catastrophic unemployment and recession,
the Trump administration conjured up a new
$1 trillion infrastructure proposal. This time,
they’d take Oregon Congressman Peter
DeFazio’s proposed five-year $500 billion
highway funding reauthorization, cut it by
one-fifth, add back about the same amount
for rural broadband, then double it to 10
years, to be able to call it $1 trillion.
Democrats didn’t want to play that shell
game: On Sept. 30, a day before federal
highway funding was to run out, they
negotiated a one-year extension of existing
federal highway spending levels.
Attack on apprenticeship
Since 1937, the U.S. Department of Labor
(DOL) has regulated apprenticeship training
programs, with a role for both employers and
labor in setting standards for apprenticeship
programs. But in 2017, without any law
giving him authority to do so, Trump directed
the DOL to develop “industry-recognized
apprenticeship programs” (IRAPs)— a new
kind of apprenticeship program designed and
overseen solely by employers. Building trades
unions mounted a massive campaign to keep
IRAPs out of construction, where they would
compete with and undermine highly
successful existing apprenticeship programs.
In March 2020, the DOL backed off, and
agreed there’d be no IRAPs in construction.
Public sector ‘right-to-work’
In its 2018 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court
ruled that no public employee in the nation
has to pay union dues or fees. Lawyers for the
Trump administration argued in favor of that
anti-union decision.
Stripping workers union rights
In 2018, a trio of Trump executive orders
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. A federal judge struck down parts of
the orders, saying they violated the spirit and
letter of the 1978 federal law governs labor
relations in the federal civilian workplace.
Anti-worker appointments
Trump appointed corporate executives and
anti-union lawyers and lobbyists to lead the
Department of Labor and the National Labor
Relations Board, agencies in charge of
protecting workers rights. Since then, the
NLRB has made it slower and harder to
unionize, and is even trying in court to
prevent unions from using Scabby the
inflatable rat. At OSHA, Trump left the top
administrator job vacant the first time ever.
OSHA inspections have fallen to a 45-year
low, and when COVID-19 hit, OSHA refused
to issue temporary rules to protect workers.
2020 Voter’s Guide
These recommendations are brought to you by the
SW WASHINGTON CENTRAL LABOR COUNCIL
President / VP
Legislature
Joe Biden / Kamala Harris
17th Legislative District
Daniel Smith: Senate
Tanisha Harris: Rep Pos 1
U.S. House
3rd Congressional Dist.
Carolyn Long
Statewide
Governor
Jay Inslee
18th Legislative District
Donna Sinclair: Rep Pos 1
19th Legislative District
Dean Takko: Senate
Brian Blake: Rep Pos 2
49th Legislative District
Sharon Wylie: Rep Pos 1
Monica Stonier: Rep Pos 2
Lt. Governor (dual)
Denny Heck, Marko Liias
Clark County
Attorney General
Bob Ferguson
Councilor, District 3
Jesse James
Insurance Commissioner
Mike Kreidler
Councilor, District 4
Matt Little
Lands Commissioner
Hilary Franz
Charter Review Committee
Secretary of State
Gael Tarleton
State Auditor
Pat McCarthy
State Treasurer
Mike Pellicciotti
Sup't of Public Instruction
Chris Reykdal
At Large
Doug Lasher: Pos. 1
Eric Holt: Pos. 2
Mike Dalesandro: Pos. 3
District 1
Michael Martin: Pos. 1
Kim D. Harless: Pos. 2
Eric Labrant: Pos. 3
District 2
Charles Green: Pos. 1
Kelsey Potter: Pos. 2
Bridget McLeman: Pos. 3
District 3
Maureen Winningham: Pos. 1
Terri Niles: Pos. 2
Jeff Angelo: Pos. 3
District 4
John Latta: Pos. 2
Candy Bonneville: Pos. 3
Klickitat County
(Authorized and paid by Southwest
Washington Central Labor Council.)
Commissioner
Joanna Turner: District 1