Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and Republican candidate Donald Trump are in a close race for the White HouseEvery voting bloc will count – including union members and other people of their household.
The majority of union leaders have, over generations, supported democratic candidatesand this election campaign is not any exception. Although union members have historically supported the Democratic Party by a large margin, this support has fluctuated for at the very least 45 years. In 2016 Polls after the election showed that voters from union households supported the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton over Trump by only 8 percentage points; in 2012, when Barack Obama was on the ballot, the figure was 18 percentage points.
No Democratic presidential candidate has performed worse with union voters since Ronald Reagan's victories over Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale in 1980 and 1984.
Union voters are particularly distinguished in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Nevadathree swing states wherein the proportion of union voters is above the national average of 10%.
End of 2023 New York Times/Siena College poll in six swing states that Joe Biden won in 2020 – those three plus Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin – shows that Biden and Trump were tied at 47% amongst union voters when asked who they’d vote for in 2024. Biden had a 8 percentage points ahead among the many same voters in 2020said one other survey.
3 core topics
Union voters, like all Americans, are concerned about many issues. But they’re more likely than most individuals to significantly consider a candidate's record on support for staff and unions. Union historians generally agree that the Biden administration has the second strongest pro-labor record after Franklin D. Roosevelt.
And I feel Historian Nelson Lichtenstein, who claims that Trump’s years in office were bad for the unions and are representative of the assessment of his track record up to now by union experts.
From my perspective as a labor studies scholar, there are three facets of the candidates' track records which can be almost certainly to sway union members come what may.
Federal employees
Trump has signed three Executive Orders in 2018 which restricted the labor rights of about 950,000 unionized federal employees. In 2020, he signed one other measure, often known as Annex Fwhich, in accordance with the Washington Post, goals to “undermine protections for public sector employees.”
Biden these orders repealedHe also arrange a White House task force to make recommendations to streamline the method for organizing unions for federal employees. Harris chaired the duty force. The variety of Federal employees in unions has increased by tens of 1000’s throughout the Biden administration.
Union elections
The rules for holding elections when staff express an interest in forming a union date back to the Thirties, when Roosevelt introduced the National Labour Relations Act into law. The National Industrial Relations Boardcreated by this law oversees union elections.
In 2019, when Trump appointees held a majority of the five seats on the NLRB, the panel overturned an Obama-era NLRB decision mandating a fast election. In 2023, when Biden appointees held a majority, the panel issued a pro-union decision reversing that Trump-era decision.
Today, if a majority of employees in an organization want union representation, the employer must either recognize the union and negotiate with it or seek an election. If the employer violates labor law within the period before the election, the election is canceled and the The NLRB may order the employer to to recognise the union and to barter with it.
OSHA
The Authority for Safety and Health at Workan agency of the Department of Labor, is liable for the health and safety of U.S. staff.
Fewer workplace inspections took place throughout the Trump administration than during Obama's second termThis decline is basically as a consequence of the slow hiring of latest OSHA inspectors. replace those that have retired.
The Number of inspections increases againHowever, in accordance with OSHA calculations, occupational accidents and fatalities increased throughout the Biden administration.
The The Trump administration didn’t issue workplace rules on coronavirus safety, putting a whole bunch of 1000’s of individuals working in healthcare, food retail, meat processing and education in danger.
By comparison, two days after taking office in 2021, Biden issued an executive order establishing mask-mandating guidelines, and his administration Workplace health and safety protocols a high priority throughout the rest of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Compared to the Trump administration’s inaction throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden administration has been more energetic in implementing health and safety measures, proposing rules in July 2024 that may protect around 36 million staff from Health risks from extreme heatAfter a period for written comments, public hearings on the bill can be held.
When Trump tried to chop OSHA funding for 2018 by about $10 million, Congress blocked his efforts. The Biden administration is calls for a 3.7% increase in OSHA’s budget for the financial 12 months 2025.
Legislative and gubernatorial records
Harris was a U.S. senator before becoming vp; her running mate Tim Walz is the governor of Minnesota and previously served in Congress; and Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance can be currently a U.S. senator. Candidates' performance in these positions are also indicators of what they may attempt to do within the White House.
The AFL-CIO, the biggest umbrella organization of US unions, gave Harris a Lifetime rating of 98% on their voting behavior within the Senate. Rolling received a 93% vote from the AFL-CIO when he was within the House of Representatives. He was one in all the National Education Associationthe biggest union within the country while working as a highschool teacher.
As governor of Minnesota, Walz signed a law paid sick days for civil servants and a measure that made Minnesota the primary state to enact a minimum wage for Uber and Lyft drivers. In 2023, Walz also signed laws establishing the Nursing Home Workforce Standards Board, which might oversee the health and welfare of nursing home employees.
The AFL-CIO has Vance at 0% Assessment for his Senate elections starting in mid-2024. Among other things, Vance opposed the nominations of several judges and government officials with pro-union track records.
Address to the auto staff
Perhaps essentially the most visible sign of Biden's support for unions got here when he formed a picket line with striking members of the United Auto Workers in Michigan in September 2023. He was the primary president to accomplish that.
Trump appeared nearby The next day he gave a speech at a non-union auto parts plant.
More recently, Trump did himself no favors with blue-collar voters and their allies when, in a much-publicized conversation with Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and X, he praised Musk for shedding employees WHO talked about problems at work and tried to form a union.
It is unclear how unionized households will vote in 2024. But there are There is little question that the campaigns of Harris and Trump are sure that it’s going to be vital similar to in 2020when Biden narrowly won Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania – and in 2016, when Clinton lost these states.
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