Early voting is underway throughout the USA forward of Tuesday’s presidential election. Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris have made last-ditch efforts to court docket union voters, a core voting bloc, particularly in swing states like Michigan, the place teams just like the United Auto Employees (UAW) have important affect. among the many voters.
Vice President Harris has garnered endorsements from main 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 most recent Boeing strike, which now enters its eighth week. Boeing picketers say that if she pickets with them, it may assist her win extra votes.
In the meantime, former President Trump has additionally solidified union assist, nevertheless restricted. Members of the Teamsters union have proven larger assist for the Republican candidate. Though the Worldwide Brotherhood of Teamsters selected to not endorse both candidate, union president Sean O’Brien has campaigned with Trump and appeared in conservative-friendly media retailers to assist him.
Trump additionally acquired the endorsement of the Worldwide Union of Police Associations. It comes regardless of Trump’s false claims in regards to the excessive crime charge in American cities, his 34 felony convictions and his marketing campaign owing cities throughout America tons of of 1000’s of {dollars}, a lot of it to the paying extra time to the police.
Whereas Harris has broader assist amongst union members (a 7 % lead over Trump, as 50 % of union members say they consider Harris’s insurance policies could be higher for unions than these of Trump), the latter has gained assist amongst union members by benefiting from precedence points. thoughts for the overall voters, reminiscent of immigration.
“The union members who would most likely assist or may assist Donald Trump aren’t actually targeted on collective bargaining or financial energy, however on points that should do with immigration, points that should do with a way of hazard on account of crime ranges,” Bob Bruno mentioned. professor of labor and employment on the College of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, advised Al Jazeera.
Regardless of Trump’s success in stoking worry about “migrant crime,” violent crime in the USA has steadily declined throughout President Joe Biden’s administration. The latest FBI information exhibits a ten.3 % lower in reported violent crimes in comparison with final yr.
Al Jazeera analyzed the candidates’ positions on key points vital to union employees reminiscent of collective bargaining and wages. That is what we discovered:
In regards to the group
Harris has a reasonably constant file of being pro-union and was one of many authentic co-sponsors of a key employee rights invoice: the Defending the Proper to Union (PRO) Act.
The PRO Act, which was initially proposed in 2019, would forestall employers from interfering with union elections, enable the Nationwide Labor Relations Board to impose monetary penalties on firms that violate labor legal guidelines, and expedite reinstatement if employees lose their jobs. jobs because of a strike.
The invoice was reintroduced in 2023, however was not handed by the US Congress. Harris mentioned she would signal it into legislation if elected.
“The Harris marketing campaign is by far probably the most supportive of organized labor and collective bargaining, and the Trump marketing campaign is outwardly hostile to the thought,” Bruno mentioned.
Trump’s working mate JD Vance voted in opposition to the PRO Act and has been an outspoken critic of the laws. Vance additionally rejected a number of Biden administration nominees for the Nationwide Labor Relations Board. In 2020, then-President Trump threatened to veto the PRO Act if it reached his desk.
The Trump White Home additionally made it tougher for employees to arrange, together with in 2019, when it eradicated a safety carried out throughout Barack Obama’s presidency that allowed employees to make use of firm e-mail to arrange.
“So far as Trump is anxious, his presidency was an absolute catastrophe for employees and union members. “His total tenure was doing the bidding of company CEOs and large companies, from giving them large tax giveaways to creating it tougher for employees to arrange as unions,” Steven Smith, AFL-CIO deputy director of public affairs. he advised Al Jazeera.
As vice chairman of the Biden administration, Harris led the White Home Job Pressure on Employee Organizing and Empowerment, which aimed to assist higher talk employee rights throughout federal companies.
However, Trump has been overtly hostile towards employees pushing for higher working situations.
In a latest interview with billionaire supporter Elon Musk on X, the social media platform owned by Musk, Trump floated the thought of firing putting employees, which might violate federal labor legislation.
The declare prompted the UAW to file a proper criticism with the Nationwide Labor Relations Board to research Trump and Musk for interfering with employees’ rights.
About salaries
Harris has mentioned that, if elected, she would attempt to increase the federal minimal wage to $15 an hour, an vital problem for service trade employees and their unions as a result of the minimal wage has been caught at $7.25 an hour. since 2009. Since then, its buying energy has decreased by nearly 30 %.
When requested if he would increase the minimal wage at a marketing campaign occasion at a McDonald’s franchise in Pennsylvania, Trump dodged the query.
In 2020, he mentioned he would favor if minimal wages had been determined by states.
“I believe it ought to be a state choice. Alabama is completely different than New York. New York is completely different from Vermont. Every state is completely different. It ought to be a state choice,” Trump mentioned on the time.
Thirty-four of the 50 US states have raised their minimal wages above the federal minimal.
Which means the remaining 16 nonetheless have a minimal wage of $7.25 an hour. So for folks working full-time 40 hours per week at these salaries, their annual wage could be solely $20 greater than the poverty line for a one-person family.
When Biden first took workplace, he pledged to lift the federal minimal wage for all employees. However his efforts to get the laws by means of Congress had 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 ideas if elected.
Harris has lengthy fought to enhance wages throughout the economic system. Throughout his tenure as California legal professional common, he launched a job power geared toward combating wage theft within the state.
Nevertheless, it is unclear how effectively these efforts labored. By 2022, it was reported that even when employees gained wage theft circumstances in opposition to their employers, just one in seven acquired fee for misplaced wages over 5 years.
Trump, nevertheless, has repeatedly opposed elevating wages.
In 2015, he mentioned salaries had been “too excessive.” Throughout that point, he additionally mentioned that automakers ought to transfer their operations to the southern a part of the USA, 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 there may be now a tie between Harris and Trump within the state. A set of political polls compiled by the poll-tracking web site FiveThirtyEight exhibits Harris with a small lead in Michigan, however throughout the margin of error.
In 2018, whereas president, Trump used an government order to get rid of annual pay will increase for civilian federal staff.
The Biden administration, nevertheless, has struggled to enhance wages for middle-class employees. In a number of job creation applications, the administration included a prevailing wage clause requiring firms bidding on contracts to pay a residing wage to their staff.
“The center class will earn prevailing wages in all the development and manufacturing unit associated jobs that include that massive federal subsidy,” Bruno mentioned.
In regards to the fee of extra time
On the finish of Obama’s second time period, the Labor Division mentioned any full-time employee incomes lower than $47,476 certified for automated extra time pay.
A Texas decide blocked the rule earlier than it took impact. When the plan’s threshold got here up for reevaluation in 2019, the Trump administration slashed it. The cuts meant that employers solely needed to pay extra time to salaried employees who earned $35,358 a yr or much less.
When the rule was reconsidered once more this yr, the Biden-Harris administration raised the brink to $43,888 on July 1. It is going to improve once more on January 1 to $58,656. The plan is more likely to proceed if Harris is elected subsequent week.
As for Trump, his allies on the Heritage Basis suppose tank need him to reverse the rule if he wins.
Trump has a protracted historical past of not paying extra time throughout his time within the personal sector. A 2016 USA At the moment report discovered that his firms violated extra time and minimal wage legal guidelines 24 instances.
He echoed that sentiment in a marketing campaign speech this month. The Republican candidate advised his supporters in Michigan that he “used to hate paying extra time.”
“Persons are shocked and scared as a result of if Trump takes away their extra time, they will not be capable to pay their lease on the finish of the month. That is the type of factor that is at play right here,” Smith mentioned.
Trump, nevertheless, has mentioned he desires to finish taxes on extra time pay as a part of a broader tax plan if he’s re-elected.
“It is time for the working man and girl to lastly take a break, and that is what we’re doing as a result of it is good,” Trump mentioned at a marketing campaign rally in Arizona in September.
Neither marketing campaign responded to Al Jazeera’s requests for remark.
