Early voting is beneath manner throughout the USA 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 Staff (UAW) have important 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 Staff, the union behind the most recent Boeing strike, which is now getting into its eighth week. Boeing picketers say that if she hits the picket line with them, it might 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 obtained an endorsement from the Worldwide Union of Police Associations. It comes regardless of Trump’s false claims concerning the excessive charge of crime in American cities, his 34 felony convictions and his marketing campaign owing cities across the US tons of of hundreds of {dollars}, a lot of it for police extra time pay.
Whereas Harris has wider assist amongst union members – a 7 percent lead on Trump as 50 % 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 are high of thoughts for the broader voters like immigration.
“Union members who’re possible or might assist Donald Trump are actually not centered on collective bargaining or financial energy however points that need to do with immigration, points that need to 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 worry about “migrant crime”, violent crime within the US has steadily declined in the course of the administration of President Joe Biden. The latest FBI information reveals a ten.3 % 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 unique co-sponsor of a key employees rights invoice – Defending the Proper to Set up (PRO) Act.
The PRO Act, which initially was proposed in 2019, would forestall employers from interfering with union elections, permit for the Nationwide Labor Relations Board at hand out monetary penalties to corporations 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 mentioned she would signal it into legislation 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 mentioned.
JD Vance, Trump’s operating 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 tougher 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 individuals and for union members. His complete time period was doing the bidding of company CEOs and massive companies from the large tax giveaways that he bestowed upon them to creating it tougher 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 vice chairman 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.
Alternatively, Trump has been overtly hostile in the direction of employees who’re pushing for higher working situations.
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 legislation.
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 mentioned that if elected, she would attempt to elevate the federal minimal wage to $15 per hour – an necessary challenge for employees within the service trade 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 elevate the minimal wage at a marketing campaign occasion at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s franchise, Trump dodged the query.
In 2020, he mentioned he would like minimal wages to be determined by the states.
“I feel 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 mentioned 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 go the laws had been blocked by Republicans and a handful of Democrats. Nevertheless, Biden did what the administration might do unilaterally and raised the federal minimal wage for federal employees.
Each Trump and Harris have pledged to finish earnings taxes on ideas if elected.
Harris has lengthy fought to enhance wages throughout the financial system. Throughout her time as attorney general in California, she launched a process drive that was meant 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 circumstances towards their employers, just one out of seven had been paid out these misplaced wages inside 5 years.
Trump, nonetheless, has repeatedly argued towards elevating wages.
In 2015, he mentioned wages had been “too excessive”. Throughout that point, he additionally mentioned 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 lifeless warmth between Harris and Trump within the state. An mixture 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, nonetheless, 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 corporations bidding for contracts to pay a dwelling wage to their staff.
“The center class goes to earn prevailing wage on all of these building and factory-related jobs that include that enormous federal subsidy,” Bruno mentioned.
On extra time pay
On the finish of Obama’s second time period, the Division of Labor mentioned any full-time employees making lower than $47,476 certified for automated extra time pay.
A choose in Texas blocked the rule earlier than it might 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 extra 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 is going to improve once more on January 1 to $58,656. The plan will possible 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 an extended historical past of failing to pay extra time throughout his time within the non-public sector. A 2016 report from USA At the moment discovered that his corporations violated extra time and minimal wage legal guidelines 24 instances.
He echoed that sentiment in a marketing campaign speech this month. The Republican nominee informed supporters in Michigan he “used to hate to pay extra time”.
“Individuals are shocked they usually’re scared as a result of if Trump takes away their extra time, they’re not going to have the ability to make their lease on the finish of the month. That’s the sort of factor that’s at stake right here,” Smith mentioned.
Trump, nonetheless, has mentioned he needs to finish taxes on extra 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 mentioned at a marketing campaign rally in Arizona in September.
Neither marketing campaign replied to Al Jazeera’s requests for remark.
