Donald Trump Makes Outreach Effort to Unions
Jose Nino
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Mark Mix, the President of the National Right to Work Committee, believes that union leadership will not bite on Trump’s appeals.
“I think they feel emboldened,” declared Mark Mix, describing the union leadership. Mix has been in the labor freedom game for the past few decades and he believes that the union leadership’s current tone is rather strange.
Historically speaking, Nix noted that unions usually vote to authorize a strike prior to negotiations as part of a negotiating tactic. However, Mix observed that union leaders’ rhetoric this summer has turned “militant.”
The Teamsters, for their part, recently reached a deal with UPS. However, they walked away from the negotiating table twice and announced their intent, not just authorization, to launch a strike before the end of their contract. Sean M. O’Brien, the newly elected Teamster president, appeared on CNN prior to the negotiations where he described the union’s tactics, “we strategize, we organize, now it’s time to pulverize.” He called on the Biden regime to not intervene if they decided to strike.
The UAW, which recently launched negotiations with the Big Three automobile manufacturers as the present contract expires on September 14, 2023 has similarly made remarks about its willingness to strike prior to negotiations kicking off.
“There is a new environment. These union officials feel empowered,” Mix asserted. “And I think one of the reasons that is the fact and why we’re seeing more of this saber-rattling is because the Biden administration … basically has created an environment where the union officials think the Department of Labor, and the Department of Justice, and the National Labor Relations Board—which are the three agencies that would be involved and interested in in violence, intimidation, or violation of individual workers rights—that they’re controlled by the Biden administration.”
“Union officials feel like they’re emboldened by this White House and this administration to do basically whatever it takes to get what they’re demanding,” he stated.
In the video that was published July 20, Trump criticized the Biden regime’s policies impacting the auto industry, making a reference unsold electric vehicles “piling up on car lots” by the thousands.
“They are absolutely destroying your business,” Trump remarked, alluding to the government subsidies for electric vehicles that cause distortions in the auto market. “That’s why I’m going to terminate these Green New Deal atrocities on day one.”
He boast about his track record on trade policy, which includes the NAFTA trade deal renegotiation, and how that has been beneficial to the auto industry. “I saved the auto industry once, and now I will save it again,” he stated.
Mix noted that the Biden regime’s policies are not necessarily beneficial to rank-and-file union workers, but do benefit union bosses instead. He cited the cancellation of the Keystone XL Pipeline project, which was supposed to create tens of thousands of union jobs.
In addition, Mix observed that the Biden regime had increased the possibility of additional strikes through its implementation of pandemic era policies such as stimulus checks and unemployment benefits. These policies disincentivize many people from working, which prompted the UPS to raise wages in order to grow its workforce
“Everyone who has been working for UPS and was on the job was saying, ‘Wait a minute, how can somebody who has just started today make the same amount that I’m making?’ So that caused the demand for these wage increases, for the part-timers in particular,” Mix stated.
Unions have a place in the modern economy. However, union boss power needs to be greatly limited. These are nefarious actors who strive to line their pockets with forced union dues. As a result, the Right must make the passage of Right to Work laws a standard for all states in the Union.
Rank-and-file workers should still be reached out through the advocacy of economic nationalism and immigration restriction, policies that will protect their work and wages in a sustainable manner.
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