Democrats Labor to Stem Flow of Union Voters to Trump
Like many in Virginia, Minn., Jim Pechonick works at an iron ore mine and was raised a Democrat. Then came Donald Trump with promises to restore the greatness of American steel. “The only time in my life I’ve ever been out of a job was under Obama,” said Mr. Pechonick, 51 years old, recalling a stretch in 2009-10 when the mine closed due to the poor economy. In 2016, he joined a sizable number of union workers, particularly white men, who voted for Mr. Trump. “Somebody needed to shake up the country,” he said.
The shift helped Mr. Trump win Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, states with strong union traditions, and has put Minnesota—which he lost narrowly three years ago—into possible contention in 2020. The president’s appeal to builders, electricians, plumbers, roofers and miners has alarmed labor leaders, who are now scrambling to prevent further erosion. “It’s a serious problem for us,” said Alan Netland, president of the North East Area Labor Council in Duluth, Minn., which represents 40,000 union members. “People may say, ‘I voted Republican and the world didn’t fall in, so maybe I better keep doing that.’”
Union officials, along with Democratic presidential candidates, are now trying to highlight what they see as a yawning gap between the president’s pro-worker rhetoric and his policies. Mr. Trump’s campaign points to the strong economy and steps he has taken to protect American jobs, including tearing up global trade deals, levying tariffs on foreign steel and clearing away environmental obstacles for mining and other industries. It plans to launch a grass-roots labor coalition in which pro-Trump union members would seek to recruit fellow workers to support the president.
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Union leaders and Democrats see an opening. Mr. Trump, they point out, hasn’t delivered on his promise to push a massive job-creating infrastructure package and his administration has scaled back overtime and other worker protections. Last week, the president nominated Eugene Scalia, a former corporate lawyer who has battled unions, to be the next Labor Department secretary... Joseph McCartin, a labor expert at Georgetown University, said 2016 wasn’t just about Mr. Trump pulling in significant amounts of union support in Midwestern states; it was a reflection on the decline of organized labor. Wisconsin, which Mr. Trump won by about 23,000 votes, lost 176,000 union members from 2008-2016, according to his research. The trend was similar in Pennsylvania and Michigan.
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There are 720,000 union members in Pennsylvania, and Mr. Trump won the state by just 44,000 votes. Rick Bloomingdale, president of the state federation of the AFL-CIO, said the president will hold on to socially conservative members concerned about abortion and gun rights. “We just have to convince 44,000 or 30,000 people that voted for Trump last time to vote for someone else.” Some union members who backed the president in 2016 are rethinking their votes, Mr. Bloomingdale said. “In some areas where Trump did well there’s been some disillusionment, but not totally. They’re not convinced the Democrats are there yet either. They’re waiting to hear what the candidates are going to say about the economy.”
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/democrats-labor-to-stem-flow-of-union-voters-to-trump-11567422002 (paid subscription)
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