Despite stark differences on worker rights, unions split on Trump, Harris | US Election 2024 News

Early voting is underneath means throughout the US forward of Tuesday’s presidential election. Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris have each made last-minute efforts to court docket 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 citizens.

Vice President Harris has garnered endorsements from vital 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 coming 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 could 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 acquired an endorsement from the Worldwide Union of Police Associations. It comes regardless of Trump’s false claims in regards to the excessive price of crime in American cities, his 34 felony convictions and his marketing campaign owing cities throughout the US tons of of 1000’s of {dollars}, a lot of it for police additional time pay.

Whereas Harris has wider assist amongst union members – a 7 percent lead on Trump as 50 p.c of union members say they consider Harris’s insurance policies can be higher for unions than Trump’s – the latter has garnered assist amongst union members by tapping into points which can be prime of thoughts for the broader citizens like immigration.

“Union members who are likely or could support Donald Trump are really not focused on collective bargaining or economic power but issues that have to do with immigration, issues that have to do with a sense of danger because of levels of crime,” Bob Bruno, professor of labour and employment on the College of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, advised Al Jazeera.

Despite 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 newest FBI knowledge exhibits a ten.3 p.c decline in reported violent crime in contrast with final 12 months.

Al Jazeera analysed the place the candidates stand on key points vital to union staff like collective bargaining and wages. Right here’s what we discovered:

On organising

Harris has a reasonably constant report of being pro-union and was an unique co-sponsor of a key staff rights invoice – Defending the Proper to Arrange (PRO) Act.

The PRO Act, which initially was proposed in 2019, would stop employers from interfering with union elections, permit for the Nationwide Labor Relations Board handy out monetary penalties to corporations that violate labour legal guidelines and expedite reinstatement of labor if staff lose their jobs because 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 campaign is by far the more supportive of organised labour and collective bargaining, and the Trump campaign is outwardly hostile to the idea,” 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 more durable for staff to organise, together with in 2019 when it removed a safety carried out throughout Barack Obama’s presidency that allowed staff to make use of firm electronic mail to organise.

“When it comes to Trump, his presidency was an absolute disaster for working people and for union members. His entire term was doing the bidding of corporate CEOs and big corporations from the massive tax giveaways that he bestowed upon them to making it more difficult for workers to organise as a union,” Steven Smith, deputy director of public affairs for the AFL-CIO, advised Al Jazeera.

In her capability as vp within the Biden administration, Harris spearheaded the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, which aimed to assist higher talk staff rights all through federal businesses.

However, Trump has been overtly hostile in the direction of staff who’re pushing for higher working situations.

In a latest interview with billionaire supporter Elon Musk on X, the social media platform Musk owns, Trump floated the thought of firing staff who’re on strike, which might violate federal labour legislation.

The declare led the UAW to launch a proper grievance with the Nationwide Labor Relations Board to analyze Trump and Musk for interfering with staff rights.

On wages

Harris has mentioned that if elected, she would attempt to increase the federal minimal wage to $15 per hour – an vital subject for staff 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.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump works behind the counter throughout a go to to a McDonald’s restaurant in Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania [File: Doug Mills/Pool via Reuters]

When he was requested about whether or not he would increase 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 think it should be a state option. Alabama is different than New York. New York is different from Vermont. Every state is different. It should be a state option,” 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 can be only $20 higher than the poverty line for a single particular person family.

When Biden first took workplace, he pledged to lift the federal minimal wage for all staff. However his efforts to get Congress to cross the laws had been blocked by Republicans and a handful of Democrats. Nonetheless, Biden did what the administration might do unilaterally and raised the federal minimal wage for federal staff.

Each Trump and Harris have pledged to finish revenue taxes on suggestions if elected.

Harris has lengthy fought to enhance wages throughout the economic system. Throughout her time as attorney general in California, she launched a job drive that was meant to crack down on wage theft within the state.

Nonetheless, it’s not clear how properly these efforts carried out. By 2022, it was reported that even when staff received 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 high”. Throughout that point, he additionally mentioned auto producers ought to transfer operations to the southern a part of the US to “lower-wage states”.

Despite these coverage positions, Trump received the union-heavy state of Michigan in 2016. Biden received the state by 2.8 proportion factors over Trump in 2020, and now it’s a useless warmth between Harris and Trump within the state. An mixture of political polls compiled by the poll-tracking web site FiveThirtyEight exhibits Harris has a small lead in Michigan however properly 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 staff. In a number of job creation programmes, the administration included a prevailing wage clause that requires corporations bidding for contracts to pay a residing wage to their staff.

“The middle class is going to earn prevailing wage on all of those construction and factory-related jobs that come with that large federal subsidy,” Bruno mentioned.

On additional time pay

On the finish of Obama’s second time period, the Division of Labor mentioned any full-time staff making lower than $47,476 certified for automated additional time pay.

A decide 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 additional time for salaried staff making $35,358 a 12 months or much less.

When the rule was up for reconsideration once more this 12 months, the Biden-Harris administration raised the brink to $43,888 on July 1. It would improve once more on January 1 to $58,656. The plan will doubtless 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 a protracted historical past of failing to pay additional time throughout his time within the non-public sector. A 2016 report from USA Immediately discovered that his corporations violated additional time and minimal wage legal guidelines 24 occasions.

He echoed that sentiment in a marketing campaign speech this month. The Republican nominee advised supporters in Michigan he “used to hate to pay overtime”.

“People are shocked and they’re scared because if Trump takes away their overtime, they’re not going to be able to make their rent at the end of the month. That’s the kind of thing that’s at stake here,” Smith mentioned.

Trump, nonetheless, has mentioned he desires to finish taxes on additional time pay  as a part of a much bigger tax plan if he’s re-elected.

“It’s time for the working man and woman to finally catch a break, and that’s what we are doing because this is 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.