Every week, we bring you a roundup of the top news and commentary about issues and events important to working families. Here’s the latest edition of the Working People Weekly List.
J.D. Vance Is A ‘Scab’ For Crossing Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Picket Line: Union: “Vice presidential candidate Sen. J.D. Vance (Ohio) crossed a virtual picket line by publishing an opinion piece in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Thursday, according to the union whose workers are on strike at the newspaper. Jon Schleuss, president of the NewsGuild-CWA, told HuffPost that there was no excuse for Vance, the running mate of former President Donald Trump, not to be aware of the strike that just entered its third year.”
How Trump Could Bankrupt Social Security: “It’s important to be aware that one effect of Donald Trump’s economic proposals, if enacted, could be to drive Social Security into bankruptcy, impoverishing many older Americans—not in the distant future, but within around six years. And while I have in the past assumed that Social Security will be bailed out if necessary, that looks less certain in the antidemocratic nation we may become if Trump wins.”
Why Gender May Be the Defining Issue of the Election: “‘We’re all protecting our hearts right now, having been through this before,’ said Liz Shuler, the first woman elected to lead the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions in the country. ‘We’ve come further, even since 2020, with women leading in ways we’ve never seen before. To not be able to cross that ultimate threshold of the highest position of power in the world would be a sucker punch.’ Her union federation, one of the Democrats’ most powerful backers, is tracking a 32-point difference in support for Ms. Harris over Mr. Trump among its female members in internal surveys.”
Modern-Day Rosie the Riveters Are Backing Kamala Harris: “As Liz Shuler, the first woman president of the AFL-CIO, told The 19th, the strides women and people of color are making in the trades are at risk. ‘We’ve seen the patterns of the Trump administration,’ she said. ‘Even just the rhetoric of DEI hires being negative, when in fact, we’re making progress, and we’re starting to elevate the awareness and the commitment of these companies to hire more women.’ A lot of initiatives aimed at making the workplace more inclusive and welcoming to women are voluntary, and not mandated. ‘We don’t want to actually give [these companies] ammunition to start getting rid of these programs,’ she said.”
Trump is Anti-Worker. Here Are 10 of His Most Shocking Anti-Worker Statements: “Many people failed to realize that Donald Trump has a long, ugly history of making anti-worker and anti-union statements. He has at times insulted workers, saying their wages are too high, saying their work is so easy that a child can do it. The former U.S. president has also sought to sabotage labor by saying union members shouldn’t pay their dues and successful union leaders should be fired. Trump has also sought to trick workers by making wonderful-sounding promises that he couldn’t possibly make good on. Below are Trump’s 10 most shocking anti-worker and anti-union statements.”
Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su Criticizes Donald Trump’s Labor Record at IOP: “Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Su slammed former President Donald Trump for ‘faux populism” and hypocrisy on labor issues ahead of the 2024 presidential election at a Harvard Institute of Politics forum on Monday. Though Su declined to address the former president by name, she argued that ‘hypothetically,’ opposition to overtime pay, sexual harassment, and support for Elon Musk are incompatible with a ‘pro-worker’ position. ‘I don’t care how many McDonald’s drive-throughs you pretend to work at,’ Su said, referencing Trump’s Sunday visit to a Philadelphia McDonald’s where he served fries and answered questions through the drive-through window. Su was joined by Sara Nelson, the president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO to discuss the future of the American Labor Movement. Brett Story and Stephen Maing, directors of ‘UNION’—a documentary film that followed the unionization of Amazon workers in Staten Island, New York—were also on the panel.”
Prominent Black Union Leaders Warn About Trump’s Project 2025 Platform: “Two prominent Black union leaders, Communications Workers President Claude Cummings and James Curbeam, chairman of the Teamsters Black Caucus, are warning African-American voters—and everyone else–about the threat of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, and specifically about his platform, Project 2025. Their cautions were part of a wide-ranging discussion of that tome, created by the radical right Heritage Foundation, an ideological think tank which hates workers, women, LGBT people and people of color, among others. A former Trump regime official led the project and others of his ilk, plus GOP President Ronald Reagan’s Attorney General, Edwin Meese, populated it with their recommendations.”
AFL-CIO Reports Huge Groundswell, Lead for Harris Among Unionists: “From constant contact with its large ground game of activists and canvassers, the AFL-CIO reports a huge groundswell and a large lead for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris among unionists and their families. But unionists will keep pounding the pavements, making the phone calls, and distributing union literature about kitchen-table issues, federation President Liz Shuler said in an hour-and-a-half press conference on October 18, discussing election prospects and issues that move voters. That’s because, as Shuler said, unionists and their families make up a fifth of the electorate in the key swing states of Arizona, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, and Wisconsin. ‘We have [Republican nominee Donald] Trump at around 19% and Harris at around 64% in our field numbers, with the rest undecided,’ Shuler said near the end of the discussion. ‘But we’re still talking to every member.”
AFSCME Members Rally to Warn Voters About Trump’s Anti-Worker Project 2025: “AFSCME members rallied here on Oct. 5 to sound the alarm on Project 2025, Donald Trump’s extremist plan to undermine critical public services and roll back the freedoms of working people and retirees. In front of a giant shredding truck, hundreds of members of AFSCME, the Arizona AFL-CIO and National Nurses United (NNU) joined local elected officials and others to detail how Trump’s Project 2025 would ‘shred’ Arizonans’ freedoms, crush unions, eliminate overtime protections, repeal the $35 cap on insulin for seniors, and end negotiations for lower prescription drug prices. Members tore apart signs that read, ‘Medicare,’ ‘Lower Prescription Drug Costs’ and ‘Freedom to Retire with Dignity’ to illustrate how Trump’s anti-worker agenda threatens the issues we care about most. ‘You’ve heard what Project 2025 is all about and make no mistake about it, they will do it if they are victorious in November,’ said AFSCME President Lee Saunders. ‘But the Labor Movement stands in their way. And we’re going to do what we do best…we communicate, we connect, and we educate and mobilize and organize!’”
‘Almost All Worker Protections You Can Think of Are Threatened’: Donald Trump’s Potential Second Presidency Could Catastrophically Doom Laborers’ Rights: “Attorney Brian Petruska warned The Huffington Post that a second Donald Trump presidency could deal a devastating blow to workers’ rights and labor protections in the United States: ‘The changes—not to engage in hyperbole—are potentially catastrophic. Almost all worker protections you can think of are threatened.’ ‘We’re looking at going back to pre-1930s labor law in this country,’ claimed Petruska, an attorney for the Laborers’ International Union of North America. ‘I’m not exaggerating. That’s literally what’s happening.’”
Omni Hotel Workers in Boston Vote to Ratify New Contract, Will Return to Work Monday: “After months of negotiations with Omni hotels and about a week of over 600 workers on strike in Boston, the union unanimously approved a tentative contract agreement Sunday to send those employees back to work Monday morning. The tentative agreement was reached late Friday night and ratified Sunday afternoon. The president of UNITE HERE Local 26 says it's a historic contract—the best they've ever had—and now they're celebrating.”