AFL-CIO urges members not to buy into Trump
Labor federation recognizes that workers are frustrated and launches campaign to try to keep them from voting in anger
The nation’s industrial labor unions, led by the AFL-CIO, are beginning a major grass-roots effort to target members who are thinking of supporting presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
The nation’s largest labor federation wants to be a bulwark against the real estate billionaire in Rust Belt battlegrounds that could pave his path to the White House.
The campaign, which ramps up this week and next, will include digital ad buys, door knocking and phone banking and is likely to reach 5 million to 6 million voters in key swing states, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in an interview.
Many of the white, workingclass voters Trump targets with his fiery, populist rhetoric about unfair trade agreements and Chinese competition are among the federation’s 12.5 million rank-and-file members.
His message is a marked departure from traditional Republican standard-bearers, creating an opening with a critical Democratic Party constituency. The trade issue could be a liability for likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, given her past support of trade deals such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which she has since come out against, and the North American Free Trade Agreement, which her husband signed into law in 1993.
“He’s tapped into the real and understandable frustration that’s felt among working people,” Trumka said of the New York real estate mogul. Even so, “when you look at his policies, he’s doubling down on all the policies that have gotten us here,” he said, such as his tax plan and previous comments that wages are too high.
“He’s a house of cards, and when we educate our members, the house of cards comes crashing down,” Trumka said.
For the first time, the AFLCIO is using social media algorithms, as well as internal modeling, to identify Trump voters and potential sympathizers, he said.
The AFL-CIO and other major U.S. industrial unions, including the Teamsters and United Steelworkers, have largely remained neutral in the 2016 race amid a protracted Democratic primary battle, though on Wednesday, the UAW announced its endorsement of Clinton. Although a number of these groups have been critical of Clinton’s positions on trade, they are not hesitating to go after Trump. United Steelworkers spokesman Gary Hubbard said, “You can put us into the ‘ Stop Trump’ union crew.”
Clinton begins her general election campaign outreach to unions this week, peeling away from California, which will hold its primary June 7, to speak to union audiences in Michigan and Nevada.
Trump’s campaign bets he can extend the Republican Party’s advantage with Southern working-class whites, who supported Republican Mitt Romney in 2012, to the industrial North and Midwest. Internal union surveys show the potential threat Clinton faces in these regions.
A survey in February of Wisconsin voters conducted for the Alliance for American Manufacturing found Clinton has a 58% favorable rating among all union households. Among manufacturing households that populate the Rust Belt, the number drops to 29%, 10 points below Trump.
A digital ad released this week targeting members in three battleground states highlights Trump’s comments in a Republican debate that U.S. wages are too high. The effort will expand next week with additional ads in five states — Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Florida and Nevada — that “tell the real story of Donald Trump” through the words of actual workers, according to the AFL.
“When you look at his policies, he’s doubling down on all the policies that have gotten us here.” Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO president