The Journal. - Trump Courts the Union Vote

Episode Date: July 16, 2024

Last night at the Republican National Convention, Sean O’Brien, the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, spoke. O’Brien was the first Teamsters president to ever speak at an RNC and his presence represents a shift in union voters away from the Democratic Party. WSJ’s Paul Kiernan reports on why some union voters are interested in voting for former President Trump this election. Further Listening: -‘We’ll Strike All Three’: The UAW’s Historic Walkout  Further Reading: -For Embattled Biden, Union Members Aren’t the Reliable Support They Used to Be  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The theme last night at the Republican National Convention was Make America Wealthy Once Again. I was there on the floor, and the crowd was hyped. One of the main speakers of the night was Sean O'Brien. I'm Sean O'Brien, general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. And O'Brien's presence at the RNC was kind of a big deal. He was the first president of the Teamsters to ever address the Republican convention. O'Brien's union is one of the country's largest, with over one million members, including warehouse, freight, and parcel workers.

Never forget, American workers own this nation. We are not renters. We are not tenants. But the corporate elite treat us like squatters, and that is a crime. In his speech, O'Brien criticized the Chamber of Commerce and attacked what he called gigantic multinational corporations. We need corporate welfare reform. Under our current system, massive companies like Amazon, Uber, Lyft, and Walmart take zero responsibilities for the workers they employ.

This is not exactly what you expect to hear at the Republican National Convention. The party has been long tied to pro-business and pro-markets policies. But O'Brien was invited to speak by former President Trump. To be frank, when President Trump invited me to speak at this convention, there was political unrest on the left and on the right. Hard to believe. The Teamsters had endorsed Biden in 2020, Hillary Clinton in 2016, and Barack Obama in the two presidential elections before that.

But this year, not only was the union's president speaking at the Republican convention, but the Teamsters haven't yet endorsed a presidential candidate. And in key swing states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, support from a key constituency like union voters could decide the whole election. Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Jessica Mendoza reporting from Milwaukee. It's Tuesday, July 16th. Coming up on the show, why some union members are shifting to Trump's Republican Party. I'm Scarlett Johansson.

My family relied on public assistance to help provide meals for us. These meals help fuel my love for acting. When people are fed, futures are nourished. Join the movement to end hunger at feedingamerica.org slash act now. Brought to you by Feeding America and the Ad Council. Former President Donald Trump's RNC invitation to the Teamsters president shows that he's actively courting union voters. That constituency

has long been a dependable voting block for the Democrats and for Joe Biden specifically. Here's Biden just earlier this month. Remember how I got so roundly criticized for being so pro-union, not labor, union, union. Well, guess what? I've been the most pro-union labor president in history.

Not a joke. And guess what? We had the Treasury Department do a study. When unions do better, everybody does better. Everybody does better. Last fall, Biden was the first president to ever walk in a picket line when the United Auto Workers went on strike in Detroit. Stick with it because you deserve the significant raise you need and other benefits. While in office, Biden signed into law policies like the American Rescue Plan

and the Inflation Reduction Act, both of which aim to create union jobs and provide pensions for retired workers. Our colleague Paul Kiernan has been following Biden's efforts to keep union voters. President Biden has been working really hard to drum up interest and enthusiasm and support from unions. The AFL-CIO, which represents something like 12.5 million workers, say they endorsed President Biden earlier than they had ever endorsed a presidential candidate. The United Auto Workers also endorsed President Biden pretty early on. And also, you know, the unions are spending a lot of money

to try to mobilize their members and get them to vote for Biden. Unions represent a broad swath of people, including teachers, service workers, government employees, and the Teamsters. But they regularly endorse Democrats. The largest five all endorsed Biden in 2020. But for years, even as union leaders continue to hold steadfast to Democrats, some rank-and-file members aren't convinced the party is representing their interests. So what are the issues that they're worried about right now? So the people that I talk to, just, they say that they don't see that, despite sort of the things that Biden's done, I mean, they write it off as optics. They don't really believe that Democrats stand with the working class economically,

you know, in part because of sort of the positions on trade and immigration that prevailed before Trump was elected in 2016. In 2016, Hillary Clinton was associated with NAFTA and free trade, policies her husband had promoted in the 1990s. And Democratic policies are more pro-immigration, which some union members believe have hurt their wages and job prospects. But the move away from the Democrats is about more than just economic issues. Some union members are also more socially conservative and don't connect with the Democratic messaging on LGBTQ and racial issues. A lot of what's going on is cultural. You know, there's and this is really kind of where the gulf has widened between the Democratic Party and the working class writ large.

You know, there's issues like, I mean, obviously immigration, but there's also, you know, guns and sexuality and gender and race. Climate change is not something that motivates, that seems to motivate, you know, at least some, you know, working class union factory workers that I spoke with. Those shifts are showing up in the polling, which suggests that Biden may not be on track to get the kind of union support he did in the last election. So in 2020, nationwide, President Biden carried union households, which are households with at least one person who's a member of a union, Biden carried union households by a 14-point margin, according to exit polling.

The most recent poll I was able to find was by Emerson College. So in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, union households favored Biden over Trump by five percentage points, 49% to 44%. So that is a much narrower margin than Biden won in 2020. And it's definitely something he's probably going to want to improve on going into November. One reason for that shift is Trump's rhetoric.

I put everything on the line to fight for you. I've risked it all to defend the working class. That's next. I'm Scarlett Johansson. My family relied on public assistance to help provide meals for us. These meals help fuel my love for acting. When people are fed, futures are nourished. Join the movement to end hunger at feedingamerica.org slash act now.

Brought to you by Feeding America and the Ad Council. Last night, Teamster President Sean O'Brien praised President Trump. Now, you can have whatever opinion you want, but one thing is clear. President Trump is a candidate who is not afraid of hearing from new, loud, and often critical voices. from new, loud, and often critical voices. And I think we all can agree, whether people like him or they don't like him, in light of what happened to him on Saturday, he has proven to be one tough SOB.

The Teamsters have not endorsed any candidate. And O'Brien's message was clear. His union is not bound to any political party. Working people have no chance of winning this fight. That's why I'm here today. Because I refuse to keep doing the same things my predecessors did. Today, today the Team teachers are here to say we are not beholden to anyone or any party. I was on the convention floor, surrounded by the state delegations. I watched the audience,

looking to see how attendees would react. Many in the audience cheered whenever O'Brien spoke about standing up for workers and the rise in cost of living. But whenever O'Brien brought up other union talking points, like going after corporations or banding together to negotiate better contracts from employers, the reaction was more subdued. We heard one person in the audience heckling O'Brien, calling out free enterprise repeatedly. After O'Brien wrapped up his speech, we caught up with John Blake. He was at the convention as an alternate delegate. He says he's a lifelong Republican and union man from Daphne, Alabama. He spent 31 years working in a shipyard. I am tickled to see the union leadership opening their minds and looking at the Republican Party

because the Republican Party of today is not the Republican Party of 20 years ago. The Republican Party today is looking at the working men. They're looking at the families. They know that we have to have strong families and we have a strong nation. We have to have strong infrastructure in order to be a strong country. And the Republican Party today is looking at those things. They're saying... John also pointed to social issues as one of the reasons he thinks union members should move to the Republican Party.

He specifically referenced corporate policies around diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI. They're looking at, oh, we've got to be politically correct. We've got to be DEI and all this bullcrap. That is not the way the Republican Party... Republicans tend to be pragmatic. I mean, we look at the next generation and say, what do we have to do to make life better for them? John says he's not surprised that more union members

are looking to the Republican Party. Actually, it surprised me that no one's noticed it sooner. It surprised me because I know when I went to work at the shipyard, guys were like, I'm Republican, I'm Republican. It was only the top tier that was the Democrats. But the guy on the front lines who is doing the work and sweating is saying, hey, this isn't getting me anywhere. Although some people I spoke to in the crowd didn't agree with everything Sean O'Brien said in his speech, he was welcomed. Here's Robert Axson, chairman of the Utah Republican Party.

Here's Robert Axson, chairman of the Utah Republican Party. That's okay. The Republican Party and its platform and principles has elements that will create a positive future for all Americans. And so if there's something that he had to say that was engaging to folks that come from the labor community, that's fantastic. I'm glad that they heard that. It doesn't mean that the party platform has to match up exactly with what he had to say. There were certainly some things that weren't my opinion and that I don't agree with. But again, that's OK. We are a big enough party for a lot of diverse perspectives. And this country is filled with people.

The official Republican platform released ahead of the convention doesn't mention unions. of the convention doesn't mention unions, but it says the party must, quote, return to its roots as the party of industry, manufacturing, infrastructure, and workers. The platform also focuses one chapter on protecting American workers, which talks about saving the American auto industry, banning companies from outsourcing jobs, and supporting manufacturing in the U.S. Paul says that the shift towards these more populist policies have been one of Trump's biggest influences on the GOP. Trump was the first one, I think, in 2016 to come in and, like, kind of break that paradigm and challenge free trade and really challenge China directly.

And a lot of the union voters who plan to support Trump that I spoke with cited that. And, you know, Trump very clearly and colorfully rails against immigration and immigrants and, you know, talks about deporting millions of people if he gets elected. And he claims that policies like that would help workers. You know, he wants to put a, he said over and over during the campaign that he wants to impose a 10% like across the board tariff on imported goods. So while I would say he stops short of espousing pro-union or pro-labor policies in the sense that Democrats have for decades, he does make the case that his economic vision would be better for the working class. What is Trump's record from

his first term? Did he do things that benefited unions? Look, until the pandemic under Trump, the U.S. economy was pretty strong. Unemployment was near historic lows. Inflation was, if anything, a little bit too low. Lots of jobs were being created. Wages were going up. It was strong, but not overheated. And a rising tide lifts all boats. The pandemic disrupted all of that and created these supply chain glitches and labor shortages that economists think are largely responsible for the bout of inflation that we saw in 2022 and 2023. During the Trump administration, his appointments to the National Labor Relations Board ruled against unions and collective bargaining, more so than the previous administration.

That's according to one analysis by a think tank. And Trump has endorsed right-to-work policies. Right-to-work gives workers the choice to join a labor union or not, even if their company is unionized. Unions oppose these policies and say they undermine their ability to negotiate. It seems like that's kind of creating an opening for the Republican Party to come in and sort of make the case that, no, we're the pro-labor party. We're going to be good for unions. Is that an accurate analysis? I think they're stopping short of saying we're going to be good for unions. They're saying that we're going to be good for workers.

Trump is saying that Biden caused high inflation, you know, and has been bad for workers. Despite the Republican Party's complicated relationship with organized labor, some RNC attendees see Trump's decision to open the doors to unions as a long time coming. It's about time. It's about time. That's Adrienne Wright, a delegate from Illinois and a former member of a caregiver's union in Chicago. I think that the Democrat Party has taken the Teamsters for granted. And this new president and leader of the Teamsters, he got up there and told them, no, because when you look at the numbers, when you look at the economy, when you look at his middle

class workers, he said, we can't keep doing the same thing. We can't keep beholding to one party when our members see what the party does not do for them and how they have taken the members, the union's support for granted. Paul says that last night's speech by the Teamster president reflects a splintering union vote, which could be a big problem for the Biden campaign. For decades, Democrats could rely on union members, including factory workers in the Northeast and the Upper Midwest and these blue wall states, to turn out and vote for Democratic candidates come election time.

It was one of their big winning strategies for decades. But what we've seen from exit polling is that their advantage with this constituency seems to be narrowing. And in a place like Michigan or Pennsylvania or Wisconsin, where a few tens of thousands or maybe even a few thousand votes could determine the outcome

of the election. This is really consequential. It could be the difference between Biden winning and Biden losing. That's all for today, Tuesday, July 16th. The Journal is a co-production of Spotify and The Wall Street Journal. Additional reporting by Enrique Perez de la Rosa. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.