Democrats, labor unions need each other

The nation’s labor unions are positioned to be key players this election, with the power to deliver several battleground states to Democrats — if they don’t blow it.

Unions are most effective when they are both highly motivated and unified. Organized labor was splintered in the past two presidential election cycles, with Donald Trump peeling union support away from Hillary Clinton in 2016, and to a lesser extent from Joe Biden in 2020.

Some 2.7 million union members live in the half-dozen or so swing states that could determine the outcome in November. That makes them potentially the single most powerful voting bloc that also knows how to organize, and how to be a force multiplier in what’s expected to be a tight race.

Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, aren’t taking anything for granted. They recognize they must strengthen this coalition if they want to win in states such as Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. In the few weeks since Harris replaced Biden at the top of the ticket, her campaign has moved quickly to solidify the support of not only labor leaders but of rank-and-file members.

Unions are the OG political organizers and Democrats can capitalize on that. What newbies at the Democratic National Convention were learning about canvassing, messaging, phone-banking and GOTV (get out the vote) efforts, unions have been doing for decades. “It’s in our DNA to do this,” said one union delegate in Chicago.

Union members see one of their own in Walz, who spent many years as a card-carrying, union-dues-paying high school teacher. At a recent rally in Detroit to fire up members of the United Auto Workers, Walz leaned into that “I’m one of you” vibe, telling the crowd, “We know unions built the middle class” and adding, “the rest of America has to.”

Unions’ enthusiasm for the Harris/Walz ticket has helped build a wave of support that includes some of the movement’s biggest players, including the AFL-CIO; Service Employees International Union, the nation’s largest private-sector union; the American Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents a large share of government workers.

SEIU is already preparing to reach 6 million voters of color in battleground states, while other organizations are planning their own ground games.

“I don’t think we’ve ever had a Democrat on the ticket who was a union member,” said Quentin Wathun-Ocama, an academic support teacher from St. Paul, Minn. “This is an absolute game changer for us as union members.”

Ironically, the last former union member on a presidential ticket in modern history was Ronald Reagan, who once led the Screen Actors Guild.

Trump is again hoping to connect with union workers as he did in 2016 and 2020. Knowing that the Teamsters supported Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020, Trump offered Teamsters President Sean O’Brien a prime speaking spot at the Republican National Convention in July, making him the first union member to address the gathering.

O’Brien happily took the bait. He called Trump an “ally for the working class,” attacked corporate greed, and demanded stronger labor laws — to the astonishment of MAGA delegates in the audience.

However, true to form, within weeks Trump revealed his true self, praising Elon Musk for suggesting he would fire workers who dared to strike. A chastened O’Brien denounced Trump’s comments, labeling them “economic terrorism” and noted that his union hadn’t made its formal endorsement yet.

In 2016, when Trump’s faux populism schtick was still fresh, he drew in union members who were disenchanted with Clinton. He talked of the trillion-dollar infrastructure bill that would put them all back to work, the crackdown on immigration that would free up still more jobs, and the plants he would make sure stayed open.

None of that ever happened. Once in office, Trump appointees to the National Labor Relations Board delivered major setbacks to unions. The former president rolled back wage protections and upped the ceiling for mandatory overtime pay so that fewer low-wage workers would qualify.

In 2020, the North America’s Building Trades Unions, an alliance of 14 unions representing 3 million construction professionals, endorsed Biden, but their members were split down the middle across the swing states. An internal poll at the time showed 48% of rank-and-file members supported Biden, while 47% opted for Trump. Ironically, it would be Biden who finally delivered a massive infrastructure bill, brought back manufacturing jobs and even walked a picket line in support of unions.

Union members should not allow themselves to be deceived by Trump again. But their leaders acknowledge that even with his track record, Trump’s allure for some is strong. “He’s been very effective at messaging working-class people,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler told Politico recently, particularly on unfair trade policies and offshored jobs.

But the reality is Trump’s return to the White House would have devastating consequences for union workers.

Proposals in Project 2025, a blueprint for a second term, talk about eliminating public-sector unions, rolling back child labor laws, and overall weakening of organized labor. Trump has tried to distance himself from the plan, but even his own stated goals for a second term include killing basic union protections such as tenure for teachers.

Organized labor needs this ticket. And Harris and Walz will need every piece of the labor coalition in place to have a margin of victory that can withstand the legal challenges that are sure to come after the election.

Patricia Lopez is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion.