Bill and Jane talk about the election

Two union members – let’s call them Bill and Jane – belong to the same local.

Their union endorsed Kamala Harris. Jane plans to vote for Harris. Bill is leaning toward Donald Trump.

“Did you see that photo of Joe Biden holding up a ‘It’s better in a UNION’ tee shirt?” Jane asks Bill. “It was in one of the AFL-CIO’s Daily Briefs that are emailed to me. He’d gone to the Port of Baltimore to announce a big $3 billion investment from the Inflation Reduction Act to upgrade and electrify the port’s infrastructure and support creating more union jobs. Have you noticed how Biden and Harris always talk about creating ‘good union jobs’ and Trump and Vance just say ‘jobs?’”

“Trump’s for the unions,” Bill harrumphs.

Jane smiles. “If that’s true, why is ‘Union Joe’ Biden’s nickname?”

Bill frowns.

“Let’s compare the union records of Biden, Harris and Walz with Trump and Vance’s record on unions,” Jane proposes.

She explains, “Trump is pro-’right to work’ and anti-PRO Act. Trump promised to veto the PRO Act. JD Vance is against the PRO Act, too. Biden, Harris and Walz oppose RTW, and they support the PRO Act 100 percent. But don’t take my word for it. Look it up yourself.”

Bill grunts.

“Bill, remember when Joe Biden became the first president in history to walk a picket line last year during the UAW strike? Harris walked a picket line, too, when she was a senator. Trump crossed an IATSE picket line in 2004 when he hosted The Apprentice. Vance crossed a NewsGuild-CWA picket line just the other day.”

Mum’s the word from Bill.

(Author’s note: Last year, Vance, who has one of the worst labor voting records in the Senate, visited a UAW picket line in Ohio trying “to demonstrate his support for the automobile workers’ strike,” wrote Hafiz Rashid in The New Republic. “In reality, Vance was making a blatant political move while retaining policies that hurt autoworkers.” Vance recently crossed a NewsGuild-CWA picket line at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to get an op-ed piece in the paper. Rashid quoted NewsGuild-CWA President John Schleuss, who told HuffPost, “JD Vance has crossed a very obvious picket line by striking Americans. And JD Vance is a scab just like anybody else who crosses a picket line.”)

Jane continues, “Bill, I could say a lot more, but I’ll leave you with one more thing: If Donald Trump is so pro-worker, why did he belittle every auto worker in the county, union and non-union, by saying that workers at a Mercedes Benz plant don’t really make cars – they just take parts made in Germany and put them together? He said it was so easy even a kid could do it.”

“Okay, you’ve given me a lot to think about,” Bill admits. They shake hands amicably as a union brother and sister and part company.

::

Polls show there are real Janes and Bills in unions. Others are undecideds. Pennsylvanian Ryan Sanders was one of the latter.

President of the Erie (Pa.) Crawford Central Labor Council, MSNBC featured him earlier this month. He has since decided to vote for the Harris-Walz ticket, according to Capital & Main, a California-based online investigative news site.

“Sanders is just one Pennsylvania voter, but he represents a key constituency that former President Donald Trump and Vice President Harris are both vying for: union members,” wrote Kalena Thomhave in Capital & Main. (She’s an American Prospect writing fellow.)

“Sanders identifies as a moderate but leans conservative. Typical of many swing voters, he is troubled by Trump’s temperament. But last month, he said he was unfamiliar enough with Harris to have felt hesitant about supporting her. Union leaders typically support Democrats. But Sanders is new to leadership and labor: As an apprentice, he was elected Central Labor Council president in April.”

What made him jump off the fence for the AFL-CIO endorsed Democrats?

“Sanders said that seeing the labor movement mobilize behind Harris, along with discussions within his own Sheet Metal Workers Local 12, helped solidify his support for her,” Thomhave wrote. “He also credits Harris’s appearance on Fox News as a factor in his decision,” Thomhave wrote. (You can bet the Fox folks would hate to hear that.)

Anyway, she quoted Sanders: “You know, these aren’t my favorite candidates in the whole world. But I support the one that supports me. And to watch the unions mobilize and move behind one candidate? Just to watch it work was spectacular. So if that is what Kamala Harris has behind her? Sweet.”

Sweet indeed.

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