When he heads to the polls, longtime Paducah labor activist Larry Sanderson, 78, always remembers what his union-card-carrying father told him.
“He said, ‘Son, never vote for somebody who’s going to break your plate.'”
Louis “Blow Torch” Sanderson’s offspring says Donald Trump is a plate smasher, especially if the plate belongs to a union member. “He has proven time and again that he's not for unions. All you’ve got to do is open your ears.”
The elder Sanderson, who died in 2008 at age 84, was a 60-year member of Paducah Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 184. His son, a retired international representative for the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry of the United States and Canada (UA), has belonged to Local 184 for 59 years.
Sanderson said union members inclined to vote for Trump should “use common sense. Kamala Harris is for the things we are for. She’s for our very existence.
“How many times have you heard politicians tell us behind closed doors that they’re for us? Kamala Harris says right out there in the wide open spaces that she’s for us. She lets the whole world know she’s for unions.”
He urges union members “to listen to the candidates and determine who is going to be your friend, and if you do that, there’s no doubt who your friend is.”
The AFL-CIO, which represents 60 unions, including the UA, is firmly behind the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz ticket.
In a press release announcing the AFL-CIO’s unanimous endorsement of Harris, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in a statement, “From day one, Vice President Kamala Harris has been a true partner in leading the most pro-labor administration in history. At every step in her distinguished career in public office, she’s proven herself a principled and tenacious fighter for working people and a visionary leader we can count on.”
In another press release, Shuler praised Harris’s selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. "Kamala Harris chose a principled fighter and labor champion who will stand up for working people and strengthen this historic ticket. We know that Gov. Walz will be a strong partner in the Harris White House, fighting every day to improve the lives of workers in communities across America. Gov. Walz isn’t only an ally to the labor movement, but also our union brother with a deep commitment to a pro-worker agenda."
Also in a press release, Shuler panned Trump and Ohio Sen. JD Vance, his running mate. "Donald Trump has a miserable record of breaking every promise he’s made to working people — from failing to pay his workers and crossing a picket line to his disastrous four years in the White House. That betrayal would continue if he is re-elected, so it’s no surprise Trump chose a vice president who will be nothing more than a rubber stamp for that anti-worker vision."
Though the polls show a close race with election day looming, Sanderson is confident Harris will win or, as he put it, “she’s going to kick his ass.
“I believe that because I believe most Americans believe in democracy and freedom and don’t want a dictator.”
Sanderson thinks there’s a hidden Harris vote, and he is skeptical of polls that show Trump is making inroads among rank-and-file union members. “A lot of people don’t want you to know who they’re voting for, and they’re going to vote for Kamala Harris because they don’t want a dictator in their country."
Sanderson warned union members that “a vote for Trump is a vote against your own well-being, against putting food on your table, and against putting clothes on your kids’ backs.”
He said if Biden were “still running, I’d be behind him 150 percent. But Kamala Harris is of the same cloth. She believes in unions.”
In other words, according to Sanderson, she won’t break your plate.
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