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TRUMP IS ANTI-WORKER. HERE ARE 10 OF HIS MOST SHOCKING ANTI-WORKER
STATEMENTS  
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Steven Greenhouse
October 23, 2024
The Guardian
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_ The former president actually said that the wages of US workers are
‘too high’. And that’s far from the worst _

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Many people failed to realize that Donald Trump
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history of making anti-worker and anti-union
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He has at times insulted workers, saying their wages are too high,
saying their work is so easy that a child can do it. The former US
president has also sought to sabotage labor by saying union members
shouldn’t pay their dues and successful union leaders should be
fired. Trump has also sought to trick workers by making
wonderful-sounding promises that he couldn’t possibly make good on.

Below are Trump’s 10 most shocking anti-worker and anti-union
statements:

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Trump actually said
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the wages of US workers are “too high”. He insulted the nation’s
workers by insisting their pay is too high because from Trump’s
billionaire, pro-business viewpoint, that makes it too hard for US
companies to compete. Trump said that workers’ pay was too high even
though corporate profits and the stock market were booming at the
time.

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Trump suggested
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automakers in the midwest move some operations to the south so that
they could reduce their workers’ wages – the last thing that
workers want. “You can go to different parts of the United
States.” Trump said that after the auto industry in the midwest
“loses a couple of plants – all of sudden you’ll make good deals
[to lower workers’ wages] in your own area”.

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Trump praised
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idea of firing workers who are on strike, even though that is illegal
under federal law. In a conversation with his billionaire campaign
supporter Elon Musk, Trump applauded the idea of corporations telling
their striking workers: “You’re all gone.” “You’re the
greatest cutter,” Trump told Musk. “I look at what you do. You
walk in and say: ‘You want to quit?’ I won’t mention the name of
the company, but they go on strike and you say: ‘That’s OK.
You’re all gone.’”

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Trump tried to portray himself as a regular worker by donning an apron
for a photo op at a McDonald’s
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Pennsylvania, but the fact is, Trump has never been a worker and has
always been an owner. As an owner, he has always had management’s
interest at heart, particularly when it comes to workers. If Trump
really wanted to be a worker, rather than an owner, he certainly could
have been. Trump, who always wanted to be a billionaire and be in
glitzy headlines, insults workers’ intelligence when says
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always wanted to be a McDonald’s worker. “I’ve always wanted to
work at McDonald’s, but I never did.”

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Trump insulted the nation’s factory workers by saying their jobs are
such a cinch that children can do them. By saying
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he showed he has very little understanding of blue-collar jobs and how
hard, exhausting and sometimes dangerous they are. In a recent speech
to the Economic Club of Chicago, Trump talked about auto assembly
plant jobs as if they’re as simple as a child assembling Lego.
“They [workers] don’t build cars. They take’em out of a box, and
they assemble’em. We could have our child do it.”

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Trump said
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hates overtime pay. In a speech last month in Pennsylvania, he
revealed how stingy he is toward workers by saying he tried to
minimize what he paid his workers by always making sure he avoided
paying time-and-a-half overtime pay. “I hated to give overtime. I
hated it. I shouldn’t say this, but I’d get other people in. I
wouldn’t pay. I hated it.”

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To win support from workers, Trump, after driving past several closed
factories and steel mills in Ohio, made a marvelous promise. He
sounded like the pied piper when he told thousands of workers in
Youngstown that all of Ohio’s lost factory jobs would be coming back
with him as president. Trump even told Ohio workers not to
move, promising
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that the jobs would come back. But the truth is that hardly any of
those factory jobs came back. Indeed, General Motors closed its giant
assembly plant in nearby Lordstown not long after Trump gave his
Youngstown speech. “Those jobs have left Ohio. They’re all coming
back. They’re all coming back. “Don’t move. Don’t sell your
house.”

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Shawn Fain, the president of the United Auto Workers (UAW), is one of
the country’s most successful and respected union leaders. Fain led
a major strike last fall that won 25% raises from GM, Ford and
Stellantis/Chrysler and the restoration of cost-of-living adjustments,
plus 68% raises for new workers. Despite Fain’s huge successes,
Trump said
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the Republican convention that Fain should be “fired immediately”.
Why in the world was a presidential candidate saying that such a
respected, inspiring union leader should be fired? That’s improper
interference in union affairs, and what Trump was calling for would
seriously hurt the UAW’s huge momentum and successes. “The leader
of the United Auto Workers should be fired immediately.”

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Trump lied
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the country’s workers and insulted their intelligence when he said
he always paid contractors and workers on time and what they’re
supposed to be paid. Before he became president, he was notorious for
paying construction contractors and workers late and for refusing to
pay them the amount he had promised to pay; sometimes he would pay
tens of thousands of dollars less than he was contracted to pay.
Hundreds of contractors and workers had sued Trump after he failed to
pay them or after he insisted on paying them far less than what the
contract called for. “We pay everybody what they’re supposed to be
paid, and we pay everybody on time.”

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Trump actually told
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members that they shouldn’t pay their union dues. By saying this,
Trump was essentially seeking to sabotage the country’s labor
unions. If workers refuse to pay their union dues, that would greatly
weaken unions and their ability to fight for higher wages, better
benefits, improved working conditions. Profit-maximizing corporations
would love it if workers stopped paying their union dues and that
undermined unions’ ability to battle for better things for workers.
“I’m telling you, you shouldn’t pay those dues.”

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_Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author, focusing on labour and
the workplace_

* workers
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* Donald Trump
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* Attacks on Labor
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