The Electrical Worker online
July 2017

From the Officers
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The Trump Record

Donald Trump was elected on his promises to be a different kind of politician, a different kind of Republican.

He promised to focus on investing in our infrastructure, good middle-class jobs and fighting bad trade deals. He promised to protect and preserve programs like Social Security and Medicare. He promised to make health care a better deal, lowering costs and expanding coverage.

More than anything else, he promised he would take the side of working people.

Promises on the campaign trail are one thing, and many politicians in the past have ridden into office as the champion of the workers, only to walk away once they were in office.

So let's look at the record on issues that matter to you.

In the June issue, we wrote about the safety rules that Trump Republicans have revoked or delayed. Simply put, people will get hurt and sick because of these decisions. People will die because of these decisions. Possibly people in this union, possibly people you know.

Republicans in Congress and President Trump also revoked rules that barred government contractors that violated labor and safety rules from bidding on federal projects. They, in effect, made breaking the law par for the course.

In Trump's budget proposal, Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspection funding is slashed while one of the only parts of the Department of Labor to get a boost is responsible for auditing local unions.

Trump also breaks his commitment to Social Security by slashing disability funding by $64 billion, raiding $59 billion from the Medicare trust fund and cutting nearly $1.5 trillion from Medicaid. He cuts research into workplace safety by 40 percent, health and safety training to zero and ends investigations of chemical accidents.

While Trump has taken pictures of himself with union members, when he sits down to work with Congress, it is uniquely with the enemies of labor who are out to restrict the rights of working families.

Mere days after inauguration, Vice President Mike Pence met with Newt Gingrich and union-busting Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker to discuss bringing the policies that have gutted unions in the Badger state, especially public sector unions, to the federal government and the rest of the country, whether they want it or not.

Once again, a so-called national right-to-work law is making its way through the House of Representatives, drafted by Republicans and co-sponsored by 43 more.

There have been right-to-work states since the '40s, but recently more states have adopted these rules, including Missouri this year. The results have been devastating for working people: lower wages, worse or no benefits, the near extinction of pensions and a silencing of workers.

Our job Is not to evaluate politicians based on who they say they are or what they say they believe. We look at the record. Every new day brings more evidence that Trump isn't what he claimed to be.

 

Also: Cooper: Health Care for Us, by Us Read Cooper's Column


Lonnie R. Stephenson

Lonnie R. Stephenson
International President