*Abraham Lincoln declared
<http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=29502>**: *“Labor is prior to
and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, **
**and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is
the superior of capital, and deserves **
**much the higher consideration.”*
*
Back in the 1950s, when Republicans such as Dwight Eisenhower actually
fought for a robust and fair economy, the partypromised
<http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=25838>to “clarify and strengthen
the eight-hour laws for the benefit of workers who are subject to
federal wage standards on Federal and Federally-assisted construction,
and maintain and continue the vigorous administration of the Federal
prevailing minimum wage law for public supply contracts” and to “extend
the protection of the Federal minimum wage laws to as many more workers
as is possible and practicable.” *The 1956 Republican
platform****pledged
<http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=25838>****“to protect more
effectively the rights of labor unions” and announced that “The
protection of the right of workers to organize into unions and to
bargain collectively is the firm and permanent policy of the Eisenhower
Administration.”*
*This year’s Republican****platform
<https://www.gop.com/platform/>****is dismissive of the federal minimum
wage, declaring (in a stance****similar
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/08/03/a-guide-to-all-of-donald-trumps-flip-flops-on-the-minimum-wage/>****to
the one Trump appears to have evolved toward) that decisions about base
hourly wages “should be handled at the state and local level.” It
endorses the anti-union “right-to-work” laws enacted by Republican
governors such as Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, and calls for taking the
anti-union crusade national with a proposal “**for a national law
<http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/after-obama-gop-platform-moves-right-on-labor-issues/article/2597172>**”
along “right-to-work” lines. The 2016 GOP platform also attacks the use
of the Fair Labor Standard Act to protect workers; rips the use of
Project Labor Agreements to raise wages and improve working conditions;
and proposes to gut the 85-year-old Davis-Bacon Act, which guarantees
“prevailing wage” pay for workers on federal projects.*
At campaign stops in swing states such as Ohio, Trumptries to portray
himself
<http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/donald-trump-carrier-corp-union-indiana-213862>as
a champion of workers. Yet he sends conflicting and frequently
wrongheaded signals on issues ranging from wages (going so far as
toclaim that
<http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/donald-trump-wages-215812> he
didn’t say wages are “too high”—despite the videos of himgriping
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRmi28fjNOs>to a GOP debate audience,
“Taxes too high, wages too high, we’re not going to be able to compete
against the world”) to trade policy (while the Republican nominee says
he would negotiate better deals, he still does not seem to recognize
that it is the “race-to-the-bottom” mentality offree-trade advocates
<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/29/so-called-free-trade-policies-hurt-us-workers-every-time-we-pass-them>that
harms workers and communities). Trump’s decision to makefiercely
anti-union
<http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/morning-shift/2016/07/pence-on-labor-four-house-dems-attack-ot-rule-the-future-of-the-persuader-rule-215354>Indiana
Governor Mike Pence his running mate should be read as another signal
that the Republican presidential nominee is prepared to steer federal
policy making toward thedisastrous approaches
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-mark-pocan/who-benefits-from-strong_b_11831706.html>of
dogmatic governors such as Pence and Wisconsin’s
Walker.<http://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=%E2%80%9COnly+a+handful+of+unreconstructed+reactionaries+harbor+the+ugly+thought+of+breaking+unions.%22+%E2%80%94Dwight+Eisenhower%20http://bit.ly/2c7Eg3w>
*Dwight Eisenhower****warned
<https://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/all_about_ike/quotes.html#labor>**,
as a Republican president, about politicians “who hold some foolish
dream of spinning the clock back to days when unorganized labor was a
huddled, almost helpless mass.”*
https://www.thenation.com/article/donald-trump-is-the-anti-labor-day-candidate-running-against-fair-wages-worker-rights-and-unions/
On 10/24/2016 1:40 PM, Ron Ristad wrote:
A man cannot serve two masters. Who does he owe his loyalty when it's a choice between his union, himself and his family, and his country?
This is probably not the best example to use but one of the things Hitler had against Jews was that the Bolsheviks organized worker's strikes during WWI which was one of the reasons why Germany lost the war. You can't argue with that.
Union workers are faced with a dilemna. Trump wants to make America great again for all Americans. It should be no surprise to anybody that businessman like Trump are not supportive of unions. That's just the way it is. Unions and businesses compete with each other for business profits. But without businesses there would be no unions. That in fact is exactly what has been taking place in America for the past several decades.
The reality is that it makes no difference to the future of unions who is elected. It will however determine the future of the country.
-RR
