Many people failed to realize that Donald Trump has a long, ugly history of making anti-worker and anti-union statements. 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:
Trump actually said that 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.
Trump suggested that 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”.
Trump praised the 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.’”
Trump tried to portray himself as a regular worker by donning an apron for a photo op at a McDonald’s in 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 he always wanted to be a McDonald’s worker. “I’ve always wanted to work at McDonald’s, but I never did.”
Trump insulted the nation’s factory workers by saying their jobs are such a cinch that children can do them. By saying that, 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.”
Trump said he 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.”
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 them 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.”
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 at 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.”
Trump lied to 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.”
Trump actually told union 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.”
Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author, focusing on labour and the workplace
