For generations, it was practically a given that labor unions would support Democratic candidates. But that’s no longer the case.
In the decade since Donald Trump burst onto the political scene, organized labor has suddenly become a political wildcard. Teamsters president Sean O’Brien voiced disappointment with Democrats in an interview with podcaster Theo Von, saying the union hasn’t gotten “a return on our investment.”
“We want to be like big business. We make an investment, we want a return,” he said. “And that return with these politicians are supporting our issues. That’s gonna protect jobs and promote unionization throughout the whole country. And they've let us down.”
Suresh Naidu is a labor economist and professor of public affairs at Columbia University, where he studies labor unions and their political involvement. He joined KNX News’ daily political show Countdown 2024 to explain what’s happening.
Listen here:
“I think this is not just Donald Trump, to be honest,” he said. “I think there's like a long trend of the relatively educated favoring the Democratic Party, and insofar as unions have traditionally represented people with less than a college degree, that divergence has just kind of been reflected inside the labor movement.”
He said there’s historically always been discussion inside the labor movement about whether to be loyal Democrats or work with whatever party would advance their interests – and in recent decades, the Democratic Party may have been taking their support for granted.
“I don't think the Republican Party is going to do anything economically for union members or people like union members,” Naidu said. “But I also think the Democratic Party has not done anything for union members, you know, at least since the ‘70s. Through all the Democratic presidencies of the last 50 years, we've never gotten labor law reform.”
While Naidu credited Biden for doing “more for unions than any president in a very long time,” he said it’s not enough to make up for the party’s generation-long abandonment of labor.
So what would be enough?
“As a pitch, I would ask for cabinet and very high-ups in the Democratic Party and in the policy positions to come from the ranks of labor, and come from people without a college degree, having real kind of, you know, access to having a seat at the table,” Naidu said. "Until the Democrats can really kind of do that, I'm sort of not sure they'll be able to really point to people, say to people with less than college, we're representing your interests.”
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Listen to the full episode above for a conversation with Will Rollins, a former prosecutor running against Republican Congressman Ken Calvert in Riverside County. Catch new episodes of Countdown 2024 live at 2:30 p.m. every weekday through Election Day.
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