“I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built, I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work. And the songs that I sing are made up for the most part by all sorts of folks just about like you.” -Woody Guthrie
This Labor Day workers are under assault from the Trump administration on a level nearly comparable to what we are seeing with undocumented migrants. Trump's war on workers doesn’t follow the menacing made-for-Fox News script he’s written for his masked ICE storm troopers, but his policies, grudges and whims that take aim at workers are nonetheless an invisible plague just waiting to fester all at once across the U.S. economy.
“We wanted cheaper groceries and we got tanks in our streets. We wanted affordable health care. We got 16 million Americans who are about to be kicked off their coverage. We wanted jobs you could raise a family on. But that’s not what we got,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler detailed in her pre-Labor Day State of the Unions Address.
“We got more American workers laid off last month than any month since the start of the pandemic,” Shuler declared.
The list of offenses against workers is so long and wide that it leaves little doubt it is the multi-pronged strategy detailed in the notorious Project 2024 playbook, the only bible Trump really follows.
Trump has made dozens of policy decisions that directly reduce workers’ wages and reduce workplace safeguards and his immigration policies have created chaos for undocumented and documented immigrant workers and in some cases their employers. Trump’s taxes on imports, better known as tariffs, get passed on disproportionately to middle class consumers, distressing family budgets and limiting consumer spending that propels two-thirds of the U.S. economy.
“It’s hard to get ahead,” Dave Pinkham, an IBEW Local 520 journeyman electrician from Austin, Texas, told labor leader and organizer Maria Peralta, who served as national political director for the Service Employees International Union.
“I’m 40 years old, and I live paycheck to paycheck. In spite of all the volatility I’m OK because of the benefits I get through my union, but broadly speaking our members are struggling. When I look at someone with a spouse and three children, I don’t know how they’re doing it,” Pinkham said in Peralta’s piece published by The Contrarian.
Trump has created chaos for workers and made inefficiency the trademark of his government, as demonstrated by the actions of Elon Musk and his destructive DOGE Boys. Musk is gone, but the damage continues. Just this week, it was learned DOGE stashed Social Security numbers, names and birthdays of more than 300 million Americans in a less than secure cloud, where bad actors could get access to our private data. The whistle blower was fired, first reported by Marisa Kabas, an independent journalist who publishes The Handbasket.
One of the most underreported blows to workers came this spring when Trump rescinded the Biden administration’s executive order that increased the minimum wage for workers on federal contracts. Even as Trump’s tariffs triggered a rise in the price of food, clothes, back to school supplies, furniture, hospital and dental services, airfare, and used cars, among others, Trump chose to take money out of the pockets of workers.
“Trump rescinded this order two weeks ago and I’ve been struck by the lack of attention it has received,” Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, wrote at the time. “This action is not just a bureaucratic adjustment—it is a direct assault on the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of workers.”
The ramifications for workers as a result of Trump’s cuts to Medicaid also have gone mostly unnoticed. More than 6 million Americans fall into the category of working poor, but those numbers likely miss hard to track gig workers, making it probable the working poor in America actually stretch beyond the government’s statistics. There is an even more stark statistic: nearly two-thirds of adults ages 19 to 64 covered by Medicaid are already employed. By virtue of being underpaid and employers failing to provide workers with healthcare benefits, the ranks of the working poor grow and Medicaid becomes the last lifeline for adequate healthcare coverage.
We care about these and all workers because we value their labor and recognize it literally built America. Monied interests put up the capital, but they don’t make a habit of getting their hands dirty. Our knowledge, respect and decency contributes to our strong embrace of working women and men. There is something else, after all we’re a political operation: we will not prevail in coming elections if we don’t cut into Trump’s support among working class voters and interconnected Latino voters.
Trump won 56% of voters without college degrees last year, a 6-point increase from the 2020 election, and he won 66% of white voters without college degrees, losing 1% in that cohort from 2020, according to the Edison Research exit poll, Reuters reported. The Latino vote was even more devastating for Democrats, with 46% of Latino voters choosing Trump, up from 32% in the 2020 election.
If one out of 10 Democrats successfully engages a blue collar or Latino friend, neighbor, coworker, or acquaintance that voted for Trump and flips them to vote Democrat, we will win. Of course there will be ads, emails, and texts that will carry the message to those voters , but nothing is as powerful as face to face engagement. It was heartening to see a Democratic candidate challenging Trump enabler Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) has begun to train what is already shaping up to be thousands of volunteers that will fan out across the state and do real face time with voters. It’s ambitious, but doable since Maine only has about 1.1 million voting age residents (this isn't an endorsement, just ‘Hey, that's a really good plan, man’).
It’s crucial for Democrats to connect with as many voters as humanly possible as soon as possible. We all have our own style when we reach out, but it’s very important to consider what works and what might not. It was a bit surprising to see some of the reactions to a labor leader’s quote a few days ago regarding Trump’s reckless decision to kill a privately funded, fully permitted and approved field of wind turbines in the Atlantic Ocean that is 80% done and will light up 350,000 homes in Connecticut and Rhode Island, USA Today reported.
"A lot of building trades workers, a lot of union workers, voted for Donald Trump and his team. But they didn't vote to have union jobs shut down," said Patrick Crowley, president Rhode Island AFL-CIO, which represents the contractors. "It shouldn't work like this."
First thought was this is a powerful message that accurately paints Trump as the villain and will open a lot of eyes, but the Internet didn’t agree with that. Responses included, “no sympathy at all for anyone who voted for him,” and “Idiots.” I will lob bombs with the best of them, but I do not aim at voters. My targets are corrupt or weak elected officials, greedy CEO’s, hypocritical false prophets at the pulpit, science-deniers, half-wit pundits, genocidal tyrants, fascists and Nazis. Trump voters were conned, and some of them are indeed deplorable people who will never be swayed and are full of hate, but no need to lose because of our approach any others that might be persuadable.
Most experts in social interaction and communications warn that the “I told you so” message won't win over hearts and minds. Nor is it language that will persuade Trump voters to vote Democrat.
“It feels like you’re delighting in the other person's misfortune,” Jordan Conrad, founder and clinical director at Madison Park Psychotherapy in New York, tells Time magazine. “It feels equivalent to saying 'I would never be in your position because I'm smarter than you,' or 'If you only just let me run your life for you, you would be better off.’ Those are pretty unpleasant messages to send.”
Let's be passionate, smart, kind and try to smile. After all, thousands of Americans gathered this Labor Day weekend to celebrate America’s workers with parades, rallies and speeches primarily organized by the AFL-CIO. Of note, the union theme for the gatherings, “Workers Deserve: Freedom, Fairness and Security.” It’s good to see the word freedom in there, because that is a powerful emotional tool that we must use to drill down into Trump voters, swing voters and the cynics. Once Americans recognize they are no longer free and live in a fascist police state, it won't matter for many whether they are MAGA, fence-sitting Independents, or Democratic Socialists. Many will fight on some level to regain our freedom, preferably one vote at a time.
Written by Ken Bazinet, former White House correspondent, who has covered three presidents and five presidential elections. Still writing, he has worked with organizations and individuals that focus on opening and expanding ballot access to Black, Latino, Women, Native American, pro-worker and rural voters. He is third generation organized labor.