What Unions Got Wrong About Trump
'For the nation’s labor unions, the day after Election Day was going to be a victory lap. They planned to boast to the world that their vaunted get-out-the-vote operation had delivered the White House to Hillary Clinton by winning three crucial Rust Belt states for her: Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. But the unions, to their shock and horror, failed to deliver those states — or victory — to Mrs. Clinton.
Now union leaders face a huge, embarrassing question: Why, after unions spent more than $100 million to defeat Donald J. Trump, did Mrs. Clinton win only narrowly among voters from union households, 51 percent to 43 percent, according to exit polls? In a further indication that union leaders were not on the same wavelength as the working-class whites who tipped the election to Mr. Trump, Mrs. Clinton lost among union households in Ohio, 49 percent to 44 percent.
“We underestimated the amount of anger and frustration among working people and especially white workers, both male and female, about their economic status,” said Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and chairman of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s political committee.
Like many inside the Washington Beltway, union leaders generally thought things weren’t so bad — the unemployment rate has dropped to 4.9 percent, and median household income jumped by a record 5.2 percent last year. But many union officials didn’t adequately hear the anger and pain felt by many working-class whites: that they were stuck economically, that Washington wasn’t addressing their problems, like disappearing factories and good jobs. . .
Many steelworkers, the official explained, disliked Mrs. Clinton because of her ties to Wall Street, because her husband had championed Nafta and because she had supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership before coming out against the trade pact during the campaign. . .
With the climate in Washington becoming more hostile to unions, worker advocates might focus on more winnable local battles, having just won statewide referendums to raise the minimum wage to $12 in Arizona, Colorado and Maine and $13.50 in Washington. And with traditional unions in the Republican line of fire, there will be newfangled efforts to lift wages and working conditions, like a nonunion drivers guild for thousands of Uber drivers in New York. Another innovative effort, the Fight for 15, is planning protests in 340 cities on Tuesday to try to win a $15 wage for everyone from McDonald’s workers to airport baggage handlers.
As unions grow weaker, many workers will inevitably continue to search for new ways to band together to make their voices heard.'
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/26/opinion/sunday/what-unions-got-wrong-about-trump.html?
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