07/25/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 07/25/2024 17:43
Today, the DNC hosted a press call featuring top union leaders to hold Donald Trump and JD Vance accountable for their anti-worker policies and previewing what a second Trump term would mean for workers' rights. The call featured Congressman Chris Deluzio (D-PA), SEIU President April Verrett, RWDSU President and Executive Vice President of UFCW Stuart Appelbaum, Arizona Democratic Party Chair Yolanda Bejarano and Michigan AFL-CIO President Ron Bieber who called out Trump and Vance for masquerading as pro-worker while supporting policies that are anti-worker and anti-union.
As Trump and Vance continue to pander to workers while supporting policies that are anti-worker, their Project 2025 agenda will crush unions, rip up labor protections, and rig the economy for their billionaire friends. This November, workers know that Trump and Vance are pandering to them and will unify against them.
Find highlights from the press call below:
"There's some contrast here though, folks. A Trump-Vance administration - my goodness, I think working Americans would suffer a heck of a lot," saidCongressman Chris Deluzio (PA-17). "We already know what Donald Trump's economic record is: big tax cuts and handouts for billionaires and big corporations that exploded the debt. I mean this is the fiscal irresponsibility I see in Congress all the time - that fiscal insanity that we've seen from congressional Republicans who want to attack Social Security - it doesn't make sense. They slashed the corporate tax rates and they did what we see corporations do. They went on a massive stock buyback spending spree, given huge bonuses to executives, and nothing for workers.
"So much of the tax benefit from the Trump tax cuts went to big, powerful corporations and billionaires and so many others. We saw seven billionaires take a $535 million tax deduction in a single year. We saw the Trump administration change overtime rules, making it harder for eight million workers who became ineligible. It costs them [workers] over a billion dollars a year in lost wages, and we know they've packed the courts with anti-worker, anti-union judges. And that administration sat by while workers in warehouses and meatpacking plants suffered and died in the pandemic, in the early days, under then-president Trump. And we know what a Trump-Vance administration would be - it's more of that trickle down economic fairytale that has never worked."
"Donald Trump and JD Vance are determined to turn back the clock on workers' rights. And I'm talking about collective bargaining, yes, but I'm also talking about women's rights - the right to our bodily autonomy," saidApril Verrett, SEIU President. "I'm talking about our civil rights - our ability to participate in democracy. Live in a democracy. As one of the most racially diverse unions in the world, we know our mission to better the lives of workers extends far beyond the boundaries of the workplace."
"We all know too well the harm that Donald Trump will do to working people if he gets his hands back on the reins of power. Because of him, billionaires paid [lower tax rates] than working families for the first time in our history," saidApril Verrett, SEIU President. "Trump tries to claim he supports 'Black jobs.' But let's be clear, the reality is that he left communities of color behind. His tax scam worsened the racial wealth gap."
"Trump and his MAGA Republican party are no friends to working people and organized labor. They are by and for the billionaires," saidStuart Appelbaum, RWDSU President and Executive Vice President of UFCW. "Trump is once again saying the quiet part out loud as he attempts to sell out our country to the highest bidder. Trump's top concern will always be tax handouts and special favors for his wealthy donors at the expense of hard working Americans. That's why working people will reject Donald Trump's extreme, bankrupt agenda once and for all this November."
"Vance can talk all he wants about supporting workers, but when it has actually come time to act, he's put the C-suite first every time. Donald Trump and JD Vance want to crush unions and rip away workers rights because they are in the pockets of billionaires - in Vance's case, it's ultra right-wing Silicon Valley tech billionaires like Peter Thiel," saidRon Bieber, Michigan AFL-CIO President. "Michigan has defeated Ohioans before and Michigan families know that Trump and Vance will roll back all of the victories that the Biden-Harris administration have achieved for workers. Under their leadership, Michigan has seen the creation of thousands of new jobs and millions of dollars in new investments."
"As a former field director of the Communications Workers Of America, I know firsthand how important unions are to building the middle class and I know what happens when those rights are stripped away," saidYolanda Bejarano, Arizona Democratic Party Chair. "Trump and Vance are working hand in hand with their billionaire friends to rip away workers rights, jeopardize workers' safety and lower wages for everyone just so the ultra-rich can continue to get richer. Arizona is a worker battleground and this November we are ready to move our state forward by electing pro-worker Democrats up and down the ticket. Don't be fooled by Vance and Trump, they are bad for unions, bad for workers, bad for the economy and bad for Arizonans."