AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler Responds to Trump Vice President Announcement

July 15, 2024

Donald Trump has a miserable record of breaking every promise he's made to working people-from failing to pay his workers and crossing a picket line to his disastrous four years in the White House. That betrayal would continue if he is re-elected-so it's no surprise Trump chose a vice president who will be nothing more than a rubber stamp for that anti-worker vision.

Sen. JD Vance likes to playunion supporter on the picket line, but his record proves that to be a sham. He has introduced legislationto allow bosses to bypass their workers' unions with phony corporate-run unions, disparaged striking UAW memberswhile collecting hefty donationsfrom one of the major auto companies, watered down safety protections for rail workers at the request of industry lobbyists, and opposedthe landmark Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would end union-busting "right to work" laws and make it easier for workers to form unions and win strong contracts.

If Trump wins, he would once again stack the federal agencies that exist to protect workers with union-busting corporate executives and anti-union extremists, strip funding for workplace health and safety, and do everything in his power to take away workers' voice on the job-just like he did in his first term. That would mean weaker union contracts, lower pay and fewer benefits, so greedy bosses and his corporate donors could get richer. We can expect that a Vice President Vance would be fully engaged in helping Trump roll back decades of worker gains.

A Trump-Vance White House is a corporate CEO's dream and a worker's nightmare. Look no further than the devastating Project 2025 plan that would eviscerate unions and empty workers' pockets just to boost the profits of their corporate friends and donors. That's the Trump-Vance agenda. The AFL-CIO will continue educating union voters every single day to ensure the labor movement and working people stop the harmful agenda of these anti-worker politicians from becoming a reality.

Contact: Steve Smith, 202-637-5018