Moving Forward: A Post-election Message from GP Jimmy Williams Jr.
News
By now you know that Donald Trump has won the presidential election. This is not the outcome our union worked for, but together we will weather the storm. Our union was founded in the late 1800s through the blood, sweat, and tears of our forefathers, and we can and will survive any political climate, as long as we remain united.
I, along with other members of your General Executive Board, traveled throughout battleground states Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin to speak with many of you over the last month. What I found was a politically divided membership, and I am sure many of you are happy with today’s results. We tried hard to get you to vote for Kamala Harris – and many of you did – but ultimately, the failures of Democratic Party have caught up with us, again.
Until President Joe Biden’s administration, the Democrats have ignored our members and the rest of the working class in favor of college-educated voters. This was a strategic choice that the Party made, and it was the wrong one. President Biden put thousands of our members to work and had a worker-friendly NLRB and Department of Labor, but it was too late to turn the tide.
Unfortunately, the Democratic Party failed to offer a compelling working class agenda and the election results show as much. Working people en masse did not turn out for the Democratic Party, and were instead lured by the divisive rhetoric and empty promises of a second Trump administration.
Donald Trump will be disastrous for workers, including members of our union. I want to prepare you for what he may try to do when he takes office:
- Repeal Davis-Bacon
- Dismantle the National Labor Relations Act
- End project-labor agreements
- Ban card check even when a company is OK with it
- Ban public employee unions like states are already trying to do to IUPAT members in Florida and Iowa
- Allow states to ban unions
- Let bosses eliminate unions mid-contract
- Let companies stop paying overtime
- Allow states to opt out of federal overtime and minimum wage laws
- Use workplace raids to intimidate immigrant workers from reporting employers who cheat them
- Eliminate child labor protections
- Allow employers to create company unions and make it legal for them to refuse to negotiate with legitimate unions
Our union will have to fight to maintain all of the rights we’ve won, and we have a hard road ahead of us. But what matters now is that we stick together and get back to our basic values as a union: taking care of one another and fighting together, to defend our trade, our jobs, and our wages and benefits.
Most importantly, my job is to represent you. I do not stand with any candidate or political party unless they stand for our union and our membership. Regardless of how you vote or what you believe, my job is to fight for a better future for each and every IUPAT member.
One Union. One Family. One Fight.