Two years ago, Vice President Kamala Harris promised to “lead the most pro-union administration in American history.” Since then, union membership among employed Americans has fallen to record lows, a sign of unions' declining bargaining power.
“President Joe Biden and I are committed to leading the most pro-union administration in American history,” Harris said. said Members of the Sheet Metal Workers Union in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 2022. “… [U]Labor unions change people's lives. They negotiate better wages and safer working conditions for millions of workers across the country.”
But under Harris, the bargaining power of unions representing public and private sector employees has fallen to an all-time low as a percentage of the American workforce.
In 1955, more than one in three American workers Represented By trade unions. By 2023 1 in 10 American workers belong to unions. Even lower: only 6% of Americans in the private sector belong to a union.
Despite union membership hitting an all-time low, 7 out of 10 Americans say they support unions, and some of that support can be traced back to a resurgence of populism within the Republican Party, returning the party to its roots as representing working- and middle-class Americans.
While Biden and Harris are making promises to union members, Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), are running on the same populist platform that has won over Republicans when it comes to supporting unions.
For example, Vance appealed directly to union members at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in July, saying:
What we need are leaders who are not in the pockets of big business and who answer to workers, union and non-union alike. A leader who will not bow down to multinational corporations But he will stand up for American companies and American industry. He is a leader who will reject Joe Biden and Kamala Harris' Green New Scum and fight to bring back great American factories. [Emphasis added]
President Trump invited Teamsters Chairman Sean M. O'Brien to the Republican National Convention, making it the first time a Teamsters chairman has spoken at the Republican Convention.
“President Trump has the courage to open the door to the Republican National Convention, which is unprecedented,” O'Brien said. “No other candidate in this race would have invited the Teamsters to this venue.”
Among Trump and Vance's key principles to benefit American workers, including unionized workers, is reducing the influx of cheaper foreign labor.
Trump and Vance say the end goal is extremely high wages and a labor market in which Americans don't have to compete with a growing number of foreign workers who accept jobs at much lower wages.
“President Trump strongly believes that the best way to promote wage growth for Americans is to tighten the labor market,” Vance said. said The crowds in Philadelphia in August:
If employers have to pay higher wages to attract the right talent… whether the minimum wage is high or low; The way to destroy the wages of American workers is to import 20 million illegal immigrants and have them stay on work visas. [Emphasis added]
In contrast, Harris ran on a platform of providing work permits to migrants who arrive at the US-Mexico border and releasing them into the country so they can immediately get labor or blue-collar jobs.
Similarly, Harris has outlined a plan to grant amnesty to most of the 11 to 22 million illegal immigrants living across the U.S. The measure would legalize millions of illegal immigrants and allow them to legally enter the U.S. workforce and enter jobs.
Labor market the study Mass immigration has historically been shown to weaken the bargaining power of labor unions.
“The resurgence of mass immigration is, of course, not the only explanation for the decline in union membership, but mass immigration is one important factor, especially since a large proportion of the overall influx is illegal,” said Vernon Briggs Jr., the late labor economist at Cornell University. testified Presented to Parliament in 2007.
As of 2022, more than 30 million legal and illegal immigrants are employed in American jobs, a 20 percent increase over the past 15 years. By comparison, the number of native-born people joining the American workforce has increased by less than 10 percent over the same period.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter. here.
