Chuck Jones, president of the United Steelworkers Local 1999, in Indianapolis, Indiana, appeared on MSNBC’s AM Joy, yesterday, to discuss his recent confrontation with Donald Trump over Trump’s misrepresentation regarding efforts to keep Carrier factory jobs in Indiana.
Seven months earlier, at a campaign rally in Indianapolis, Trump had pledged to save the plant’s jobs, most of which were slated to move to Mexico. Then the businessman won the election, and the 1,350 workers whose paychecks were on the line wondered if he’d keep his promise.
Jones, president of the United Steelworkers 1999, which represents Carrier employees, felt optimistic when Trump announced last week that he’d reached a deal with the factory’s parent company, United Technologies, to preserve 1,100 of the Indianapolis jobs — until the union leader heard from Carrier that only 730 of the production jobs would stay and 550 of his members would lose their livelihoods, after all.
At the Dec. 1 meeting, where Trump was supposed to lay out the details, Jones hoped he would explain himself.
“But he got up there,” Jones said Tuesday, “and, for whatever reason, lied his a-- off.”
Why did these voters, especially union voters, vote for Trump who is widely known for waging fierce battles to undermine workers and prevent unionization of his companies? Trump even campaigned for "right-to-work"states, during the 2016 campaign, which would systematically eradicate the existence of unions.
Could it be that union leaders like Jones as well as their membership were unaware of Trump’s record? Joy Reid asked Jones:
Joy Reid:
And you know, Mr. Jones, the AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka came out in support of you. He said of you, ‘He understands more than anyone that these are more than numbers—they are people with families to support and bills to pay. Instead of attacking those who have been working hard to save jobs, the president-elect needs to engage with local union leaders at Carrier and at his hotels in Las Vegas.’
Sir, before the election, were you aware and were your members aware of the extent to which Donald Trump himself has used outsourced labor—has outsourced the making of his own clothes to other countries—has used Chinese steel instead of American steel? Do you feel that your members were aware of really who Donald Trump was before the election?
Chuck Jones:
Well, we try to educate everybody the best we can. Um ... some people might have knew, and it very well might have not made a difference on their… um … who they were going to vote for. So … um … we know the history of Donald Trump on trying to keep unions out of his casinos and hotels, and his businesses in other countries … we were well aware of that.
Bold emphasis by diarist.
Yup, for the umpteenth time, this was not about populism. They voted for Trump despite his vindictive and reckless attitude toward workers in this nation. His voters did not care.
What about his stiffing of small businesses? They did not care.
What about his use of Chinese steel which undermined American steel workers? They did not care.
What about his racism? They did not care.
What about his sexism? They did not care.
What about his xenophobia? They did not care.
Since the close of the 2016 campaign, we have seen a number of posts continuing to spread the notion that Hillary Clinton and Democrats, who have done exceedingly more for working people than Donald Trump and the Republican Party could have ever imagined, somehow lost the presidential election due to their inability to overcome Trump’s “populist” campaign.
It is false, it is counterfactual, and, as I have commented previously:
Trump ran on hate, and any individual who choose to ignore this and spread the false claim of his so-called “populism” is essentially enhancing the Trump brand and using false rhetoric to cover up for his blatantly offensive behavior.