Donald Trump this week tried to distract from his broken promises to Maine unions and workers with an unconfirmed claim regarding the Local S6 union and Bath Iron Works agreement:

Over the course of his presidency, Trump has repeatedly failed workers and unions, despite proclaiming that “unions love me” and boasting about his “many friends in the union” during his 2016 campaign. Trump’s attacks on labor as president have shown a clear contempt for working people, proving his campaign promises to be little more than bluster while workers pay the price.

“Donald Trump can try and pretend that his administration has championed labor, but Mainers know the truth: his record on workers’ rights has been one broken promise after another,” said Maine Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Marra. “From undermining the National Labor Relations Board to gutting workplace safety to weakening overtime protections, Trump has sided with his wealthy corporate allies at the expense of everyday workers time and again. We deserve a president who supports labor and believes that unions are central to making the economy work for working families. That’s why we must elect Joe Biden in November.”

BACKGROUND ON TRUMP’S RELENTLESS ATTACKS ON UNIONS AND WORKERS

Trump undermined the National Labor Relations Board.

  • Since taking office, Trump has stacked the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with anti-labor advocates. A former NLRB chair who served under President Clinton described one of Trump’s nominees as having “no qualifications” whose appointment would bring “a political agenda of a Congress that hates the NLRB.” 
  • Trump’s appointees to the NLRB have caused infighting between political employees and civil servants which hurt unions and workers seeking help from the agency to increase corporate accountability and protect the right to unionize.
     
  • Trump has repeatedly proposed cutting the NLRB’s budget, which would limit its capacity to resolve disputes for workers.

Trump has watered down workplace safety rules and protections for overtime pay.

  • The Trump Administration has weakened workplace safety, including blocking a rule that required employers to report the details of workplace injuries which was designed to help identify dangerous work conditions and improve workplace safety.
  • Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) inspectors have continually declined under Trump, reaching a “45-year low” even as the coronavirus continued to spread throughout the country and the agency received thousands of pandemic-related complaints. By the end of May 2020, OSHA had only issued one low-level citation despite receiving more than 4,000 complaints.

Trump weakened Obama-era standards to extend overtime pay.

  • Trump’s Labor Department released a weakened overtime rule that only extended benefits to a quarter of those covered under a similar Obama-era rule. The watered-down rule left out an estimated 2.8 million workers who would have been covered under the Obama-era rule, and economists called the change “a win for corporate executives.”

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