Whatever your feelings about President Trump, one fact is beyond dispute: His presidency has been a boon for his blue-collar voting base, with nearly three million new jobs created since Election Day.
For working people, these aren’t just statistics. Some workers have the dignity of a paycheck after years of being told they were unemployable. Others have more money in their pockets after a decade of stagnating wages.
In 2016, working men and women trusted the president in unprecedented numbers. This year, he can close the deal by promoting workplace democracy for those same workers who put him in office.
The priorities of the people punching a clock don’t always line up with the priorities of their union representatives. I know better than most: I’m a 21-year Ford autoworker in Michigan who’s been forced to accept the representation of the United Auto Workers my entire career. Even after Michigan became a right-to-work state in 2012, workers are still pressured to accept the UAW’s representation and its agenda. The status quo is shameful, and if it’s not on our president’s radar, it should be.
Current law allows working men and women in half the country to be coerced and often bullied into union representation without the benefit of a secret ballot vote. Union workers are also roped into financial support of their unions’ broader political agenda — without an easy way to recover our money being sent to the Clinton Foundation, Planned Parenthood, or a variety of anti-Trump organizations.
And we are talking about millions of dues dollars being hijacked every year for an issue agenda we can’t control. There is no sound reason for these outrages to exist in a 21st century workplace.
There’s an easy fix making its way through Congress right now. It’s called the Employee Rights Act, and it has more than 180 co-sponsors in the House and Senate. It’s the first substantive update of labor law since the 1940s. It doesn’t stop or impede unionization where employees want it. It doesn’t restrict collective bargaining where employees band together for a contract. But it does provide protections for workers who are too often unfairly compromised by the same union officials that take their dues every month.
And there is no doubt of its value. Polling consistently shows the proposed law has bipartisan approval from 80 percent of Americans, including members of union households. The only parties opposed are union officials and those who are invested in the oppressive status quo. I recognize there is a natural impulse to protect sweet deals, even at the expense of others. Today’s union leadership has that sweet deal. Many are very well paid, but not for union work. Instead, they are acting as a fundraising and grassroots arm of one political party. They collect billions of dollars in dues each year, which ensures they can keep politicians in power who support their agenda.
Fortunately, we have a president who campaigned on upsetting the status quo. For too long, our labor law has allowed union executives to abuse their power over the rank and file with little recourse for the affected employees. Today, the workers who put the president in office are asking for his help. He can help us by pass the Employee Rights Act.
Showing that he understands the difference between factory workers and union officials is the ideal way to cement the deal we made in 2016. Protecting worker rights is a sure way to guarantee the legacy of any elected official. America’s blue-collar and union workers will be forever grateful.
Terry Bowman, a 21-year Ford-UAW autoworker, lives in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
