Donald Trump supports tariffs, massive spending on public works, and occasionally a higher minimum wage. But he isn’t really a union guy.
Thousands of Pennsylvania steelworkers are finding that out the hard way after Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency announced that it won’t ease the Renewable Fuels Standard and might even work with the ethanol industry to increase the amount of biofuels blended into gasoline.
That means higher costs for refineries and bitterness from unions that keep those factories humming. Summing up the outrage, the United Steelworkers complained that “inconsistent administration policy on the RFS threatens thousands of refinery jobs across the country.”
Statements like that are nothing new from union brass. While the leadership of organized labor went all out for Hillary Clinton, many union members broke for Trump. During the campaign, the populist Republican appealed to blue-collar workers like no politician since Reagan. And it worked, helping him win in key states like Pennsylvania.
Come 2020, Trump will have a hard time convincing those same union voters to buck their leadership again.
