AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is urging union members to back anyone but Republican front-runner Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential race.
“I’ve always believed that in America, anyone should be able to run for president — even a billionaire with a reality TV show,” Trumka says in a new video released by the nation’s largest labor federation. “So I wasn’t surprised when I went back to Nemacolin, Penn., where I grew up, for Thanksgiving and found that some of my friends and neighbors were talking to me about Donald Trump.
“The truth is that Trump wants to talk to people like you and me — he targets people like us.”
But according to Trumka, the leading GOP candidate is “trying to divide working people” with his rhetoric. The AFL-CIO chief cites Trump’s previous claim that “wages are too high” and his proposal to build a wall along the Mexican border as evidence.
“A campaign fueled by contempt and exclusion is bad for working families and undermines the values that make America great,” Trumka says. “We deserve better.”
“Every time we listen to that kind of talk — in a coal mine or an office or a factory or in a voting booth — we end up weaker and poorer,” he says, referring to Trump’s contentious policy proposals and his habit of making controversial statements on the campaign trail.
As the three-minute video comes to an end, Trumka says that to make America great again, “we have to have a big conversation about our future — about how to make our democracy and our economy work for ordinary working people again.”
“We can’t have that conversation if our ears and hearts are filled with hate and we look at each other with fear,” Trumka says.
“So my message to Donald Trump is this: If you want to talk to working people, talk to us about what you’re going to do to make a better future for our kids … a campaign fueled by contempt and exclusion is bad for working families and undermines the values that make America great.”
The AFL-CIO has yet to endorse a 2016 contender, but Trumka has previously said it is “conceivable” the federation could formally back a candidate before the first two nominating contests in Iowa and New Hampshire next month.
