Politics - News Analysis

Trump Plans to Visit UAW Picket Lines Instead of Attending Debate — Union Members Tell Him DO NOT COME!

He's absolutely clueless.

It’s hard to point to a time in American history when the contrast in pay between CEOs and labor has been more stark. When we look at other countries, like Japan, the CEO-to-worker pay ratio is relatively reasonable. In America last year, it was 365 to 1 for automakers.

Get the math right in your head for that: The CEO of the average car company made in one day what the average person building their cars made in an entire year.

That’s why labor in the United Auto Workers union are on strike. And because every politician wants to align themselves with the “average American,” Donald Trump is going to the picket lines in Michigan and Ohio instead of the next Republican debate on the 27th. Of course we all know Trump can’t attend the debate because he’s terrified of Chris Christie who would tear him apart on stage…and Trump knows it.

Turns out he might not have such a great time in the Midwest.

UAW President Shawn Fain released a statement regarding Trump’s visit, and he sounded none too happy:

“Every fiber of our union is being poured into fighting the billionaire class and an economy that enriches people like Donald Trump at the expense of workers. We can’t keep electing billionaires and millionaires that don’t have any understanding what it is like to live paycheck to paycheck and struggle to get by and expecting them to solve the problems of the working class.”

Gosh, that sounds like a speech from any of a number of Democratic leaders.

There has been so much chatter about people not wanting to work, and it’s frustrating. It’s not that people don’t want to work, it’s that they’re tired of being undervalued. They don’t want to work for low pay. If the federal minimum wage had kept up with the rate of CEO pay increases in the last 20 years, it would be around $43 an hour. Instead, it’s sitting at a paltry $7.25, not enough to pay one month’s rent on a month and a half’s salary.

In fact, auto CEO pay has gone up 40 percent in the last ten years. When workers asked for a raise, the Big Three car companies came back to the table with an offer of half of what workers requested.

Soon, requests will turn to demands, and auto CEOs will be reminded who builds the products that make them their fortunes.

For now, it looks like the UAW is “never Trump.”

meet the author

Andrew is a dark blue speck in deep red Central Washington, writing with the conviction of 18 years at the keyboard and too much politics to even stand. When not furiously stabbing the keys on breaking news stories, he writes poetry, prose, essays, haiku, lectures, stories for grief therapy, wedding ceremonies, detailed instructions on making doughnuts from canned biscuit dough (more sugar than cinnamon — duh), and equations to determine the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow. A girlfriend, a dog, two cats, and two birds round out the equation, and in his spare time, Drewbear likes to imagine what it must be like to have spare time.

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