You may have heard that I don’t have much patience for politicians, especially ones who want our help when they’re desperate for votes or contributions – then ignore us when we need their support.
I liked Bernie Sanders because he was different in all the right ways. He says the right things and votes the right way when it comes to unions and the working class.
He doesn’t flip-flop or wait for polls before taking a stand. When his campaign ended last summer, Sanders got 13 million Americans to stand with him, which impressed the hell out of me – and made me hopeful about our future – especially because so many young people supported him.
But now we have a different choice, and it isn’t pretty. Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have got problems. I was never a fan of Bill Clinton. The way he pushed NAFTA and “free trade” was enough for me. His deals with Wall Street made it clear he didn’t stand with working people. Less than a decade after Clinton loosened bank regulations, Wall Street greed almost brought down our country and caused the biggest economic disaster since the Great Depression. Millions of people lost their jobs and homes – while people on Wall Street and their political friends just got richer.
Let’s face it – Hillary has some of the same problems. To name a few, she is too close to Wall Street and can’t be trusted on corporate-controlled trade deals. Normally, those things would be deal-killers for me. But this isn’t a normal election, because the alternative is Donald Trump.
Trump is appealing to many, including some of my friends.
They like that he’s confident and talks tough. But none of that matters compared to one fact: Donald Trump is anti-union. I mean real anti-union. Not just a waffler like Hillary Clinton who might say something nice to union members one day and something nice to business leaders the next.
Donald Trump isn’t the solution to America’s problems, he IS the problem! Just look at what’s happening right now to workers at the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. Management there has been waging a nasty, anti-union campaign against workers for almost two years. They hired anti-union consultants who were paid more than half a million dollars to gut the working class. They suspended, threatened and interrogated union supporters.
Despite all that and more, workers still voted to join the hotel workers union in Las Vegas where 57,000 are already members with good pay, benefits and job security.
The story gets worse, because workers at the Trump Hotel Las Vegas voted to join the union back in December of 2015 and the company is still refusing to negotiate a fair contract. After picketing that hotel for months, those workers finally decided to launch a boycott of all Trump hotels, golf courses and other businesses.
I think the workers at the Trump Hotel Las Vegas deserve our support. And I think we should take it a step further by boycotting Trump in the election. As far as I’m concerned, voting for him when workers at the Trump Hotel are walking the picket line is no different than crossing their picket line.
Over a year ago he suggested to the auto industry in Michigan to move their operation to states with lower wages. Sounds anti-union to me!
We cannot stand with Trump and everything he represents from his tax evasion, to his sexist insults, to his threats of appointing Supreme Court Justices who would roll back protections for all workers, women, and minorities.
We, the ILWU, are better than that. And we, the ILWU, deserve better than that.
Starting in October, teams of ILWU members will fan out across the country to contact union members and other voters in six states where we’re supporting pro-union candidates. One of the places we’re going is Las Vegas – and our team will be joining that picket line with workers from the Trump Hotel Las Vegas.
I’ll be voting too, and this year it will be for Hillary Clinton. Not because she’s a progressive leader– she isn’t. I’m voting for her because we have to stop Donald Trump and the anti-union movement from getting any stronger. And because those hotel workers in Las Vegas are out on a picket line. And because I don’t cross picket lines, don’t scab, and will never vote for an anti-union candidate. I hope you’ll consider doing the same.
An injury to one is an injury to all.
In solidarity,
Robert McEllrath
International President