As the Senate holds confirmation hearings for Trump’s third Supreme Court nominee in four years, it is clear that Trump’s most enduring legacy will be his court appointments. If Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed, and especially if Trump wins another term (or successfully retains the office despite losing the election), that legacy will be even worse for working people than it already is.
As COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to rise in the U.S., a new study demonstrates that the Trump administration’s pro-business agenda of rolling back workplace safety enforcement by OSHA has been a major contributor to COVID-19 spread and death. Researchers at Harvard’s School of Public Health found that coronavirus-related complaints to OSHA are strongly correlated with deaths 17 days later. In other words, workers have been reporting unsafe conditions to OSHA, OSHA has failed to take action, and workers have died as a result.
The Senate’s refusal to pass comprehensive COVID-19 relief hit tens of thousands of workers in the airline industry yesterday, as major airlines began furloughing workers. Call your Senators at 202-224-3121 and demand that they pass the relief working people need NOW!
Despite President Trump’s claims that his administration is making “extraordinary progress in reversing the tide” of offshoring jobs, the facts are that offshoring has continued unabated during his administration. An August 2020 report from the Economic Policy Institute demonstrates a net loss of nearly 1,800 factories between 2016 and 2018 and 740,000 manufacturing jobs since February 2020.
At the 2019 UE Convention, UE delegates declared that “it is critical that working people remove the anti-labor and racist Trump from office.” While Trump’s inflammatory tweets often make headline news, his attacks on workers have received much less press attention.
UE is proud to join over 100 organizations and more than 75 representatives and senators in endorsing the THRIVE agenda, a bold plan to address the economic, environmental and social crises facing working people and our country. The THRIVE agenda would create nearly 16 million new jobs and sustain them over the next critical decade, essentially eliminating the unemployment crisis.
Working people need a robust federal response in order to prevent millions of Americans from being evicted from their homes, to keep food on the table and state and local government services operating, and to ensure the safety of our elections. Congress must pass a new bill to meet the needs of the millions of unemployed workers and all of us who are still facing the threat of this virus. A majority of senators are ready to vote on a relief bill, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has refused to let a bill come forward.
Call your Senators at (202) 224-3121 and demand they take up meaningful relief measures now!
Working people deserve a government, and a president, who will stand up for them against the corporate onslaught of the past several decades. We have to be honest that the 2020 elections will not deliver that president. Nonetheless, as UE delegates noted at our convention, “it is critical that working people remove the anti-labor and racist Trump from office.” We encourage all UE members and locals to make every effort to oust Trump from office in the November elections, recognizing that the only way to do that is to elect Joe Biden. Members should then be prepared to fight like hell to hold a Biden administration accountable to the people.
There are issues and problems that working people face which cannot be addressed at the bargaining table, and we have the right to expect that our governmental bodies and representatives will respond to the needs of the people. Tomorrow (Saturday, August 22) there are two opportunities to join volunteer-led, socially distanced events as part of two National Days of Action:
Over five million people in the U.S. have lost their employer-based healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now is the time to redouble our efforts to win a universal, Medicare for All system. Read more for three actions you can take right now to build the movement for Medicare for All.