Reinstedler: Private sector unions stand in solidarity with public sector unions Trump is targeting

By BERRY CRAIG

AFT and KEA/NEA retiree

Donald Trump is a selfish bully. Hence, union solidarity is a notion as foreign to him as giving up Sunday golf for church.

So Trump might have figured that other unions would be too scared to cross him-or just wouldn't care-if he decided to bust federal employee unions.

But Trump and Elon Musk, his sidekick in union-busting, have hit a hornet's nest with a rock. 

"The labor movement is not about to let Trump and an unelected billionaire destroy what we’ve fought for generations to build," said a statement from AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. "We will fight this outrageous attack on our members with every fiber of our collective being."

More than two dozen private sector unions-industrial, construction and professional-have made official statements of solidarity with the American Federation of Government Employees and other federal unions Trump has targeted. 

"We" includes rank-and-file union members, thousands of whom are going to rallies in support of their brothers and sisters who work for Uncle Sam. 

Bricklayers (BAC) President Timothy Driscoll's statement is typical of the others: “...we stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters who go to work each day to ensure that our government works for us. The right to join a union and bargain collectively is one shared by all workers, regardless of their employer—and BAC will fight alongside the rest of the labor movement to ensure that every working American has that right.” 

Kentucky State AFL-CIO President Dustin Reinstedler is a Bricklayer. "Of course private sector union workers support our brothers and sisters in the public sector unions," he said. "An injury to one is an injury to all."

The famous union motto he cited reflects the fundamental principle of the trade union movement: worker solidarity.  Trump's guiding principle is the exact opposite: pursuing unlimited wealth and power for himself, no matter whom he hurts. 

"As a union bricklayer myself, one that helped build many great construction projects from schools to federal buildings and more, not only did we take great pride and craftsmanship in building something for the public to use, we always took extra pride in knowing our public union brothers and sisters would be working there," said Reinstedler, a Louisvillian who worked out of Bricklayers Local 4 Kentucky/Indiana.

Reinstedler added that Trump and Musk's "desire to weaken and eliminate public sector unions is a blatant and sickening display of how they feel about all working class people, regardless of union affiliation, public or private."

Last month, Trump took aim at federal employee unions via an executive order. "Citing national security, [the president] declared that as many as 1 million workers at dozens of federal agencies will no longer have the right to have a union or take part in collective bargaining because their agencies “are hereby determined to have as a primary function intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work," wrote Don McIntosh in Northwest Labor Press online. "Agencies listed in the executive order range from the Bureau of Land Management and the Food and Drug Administration to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture." 

Explained McIntosh: "U.S. law provides federal workers fairly weak union rights compared to private sector workers. The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 spells out some limited union rights but gives the president the power to exclude any agency or subdivision if he determines that it has 'as a primary function intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work.'"

He also wrote than in her statement, "Shuler said the order is meant to punish unions that are fighting the administration’s mass layoffs of federal workers in court." According to McIntrosh, "that interpretation appears to be supported by a fact sheet the White House put out explaining the order.  'Certain federal unions have declared war on President Trump’s agenda,' it says. 'The largest federal union describes itself as ‘fighting back’ against Trump.” The fact sheet says “hostile” federal unions are obstructing agency management, because the law says agencies can’t modify policies in collective bargaining agreements until they expire. “The outgoing Biden Administration renegotiated many agencies’ CBAs to last through President Trump’s second term,' the fact sheet says."

McIntosh predicted that Trump's order "could doom a whole set of federal union lawsuits against mass purges of federal workers. Unions like American Federation of Government Employees have standing to sue in court over those purges because they represent the wronged employees. If Trump can determine that they no longer represent those workers, judges could dismiss their lawsuits."

McIntosh concluded by pointing to Joseph McCartin, an historian "who wrote the definitive book on Ronald Reagan’s 1981 firing of striking air traffic controllers." McCartin said "Trump’s order is the largest and most aggressive single act of union-busting in U.S. history."

The American Federation of Government Employees and other unions that represent federal workers nationwide are suing the Trump administration over his executive order, according to an AFGE press release.

"The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges that Trump’s executive order is a retaliatory attempt to punish federal employee unions that have been engaging in constitutionally protected speech, wrote the AFGE's Brittany Holder. "Unions have repeatedly scored court victories after suing in opposition to actions taken by the Trump administration targeting federal workers."