Trump is resurrecting the old divide-and-conquer strategy against Fain and the UAW
By BERRY CRAIG
Alliance for Retired Americans
In 58-50 BCE, Julius Caesar and his Roman troops conquered Gaul--France today--mainly by pitting Gallic tribes against each other.
He skillfully exploited old feuds and rivalries. He made allies of some tribes to help him fight and defeat others, then turned on his allies.
It took a while, but the Gauls finally figured out that Caesar was their real enemy, not each other. They unified under a chieftain named Vercingetorix and fought the Romans. But it was too little, too, late. Caesar defeated Vercingetorix and his forces in 52 BCE, and Gaul was his.
Caesar was neither the first nor the last commander to employ the "divide and conquer" or "divide and rule" strategy in warfare. It also works in politics. No sooner did Donald Trump start running for president in 2015 than he tried it on unions.
Trump set out to split the rank-and-file from the union leadership. Most union members saw through the scam.
“Donald Trump is a liar and a con artist,” said Jeff Wiggins, then president of United Steelworkers of America Local 9447 in Calvert City and president of the Paducah-based Western Kentucky AFL-CIO Area Council. "He’ll say anything to get elected, but he is no friend of organized labor.”
Added Wiggins, now the Kentucky State AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer: "He preaches hatred of minorities to divide us."
Trump is still claiming that he's the workaday blue collar champion and that union "bosses" are selling workers out. Trump's latest target is Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers.
Trump took to Truth Social, his social media platform, to declare, "Shawn Fain is a Weapon of Mass Destruction on Auto Workers and the Automobile Manufacturing Industry in the United States! Is he under contract to China, because they will be getting almost all of our 'Car making' Business within a very short period of time. All Autoworkers should VOTE FOR TRUMP. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"
Trump is still seething over the UAW endorsing President Joe Biden for reelection.
"The UAW won a record contract with Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Stellantis last fall after six weeks of targeted strikes against all three automakers," Jamie L. LaReau wrote in the Detroit Free Press on Monday. "After union members ratified contracts, Honda, Toyota, Hyundai and Tesla announced pay raises for their nonunion U.S. workers. The UAW is looking to unionize some 13 other automakers in the United States this year."
LaReau reminded her readers that in his speech announcing the Biden endorsement, "Fain called Trump a member of the billionaire class looking to divide people, noting, 'Donald Trump is a scab. Donald Trump is a billionaire and that’s who he represents....Donald Trump stands against everything we stand for as a union.'"
Last September, Steve Rosenthal outlined Trump's opposition to organized labor in an opinion piece in The Hill titled "Trump is trying to bamboozle union workers; he won’t succeed." Rosenthal is a political consultant to unions and progressive politicians who was a national AFL-CIO political director.
"Biden’s and Trump’s records clearly demonstrate who is on the side of union workers," Steve Rosenthal wrote in The Hill last year. "Trump was perhaps the most vehemently anti-union president in recent memory. He supported right-to-work laws that weaken unions and make it tougher for workers to win better pay, benefits and rights on the job. He also threatened to veto the Pro Act, legislation that levels the playing field by updating outdated labor laws and making it easier for workers to democratically vote for union representation."
Rosenthal continued citing chapter and verse:
"Trump packed the Supreme Court with anti-union judges who have attempted to destroy public sector unions with decisions such as Janus, which unfairly allows public employees to opt out of being in their union but to enjoy the benefits of collective bargaining without paying for any of the costs. And he stacked the National Labor Relations Board, the government agency responsible for safeguarding the nation’s labor laws with anti-union members and an anti-union general counsel.
"As president, Trump made it legal for companies that violate federal labor laws, including workplace safety protections, to be eligible for federal contracts. He also cut the number of Occupational Safety and Health inspectors to the fewest in history and weakened penalties for companies that fail to report violations. And Trump’s Administration also tried to weaken mine safety rules.
"Trump also eliminated overtime pay for 8 million American workers and even wanted to eliminate the minimum wage, which of course he also did not support increasing from the current $7.25.
"Trump wants to claim to be a friend to working people on the issue of trade, but he gave over $115 billion in federal contracts to companies that offshored jobs and he pushed a corporate tax cut that gave companies a whopping 50 percent tax break on their foreign profits, creating a financial windfall for them to move overseas.
"Trump’s anti-union policies ran deep through his administration. He supported increased funding for the Office of Labor Management Standards at the Department of Labor, responsible for regulating unions, while cutting the budget of the National Labor Relations Board, responsible for enforcing the nation’s labor laws. And he issued executive orders to weaken federal employee unions and eliminate pay increases for federal government workers.
"And Trump’s anti-union activity didn’t begin when he became president, either. His entire career as a developer and hotelier is littered with anti-union actions. For decades, Trump hotels have spent millions of dollars opposing their workers’ right to organize. And whenever Trump had the choice of having work performed by union or non-union workers, he always chose non-union contractors for construction projects.
"Biden, in contrast, supports workers’ right to organize. He is now walking the picket line in one of the most critical union fights in decades. Pro-worker, pro-union provisions are present in virtually every proposal that comes from his administration. And while the UAW is rightfully demanding more from Biden on the issues around the transition to electric vehicles, battery production, union members’ job security and organizing, they know they have a partner in Biden who will listen and will strive to do what is right, as he has for his entire career."
Rosenthal's concluded: "The contrast between Trump and Biden could not be clearer. For nearly fifty years, one has consistently stood with union workers, and the other has undermined them at every turn. Trump is trying to sweep his disdain for unions under the rug and to bamboozle workers into thinking he has their best interests at heart. He will fail."