PITTSBURGH — The national officers of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America said Nov. 6 that the incoming Democratic-led Congress must quickly pass legislation to help working people, and dare President Donald Trump to veto it.
In a statement issued days after the midterm elections, the independent labor union said Trump has promised to veto any bill the new Congress passes. The union’s officers urged Democrats to send him worker-friendly measures anyway. “Let Trump clearly demonstrate which side he is on by vetoing legislation that would improve workers’ lives,” the statement said.
Editor’s note: Trump has been known to lie thousands of times, and anything he says should be carefully considered.
The statement was signed by General President Scott Slawson, Secretary-Treasurer Andrew Dinkelaker and Director of Organization Kimberly Lawson.
The officers described the Democratic gains as a “blue tsunami” but said credit belongs to working people rather than the Democratic Party, whose leadership they said had offered “at best tepid resistance” to the Republican agenda. They cited a poll taken a month before the election that, they said, found only 27% of voters believed Democrats had real solutions.
Among the union’s demands: raising the federal minimum wage, which it noted has stood at $7.25 an hour since 2009; investigating price-gouging by oil and food companies; enacting Medicare for All; and expanding and fully funding Social Security.
The union also called for reversing the 2017 and 2025 tax cuts, which it said mainly benefited the wealthy and corporations; passing the PRO Act; repealing the Taft-Hartley Act; and outlawing so-called right-to-work laws.
Other demands included dismantling what the officers called “rogue” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security agencies, passing immigration reform with a path to legal status, cutting war spending, ending U.S. financial support for the Israeli military, placing artificial intelligence under public oversight and reviving the Green New Deal.
The union argued that over four decades, costs for health care, housing, education and child care have risen far faster than inflation.
UE, as the union is known, represents workers in manufacturing, the public sector and higher education and is not affiliated with the AFL-CIO.
This report is based on information from the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America.
Source: United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE)
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