On Labor Day — the one day a year elected leaders of all stripes traditionally say something nice about working people and their unions — Donald Trump fired off a presidential tweet attacking America’s top union official.
Richard Trumka, the head of the AFL-CIO, represented his union poorly on television this weekend. Some of the things he said were so against the working men and women of our country, and the success of the U.S. itself, that it is easy to see why unions are doing so poorly. A Dem!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2018
The tweet was in reaction to an appearance on Fox News Sunday by Trumka, who is president of the AFL-CIO, the federation that most unions belong to. Invited to comment on Trump’s trade negotiations with Canada and Mexico, Trumka said there’s still a lot of work to do, because the language of the deal hasn’t been drafted yet. [See Page 2 for the latest on Trump’s NAFTA talks.]
“We’ve been told for over 25 years, ‘Trust us, this agreement is good for workers,’” Trumka said.
Trumka also knocked Trump for failing to put forth his promised $1 trillion infrastructure plan, and for overturning a regulation that would have extended the right to paid overtime to five million people.
“When he was elected I said I would call balls and strikes,” Trumka said. “When he did something that was good for workers, we’d support him. When he did something bad for workers we would oppose him. Unfortunately, to date, the things that he’s done to hurt workers outpace what he’s done to help workers.”
SEE IT FOR YOURSELF: Watch what AFL-CIO president Trumka said about Trump on Fox News here.
