AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler criticized Donald Trump’s choice of running mate in a statement just hours after the July 15 announcement that J.D. Vance would join the ticket as candidate for vice president.
James David Vance, 39, was elected less than two years ago as a U.S. Senator from Ohio. A Marine Corps veteran, he got a law degree from Yale and then worked in San Francisco as a venture capitalist. He’s best known as the author of Hillbilly Elegy, a 2016 memoir about growing up in Appalachia that was made into a Netflix movie starring Glenn Close and Amy Adams.
During last year’s autoworker strike, Vance made a visit to a UAW picket line in Toledo.
“Senator JD Vance likes to play union supporter on the picket line,” Shuler said in the statement, “but his record proves that to be a sham. He has introduced legislation to allow bosses to bypass their workers’ unions with phony corporate-run unions, disparaged striking UAW members while collecting hefty donations from one of the major auto companies, watered down safety protections for rail workers at the request of industry lobbyists, and opposed the landmark Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would end union-busting ‘right to work’ laws and make it easier for workers to form unions and win strong contracts.”
The AFL-CIO earlier gave Vance a 0% rating for his votes in 2023.
