Politico: Union Members Still Voting for Trump President Donald Trump (Getty Images)
By Jeffrey Rodack | Tuesday, 22 September 2020 08:50 AM
Despite Joe Biden pitching himself to voters a “union man,” rank and file members in some unions are still firmly behind President Donald Trump.
Politico reported that labor leaders have been working for months to convince their members to back Biden. But support for Trump remains solid in key battleground states, local union officials said.
“We haven’t moved the needle here,” said Mike Knisley, executive secretary-treasurer with the Ohio State Building and Construction Trades Council.
He estimated that about 50% of his members voted for Trump in 2016 and will do so again in November.
“Even if given all the information that’s been put out there, all the facts — just pick an issue that the president has had his hands in — it doesn’t make a difference,” he said.
An internal poll of North America’s Building Trade Union reveals there is virtual tie in six swing states with Biden receiving 48% and Trump collecting 47%,” Politico reported.
The news outlet noted that union voters have historically voted heavily for Democrats. But exit polls revealed that in 2016, Hillary Clinton won union voters by less than half as much as Barack Obama did four years before.
“It doesn’t seem like there’s anybody changing their minds,” said Don Furko, president of the United Steelworkers Local 1557 in Clairton, Pennsylvania, who claimed the majority of his membership is backing Trump.
Meanwhile, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told Newsmax earlier this month that he believes Biden is now leading Trump in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — three union-strong states that the president carried in 2016.