Labor Day kicks off an uncommon campaign season for organized labor

Organized labor typically greets the end of the summer and the beginning of campaign season with a roar. But it is trading that for quiet celebrations of service and online education today.

Although the 141,000- plus union members in the seven-county region ratcheted back their public celebrations of strength, the region is still among the nation’s strongest union communities and one that will likely be a force in this fall’s election.

Federal government reports show 13.2% of the region’s wage and salaried workers were union members in 2019. A diverse group including mill workers, construction workers, teachers, nurses and janitors, among others, carries union cards here. Although overall union membership is down from 23.5% 24 years earlier, unions here still hold clout in a nation where only 10.3 percent of workers carry union cards.

On any other Labor Day their strength would be apparent across Southwestern Pennsylvania.

Pittsburgh traditionally hosts the nation’s largest Labor Day parade, an event that attracts upwards of 200,000 and often boasts presidential candidates among those marching. Next door in Westmoreland County, the annual Labor United festival at Northmoreland Park usually attracts about 10,000 people.

Those numbers can translate into votes and campaign cash.

But some of the local unions that have traditionally supported Democrats are looking twice this year.

The AFL-CIO, which represents some 12.5 million workers in 55 unions across the country, voted to endorse Democrat Joe Biden earlier this year. But last week, Boilermakers Local 154, a union that boasts some 1,500 members in the tri-state, broke away from the AFL-CIO to endorse President Trump’s re-election bid.

John Hughes, business manager for the local, said Trump supports the energy sector industries that keep his members employed servicing power plants, steel mills and other industrial installations.

“He’s a coal guy. I’ve met him. I’ve talked with him. He supports us,” Hughes said.

Charles McCollester, a retired professor of labor relations at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, is a labor historian from Pittsburgh whose own roots go back to his years as a union member. He said sentiments such as those voiced by Hughes have become common among union members in the building trades who fear Democrats support for alternative energy are a threat to their livelihoods.

“The building trades are the strongest sector of the union movement in Western Pennsylvania and they tend to be more divided because of fossil fuels and fracking. They are very, very nervous about that, and Trump has very skillfully worked on their resentment and anger,” McCollester said.

More than that, local labor leaders said their members tend to be moderates and social conservatives, put off by what they see as a Democratic party that has moved left of center.

“It’s an ugly scenario. They have got it all split up. The AFL-CIO ain’t what it once was. Once it was powerful and strong,” said one local construction trades president who spoke on background, bemoaning fractures in the labor movement.

Fractures among labor voters were apparent in a national exit poll in 2016 that showed Hillary Clinton, who boasted union backing and bucks, pulling only 51% of the voter from households that identified as union households compared to 48% for Trump.

Jim Ziska, business agent for Teamster Local 30 in Jeannette, sees those splits among his members today, as well.

“It’s amazing how many of our members are Trump supporters,” he said.

Ziska said that can make for some hard conversations among his members whose 1.4 million member International Brotherhood of Teamsters has endorsed the Biden-Harris ticket.

“If I come out and say we need to rally around Biden, Trump supporters say no. And if I say Trump, then you’ve got the International saying no,” Ziska said.

He’s seen major changes during his four decades as a union man, including the contraction of heavy industry in Southwestern Pennsylvania as well as the de-regulation of trucking industry.

“Once it was hard to find a Republican who was a union member. The working man was a Democrat. It is not so much that today. But people have a right to their political views. All I can do is point out things and that the International will be backing Biden,” Ziska said.

JoJo Burgess, an activist with the United Steelworkers and former president of the USW’s Clairton Local 14693, said he was proud to knock on doors and canvass on behalf of the union during the 2018 congressional elections.

He is also second vice chair of the Democratic Committee in Washington County.

His international union also has endorsed Biden. Burgess said he’s listened to both the Democratic and GOP conventions and would like to hear Biden talk to workers.

“I think Republicans are putting out a lot of false narratives to workers to make them fearful of their jobs,” Burgess said.

That kind of uncertainty has left union members like Aric Baker, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 459 , undecided.

Although the IBEW is part of the AFL-CIO, his local which represents nearly 2,000 members has yet to take action.

Baker of Ford City, a power plant worker, said he’s disappointed with both parties.

“We’ve got the rule changes Trump has put in with the NLRB that have hurt labor and a lack of empathy for the working man. And the Democrats on the extreme left are promoting closing down fossil fuels, which provide for my family. At this point I don’t think I have anyone to support,” he said.

Like other workers on the fence, he will be listening carefully between now and Nov. 3. when he heads to the polls.