Did you happen to see on Fox News Channel where they interviewed this man that said both the steel workers & auto workers endorse Biden?

[sage2021]

And I think the Teamsters do too.
What are your thoughts on this?

[nightdrot]

Although I did not see it, the man was, in effect, predicting the sunrise. Union support for Democratic candidates is pretty standard, going all the way back to the 1930s.

Of course, there have been exceptions. For example, the Teamsters endorsed President Reagan in the 1980s. Still, that was the exception and not the rule. The New Deal coalition was shaped by the Great Depression when high unemployment was obviously a major issue and a concern to the labor movement for that reason.

FDR - and later Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter and other Democrats - advocated for a welfare state that was seen to benefit workers during difficult times. Thus was the New Deal coalition born.

In fairness, as the nature of the economy is shifting and the demographic profile of the labor force is changing, this coalition is breaking down. American blue collar workers, once the backbone of the unions and the Democrat coalition, have begun to drift away from the Democrats. Thus, the so-called "Reagan Democrats" of the 1980s and indeed, for different reasons, working class support for Mr. Trump.

Still that shift has been and will continue to be gradual. The economy is changing from a manufacturing base to a service/tech base and that is changing the voting patterns of the labor force. However, institutionally, that will take time to play itself out and thus, for the time being, unions - as organizations though increasingly less in terms of their membership - will remain part of the Democrat's coalition.

So predicting union support for the Democrats is, as noted, like predicting the sunrise. It can be expected and episodes like the Teamsters 1980s endorsements of Reagan - endorsements born of the miserable economy under President Carter - will be the exception and not the rule.

However, union influence is declining as the economy changes and such endorsements mean less than they once did. Once upon a time, union members pretty much followed the endorsements of their union leaderships, but beginning with Reagan - see again the "Reagan Democrats" - that has been changing and thus union endorsements mean far less than they used to.

[sage2021]

@nightdrot
Thank you very much for taking your time to explain this. You always seem to know the answers 🙂

[nightdrot]

Thanks so very much for your kind compliment. All the best.

[Surely]

As a retired union member. My union superiors always wanted the membership to vote Democrat. Most of the time I didn’t listen to them.
With Biden wanting to force auto manufacturing to make cars that the public doesn’t want. During Biden’s life in politics. He held the door open to let and sometimes force steel manufacturing to leave the country due to regulations. I can’t see those people getting behind Biden.
Where will he get his coal to manufacture steel? Import the US coal that was sent to China?

[Surely]

@sage2021. Thank you Sage for the MHO!

[exitseven]

I think that the union bosses might endorse Biden but the rank and file workers are all Trump supporters.

I have a friend who is a union carpenter and he tells me the same thing. He was always a democrat but now he supports President Trump.

[Likes2drive]

They are just democrats no matter who is in office and blindly follow it

[82lynx]

This reminds me of when Homer took Bart to a gay steel mill.

[FunkyMonkee]

No, I didn't.
They sound psychotic, to me.

[worldscolide]

good god, so stupid.