So the next GOP debate looms.
Former President Trump will again skip the debate. This time around he has arranged to go to Michigan and meet with striking UAW workers, a decided appeal to unionized workers in the key state of Michigan.
CNBC reports that fellow GOP candidates Senator Tim Scott and former Governor Nikki Haley are taking a different tack entirely with the strike.
The CNBC headline: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/
Tim Scott and Nikki Haley attack unions as UAW strike threatens to escalate ahead of GOP debate
The network reports:
“Several Republican presidential candidates have gone on the attack against unions in response to the
United Auto Workers’ strike, despite strong support for organized labor among the American public.
The two GOP candidates who have taken the hardest line are from South Carolina, a state with a notorious anti-union reputation. The Palmetto State has become a hub for foreign automakers that have taken advantage of the South’s lower labor costs.
Sen. Tim Scott on Monday said striking workers should be fired, saying he would emulate President Ronald Reagan who terminated more than 11,000 striking air traffic controllers in 1981.
‘Ronald Reagan gave us a great example when federal employees decided they were going to strike,’ Scott told voters during an event in Fort Dodge, Iowa. ‘He said, ‘You strike, you’re fired.’ Simple concept to me. To the extent that we can use that once again, absolutely.’’’
Former Gov. Nikki Haley on Tuesday proclaimed she was a ‘union buster,’ pointing to her record of recruiting foreign car manufacturers such as Mercedes Benz and Volvo to the Palmetto State.
‘I didn’t want to bring in companies that were unionized simply because I didn’t want to have that change the environment in our state,’ Haley said during an interview with Fox News.
Haley said President Joe Biden had ‘emboldened’ the UAW by proclaiming he is the ‘most pro-union president in American history.’ She said the striking autoworkers’ demands for a 40% pay raise will drive up prices. ‘We’re all going to suffer from this,’ Haley said.”
Scott is right that Reagan fired the striking air traffic controllers. But there are two big differences with that situation and the current one.
First of all, the air traffic controllers, unlike the UAW workers, were federal employees – who were not allowed to strike by law. The UAW strikers are private employees with every right to strike.
Secondly, Reagan had a seriously good reputation with unionized men and women. All were well aware that Reagan himself had been a seven-time president of the Screen Actors Guild, the major Hollywood union of the day. And when he ran in both 1980 and 1984 Reagan carried heavily unionized Michigan. In fact, so may union workers supported Reagan they became known as “Reagan Democrats.”
The fact that Donald Trump is making a point of sitting down with UAW workers contrasts bigly with the Scott and Haley approach.
It’s safe to say we haven’t heard the last of this.