John Tillman writes for National Review Online about misguided labor ideas from some leading Republicans.
It’s not just Democrats. A growing number of Republicans don’t get Donald Trump’s appeal to working Americans, either. They think the president’s electoral victories show that workers want Republicans to back labor unions. In fact, working-class voters overwhelmingly supported Trump because he stands for opportunity and patriotism — not union power.
Senator Josh Hawley is the latest and loudest Republican to miss the message. On March 4, he introduced a bill that can only be described as pro-union. It’s the most aggressive Republican effort yet to prop up unions, mandating an aggressive schedule for contract negotiations that gives unions the advantage. The federal government could also force collective bargaining agreements on workers if an agreement isn’t reached. For Republicans, giving unions even more power over workers is unprecedented territory.
The Missouri senator and his right-of-center allies clearly hope that throwing the GOP’s weight behind unions will seal the deal for working-class voters, making them a permanent part of the Republican coalition. But Hawley and other pro-union Republicans need to step back and look at why working-class Americans really stand with Donald Trump.
The first thing they fail to understand is that Trump appeals to workers because of his big-picture vision. In 2016, 2020, and 2024, the president spoke to workers’ desire for job security and prosperity. He recognized that workers were pessimistic about the country’s future, so he promised a new era of optimism and opportunity.
He kept that promise in his first term. America had a booming economy that created more manufacturing jobs, historic wage gains, and record-low unemployment. His second-term agenda of permanent tax cuts and a smaller regulatory state are designed to deliver even greater benefits, though tariffs may complicate things. Regardless, Trump’s vision of opportunity has stood in stark contrast to Democrats’ reality of economic decline — decline driven in part by union power. No wonder working Americans have rallied to him.
