A labor union leader has a warning about Trump. Can he persuade his own members?

LITTLE CANADA, Minn. — Jimmy Williams Jr. doesn’t shy away from difficult conversations. As a union leader in the construction industry, he has made a habit of defending progressive policies to skeptical members who support President Donald Trump. But there’s one topic that’s never easier to talk about, no matter how often it comes up.

“Every conversation I have with our members about immigration is difficult,” Williams said recently at a union hall outside Minneapolis.

He continued: “People break my bones all the time and say I’m too ‘woke’. They say we focus on too many things, like DEI and stuff like that. We’re a union that represents workers, period.”

Williams was speaking with local union representatives about forging closer ties among their members in the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, which represents more than 100,000 painters, glaziers and drywall finishers nationwide. He said he wants members to overcome their political differences to see their common economic struggle.

A “broken” system has been pitting American-born workers against immigrants, weakening the union’s solidarity and bargaining position, Williams explained. To illustrate what’s at stake, he said one of the union’s predominantly Latino local councils hasn’t held a mass public meeting of members for months.

“For fear that one of our members They will call ICE for their own brother or sister,” he said.

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The Trump administration claims that mass deportations will increase the wages of American citizens by eliminating workers who came to the country illegally and will compete for jobs. Although many economists say that widespread deportations will have the opposite effectmany of the union construction workers who voted for Trump last fall believe they can benefit from the president’s anti-immigration agenda.

Williams, however, is convinced that Trump’s crackdown will actually make things worse for the workers who build skyscrapers, apartment buildings and data centers across the country.

“Personally, I think all it does is drive people further and further underground,” the Philadelphia native recently told News themezone while visiting workplaces to talk to members. “It affects our trade – it lowers standards.”

Although his union wing is not known for openly defending immigrants, Williams does not dwell on the issue. last week the testified before Congress and described “Horror story after horror story” of union members who lost their temporary protected status, were detained on the way home from work, “never to be heard from again.”

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“What is happening in our country right now should alarm us all,” he told lawmakers.

Williams’ testimony irritated Stephen Miller, the official leading Trump’s anti-immigration campaign, who said it was an example of unions advocating “the replacement of American workers with an endless supply of cheaper foreign labor.”

“It’s not the immigrant worker that’s screwing you here. It’s an economic system that values ​​low wages and reduced working conditions.”

– Jimmy Williams Jr., General President, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades

It’s not hard for Williams to understand why some workers would support an aggressive deportation campaign.

The composition of the construction industry has changed dramatically in recent decades: the share of white workers is falling and Latinos now make up a larger share. about a third of the workforce. Those demographic shifts have reached Williams’ union, where commercial painting and drywall jobs offer first- and second-generation immigrants entry into decent union jobs. He now expects Latinos to be the union’s largest group within a couple of years.

Low-paid construction projects with immigrant labor are often the focus of the union’s organizing efforts. Williams, a fourth-generation glazier, says it’s an important step in reversing what he sees as the gradual degradation of a middle-class job. The effort is partly about adding new members, but also about regaining market share to protect the union’s existing retired members.

Construction unions, once a powerful force within the construction industry, have lost significant ground since the 1970s, with unionized contractors disadvantaged by non-unionized ones. The industry is plagued by Worker misclassification and wage theft. — The problems Williams predicts will become more widespread if workers become increasingly afraid to assert their rights. It’s one of the reasons why he campaigned against Trump during last year’s presidential elections.

“We understand that they are suffering too,” he said of members who support the crackdown, “but the immigrant worker is not the one who is screwing you here. It is an economic system that values ​​low wages and reduced working conditions.”

The painters union has been tackling the immigration issue since Trump’s first presidency, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested one of its members, Hugo Mejía, as he arrived to work drywall at an Air Force base in California in 2017. The union’s public defense of “Brother Hugo,” as leaders called him, divided some of its members.

At the time, one white member told News themezone that protecting Mejia was a waste of time and resources, although another said, “I have more in common with Hugo than I will ever have with my boss.”

Williams is trying to close some of those gaps. This year, he has been traveling to the union’s 30 local councils across the country to implement a program called “Building union power“, which teaches members and trainees about the history of the union and the economic and political forces that have reduced the footprint of organized labor. He hopes it can reverse an “apathy” within the union and help rebuild solidarity across political lines.

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“We have to slow down enough to have real conversations with our members,” he said.

Trump’s immigration crackdown has brought the issue to the forefront of several unions. The most prominent deported migrant in the White House, Kilmar Abrego Garciais an apprentice with the Maryland Sheet Metal Union. The administration wrongfully deported him to an infamous Salvadoran megaprison earlier this year, violating his protection from court-ordered deportation. Abrego García was returned to the United States despite resistance from the Trump administration and a judge ordered his release custody last week.

The sheet metal workers union declined a request for an interview about the Abrego García case, but its management issued statements In his defense, he argued that his case “is about all of us and the rights that we can all lose when a person is deprived of theirs.”

“When [ICE] starts to raise people up… it has the effect of making a large section of the working class afraid and willing to accept lower wages and worse conditions. That has an impact even on union members.”

– Nelson Lichtenstein, labor historian at the University of California, Santa Barbara

Republicans in the construction industry don’t always appreciate that kind of advocacy. In April, an affiliate of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in Washington state passed a resolution to mobilize against ICE raids by joining protests and passing out “know your rights” cards. Rob Allen Jr., a conservative member, spoke out against the measure. Allen, who describes himself as a committed unionist, told News themezone that he is tired of progressive activism in the world of work. He believes a union should stick to “what unites us, the sector, rather than what divides us.”

“We have a thousand electricians out of work right now; we should focus on getting them back to work,” Allen said. “Devoting our efforts to non-work-related political issues is not the best use of union resources.”

Immigration has been a thorny issue within certain branches of the union movement for more than a century, and foreign-born workers are often seen as a threat to the livelihoods of established workers. (Trump aide Miller celebrated workers for “leading the charge” against immigration in the early 20th century.) The AFL-CIO labor federation, which includes a coalition of construction unions, called for amnesty for undocumented immigrants. 25 years ago. But it’s a topic some union leaders would prefer not to touch, said Nelson Lichtenstein, a labor historian at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

“It’s true that many of these leaders are not willing to come out forcefully and speak out on this issue; they just want to let it die,” Lichtenstein said.

He called it a mistake.

“When [ICE] “You start recruiting people… it has the effect of making a large section of the working class afraid and willing to accept lower wages and worse conditions,” he said. “That has an impact even on unionized people.”

Brent Booker, president of the Laborers’ International Union of North America, said he is trying to “change the way we talk” about immigration. Instead of focusing on the workers who came to the United States to improve the lives of their families, Booker said, they should focus on the contractors who are exploiting them and undermining the companies that sign contracts. project labor agreements.

“Employers are the ones breaking the law,” Booker said. “I haven’t seen any contractors approached on the street, a bag [put] over their heads and with zip ties and were taken away in an unmarked car. “I’ve seen that happen to a lot of immigrant workers.”

“I can’t convince everyone of that,” he added, “but But I think it’s a start where we have to change that conversation.”

Williams is sometimes opposed by union leaders who believe they should stay away from a “wedge issue” like immigration altogether. One compared it to abortion or guns; Williams responded by pointing out a crucial difference.

“Abortion and guns don’t come to a construction site,” he said.

One of the biggest problems facing construction unions is the scourge of misclassification: Workers are labeled “independent contractors” instead of employees, leaving them without unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation, or union rights. Immigrants are believed to be particularly susceptible to this practice, as they are less likely to question their employment status.

“It’s by far the biggest scam in the industry,” Williams said.

The painters’ union is trying to combat the practice by filing wage complaints with the government on behalf of workers who have been cheated out of overtime. But these efforts could be hampered by the Trump administration’s deep cuts to the federal government, including the U.S. Department of Labor, which is investigating federal allegations of wage theft, said Shane Smith, the union’s vice president of organizing.

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“It’s a tough place to be,” he said. “That is a tool that we use to generate power for workers, to build towards those [union] elections and to be able to obtain a victory so that those people see the power of collective action.”

He added: “We made a lot of progress during the last administration, and that seems to be disappearing now.”

Regardless of those cuts, many workers no longer trust the process or fear their information will be shared between agencies, organizers said. In a sign of how the atmosphere has changed, the Trump administration ended quietly a Biden-era program that offered temporary protection from deportation to workers who reported labor violations, Bloomberg Law reported.

Laura Garza, director of the Arise Chicago migrant worker center, said many of the workers her group helps are not at all interested in approaching the federal government right now, even if they are being cheated out of their wages. Arise typically files several unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board each year when workers believe their rights have been violated. This year he has not presented any.

“That’s just a reality,” Garza said.

Now that Chicago is the focus of ICE enforcement, Arise has seen a 50% drop in its in-person trainings where workers learn about wage and safety protections. Garza said they have moved on to training employers on what their responsibilities are, and many small businesses have chosen to participate in the program.

The painters union is also forced to make adjustments due to the climate of fear. In some cases, workers literally ran from organizers when they stopped at a job site, said Savannah Palmira, a Seattle-based organizing director. Organizers realized that the black security vests with neon stripes they were wearing looked like ICE uniforms, so they switched to orange vests.

“Trying to get a worker to come forward is very, very difficult,” Palmira said.

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But the union has not given up trying to get new members.

Zach Thoemke, a union organizer in Minneapolis, said he recently helped two painters get thousands of dollars in back pay they were owed, and the employer ended up agreeing to negotiate with the union — the kind of victory that requires months of work and legal wrangling. Understand why some workers would be reluctant to take such risks in the current climate.

“When workers step up and trust us and we do everything right, we win,” he said. “It’s just hard to instill that confidence when they have so much to lose.”