Sean O’Brien’s comments during his interview with Sen. Josh Hawley stating that “people are trying to protect illegal aliens that come here and commit crimes … and steal jobs” gives cover for the bosses to continue pitting workers against each other. Harold Daggett credited Trump with being a “true friend of the working class” after securing a tentative Master Contract in early January. Fain spent so much time at the DNC calling Trump a scab and how he will hurt workers to then support his tariff plan.

Right now is the time when unions need to be working towards independent political action, not tailing the Democrats or Republicans. O’Brien’s speech at the RNC in July 2024 was welcomed, not because Republicans are going to be a party for workers, but because it represented an opening in our ability to reach conservative workers with a class-oriented message.

The lack of an independent labor party in the United States means that inevitably there will be a rightward shift as more people pull away from the Democratic Party. Misleaders like O’Brien, Daggett, and Fein only encourage a rightward drift even more with their sloganeering about “protecting American jobs”. Fain’s comments may not have been xenophobic like O’Brien’s, but a tariff war and attack on immigrants both objectively help the bosses. The working class needs unity now the most, not more division.

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After a December meeting with ILA President Harold Daggett, Trump announced his support in a statement on his social media platform, Truth Social. Trump dressed his support in a reactionary tone, making the workers’ struggle over automation out to be little more than a fight between a foreign company and American workers. It is important not to lose sight of the fact that it doesn’t matter where a company is based, capitalists will always attempt to use automation to increase production and eliminate jobs—especially unionized jobs.

After announcing the tentative agreement on January 8, Daggett claimed that Trump has proven himself to be “one of the best friends of working men and women in the United States.” Given both Trump’s business career and first term in office, it’s clear that Trump is far from a friend of the working class. During the campaign Trump tried to cause a divide within the labor movement, trying to take advantage of the historical differences between craft and industrial unions. He has followed his anti-worker campaign with a barrage of Executive Orders attacking working-class Americans.

ILA leadership hitching itself to Trump, may have successfully helped it gain this current tentative agreement, but it adds to the labor movement’s precarious position after Trump has filled his cabinet with union-busting robber barons and other anti-union blowhards. LUEL cautiously supports the ILA rank-and-file members’ win in protecting their jobs and maintaining livable wages but the labor movement cannot continue to rely on capitalist politicians. The only path forward to protect and maintain these gains going forward is for a class-oriented rank-and-file movement to lead the union in an anti-monopoly direction.

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