During election years, and especially around this time of year, we hear politicians talk about the needs and concerns of “working men and women.” Less often, they’ll show they understand the real issues facing men and women at work or offer any idea or plan to address those needs and concerns. With many of these politicians, they figure if they just promise a middle-class tax cut and mention something about job creation, they’ve done all they can do.

Most of them are too busy chasing money from big-dollar donors to notice the massive income inequality and runaway greed that has come to define the U.S. economy over the last 40 years. Many probably can’t identify the National Labor Relations Board, explain Davis-Bacon rates, or how a pension works. They might think OSHA is the latest weight loss craze, and they probably can’t even tell you what the federal minimum wage is – they just “know it’s too high.” Many haven’t a clue about the hours of training required to develop the skills to perform – safely and efficiently – the work of building this country’s critical infrastructure, including roads and bridges, schools and hospitals, railroads and windmills, and pipelines and solar farms. From sea to shining sea, these politicians are blissfully and willfully ignorant.

As a result, we are often left to assume a lot about politicians. We can usually guess what their position might be from subject to subject based on their political party affiliation, but this isn’t always as sure-fire as we’d like to think. Enter: The Heritage Foundation and Project 2025.

Project 2025 is an extreme policy agenda that was authored by 140 former Trump staffers (among others), including Trump’s former Top Aide John McEntee. In over 900 pages, the document details a wide range of policy proposals for any incoming Republican administration. Although Trump and his cronies have tried to run away from Project 2025, their fingerprints are all over it.

So, what does the agenda have in store for American workers? Let’s look at just a few points:

  • Repeal Davis-Bacon prevailing wages-lowering the wages of all construction workers on federal projects. (p.604)
  • Repeal the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act-both of which are restoring our nation’s infrastructure and creating hundreds of thousands of good union jobs. (p.365)
  • Ban the use of Project Labor Agreements on federal projects-making it more difficult for union members to get work. (p.604)

There is much more which you can read here, and none of it is good. None of it will improve worker protections, improve working conditions, expand worker freedoms, or increase worker wages. There is nothing, NOTHING in Project 2025 designed to improve the lives of working men and women. Believe me, if they had even one single policy designed to help improve our lives, we would never hear the end of it; but they don’t, so we won’t. It is a retrograde proposal designed to take the country backwards.

Conversely, Kamala Harris, the Presidential candidate who has walked a picket line with striking workers, has been a part of the most pro-worker and pro-Union administration in our lifetimes. The Biden/Harris administration fought for and signed the largest Infrastructure plan in our country’s history, a $1.2 TRILLION investment that will produce hundreds of thousands of good paying Union jobs across the nation. They also signed the Chips and Science Act, and the American Rescue Plan, all the while fighting for Davis-Bacon expansion and revisions, resulting in unprecedented pay raises for construction workers everywhere.

And, Importantly, Kamala Harris isn’t afraid to say the word “Union”, she wears the title of “most Union friendly administration” with pride. When there are ribbon cuttings, and investments, she makes sure it’s Union members (and often LIUNA members) standing by her side.

Labor Day is traditionally the end of Summer, and in an election year it’s unofficially the real beginning of “campaign season.” We are about to be flooded with images of candidates donning bright and clean hard hats, with shiny new work boots, visiting work sites to show how “in touch” they are with regular workers.

When we see these images, remember the most important part. While one candidate (the one who became famous with the phrase ”You’re Fired”) was writing down all the ways he wants to disempower you, take away your rights, your safety, your wages and your retirement, the other candidate for President (the one who has stood in solidarity with workers for her entire career) was fighting for and voting for actual legislation that will empower all workers, give everyone a raise, and assure that our safety and dignity are preserved through retirement.

On Labor Day, of all days, the choice for President couldn’t be clearer. Kamala Harris for Jobs. Kamala Harris for Unions. Kamala Harris for America.