Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:29 pm
*The following is an opinion column by R Muse*
So, Donald Trump claims he is a champion of “law and order” and has often pledged that he would enforce the law “balanced with justice and fairness.” Like everything Trump claims or promises, it is a fair bet he is doing the opposite and where “law and order” is concerned, Trump is again in trouble for violating federal laws. In fact, he was just charged with deliberately violating federal labor rights of his own employees because Donald Trump only looks out for Donald Trump.
Of course the media failed to note another Trump legal violation and failed to report that on Wednesday the national Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that Donald J. Trump has continued to illegally refuse to bargain with employees, about 500, at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. The employees had earlier voted to officially unionize in despite threats and warnings from Trump that they would face retribution if they dared cross the big boss.
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The federal labor board ordered Donald Trump to immediately recognize the workers’ union and begin bargaining a contract with them according to federal law. The NLRB ruling also said Trump must put up notices in and around the hotel property admitting the Donald was guilty of violating a federal labor law. The board wrote, “We find that the Respondent’s [Trump’s] conduct constitutes an unlawful failure and refusal to recognize and bargain with the Union.”
That was good news for the hotel employees and it prompted the Secretary-Treasurer of the union representing the workers, Geoconda Arguello-Kline to say, “Mr. Trump should accept the federal government’s order to negotiate and treat his workers with respect. Mr. Trump is breaking federal law and Trump Hotel Las Vegas is operating illegally.” Trump also employed a union-busting outfit to frighten underpaid workers into rejecting union representation.
At about the same time Trump hotel employees began organizing last year, the Donald hired the “union avoidance” (read union busting) consulting firm Lupe Cruz and Associates. That “specialty” company, which has already busted union campaigns at American Apparel, the Conway trucking company, and some Hilton hotels, boasts on its website that it can help prospective clients in their un-American effort to “preserve a union free work place.”
Trump hotel workers related to ThinkProgress that they were forced to attend meetings with Trump’s union-busting representatives for the specific purpose of forcing them to be subjected to fear mongering and intimidation until they fully embraced Trump’s reasons they should not be organized. One hotel housekeeper shared that Trump’s union busters:
“Intimidated us a lot. They pressured us a lot to vote no. They told us the union only wants our money, that if we supported the union we’d lose our jobs, that the company would put our names on a blacklist and no other hotels in Las Vegas would hire us. They told us to think of what our children would do if we were out of work. Everyone was very stressed. People were afraid.”
Still, brave workers voted to unionize and after the union won the election, Trump refused to recognize the results; because he didn’t win. As a self-proclaimed law and order advocate, Trump’s natural inclination was to violate the law and illegally retaliated against two of the workers responsible for the union organizing effort; by firing one and denying a promotion to another. Because he violated the law, Trump was forced to rehire the former and pay both employees back wages, and pay a fine of more than $11,000.
Trump tells his idiot supporters that he will be their blessed messiah and make them prosperous, but Trump only looks out for Trump and his only regard for workers is how he can best rape them financially.
In Las Vegas, for example, Trump International Hotel workers, over 80 percent who are immigrants and over 50 percent are women , all earn $3 an hour less than most Las Vegas hotel employees.
Another Trump employee, Maria Jaramillo, told ThinkProgress six months ago that besides substandard wages, the poor benefits package pushed the workers to unionize. “We don’t get an [annual] raise, we have to pay for our [health] insurance, and we have no retirement explained. I’m not making enough to give my kids a better future.”
One of Trump’s employees said, “He (Trump) says he wants to make America great. Well, he should start here in his own house, his own business.”
Some hotel workers have been following Trump on his campaign trips around the country to try to pressure and shame him into coming to the bargaining table, but they learned that Donald Trump is incapable of feeling shame.
More than one or two Americans suspects that Trump is so shameless that despite a ruling and order from the federal government, he will not abide by the NLRB ruling and order and it is a suspicion that the largest police union in the nation endorsing Trump and all of his “blue-collar” supporters should take as a portent of their plight if their anti-union hero is elected president. There is irony in the biggest law enforcement union endorsing an anti-union advocate who is also guilty of violating federal laws by refusing to bargain with union workers, but that irony is likely lost on a union that endorsed Trump primarily because he promised to ban Muslims from America.
Donald Trump is not interested in law and order any more than he is concerned with the plight of American workers or their prosperity. If he were interested in either, he would not deliberately violate federal labor laws for the sole purpose of paying his employees as little as possible; it is something one suspects his ardent cop and stupid working-class supporters are unaware of.
Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn’t look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
