Trump Administration, Construction Unions Do Battle Over the American Dream

Some workers unions in the United States are pushing back against Trump administration immigration policies by protecting their members through rallies, new programs, and changing politics.

Construction unions have been hoping over the past 20 or so years to organize more undocumented workers to organize larger numbers of undocumented workers. Some say that the Trump administration has galvanized their unions into doing more faster, The Guardian reports. “Has the Trump era accelerated our efforts? Absolutely,” says Painters Union president, Ken Rigmaiden. “There are too many reasons to mention but one, in particular, is forcing 11 million immigrants back into the dark side of the construction economy, where wage theft and intimidation thrive.”

In March 2017, Bill Bing, a representative for the Northeast Regional Carpenters Council representative, even admitted in the Buffalo News that the union routinely called Ice to report undocumented workers on construction sites in upstate New York. “There are very good local union and nonunion contractors who suffer the fallout from dirty business,” Bing told the Buffalo News. The leadership of North America’s Building Trades Unions has traditionally been one of the whitest sectors of the labor movement.

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