Tag: Trump anti-labor president

Home>News>Trump anti-labor president

Davis-Bacon prevailing wage rates set minimum pay and benefit standards on federal construction projects, based on surveys of wage rates in the area. This ensures that contractors bidding on those jobs can’t undercut area standards — putting skilled, well-trained construction workers (including SMART members) on projects. In many places, prevailing wage laws provide union-won pay and training standards to local workers, benefiting local communities and working families.

Prevailing wage rates also help SMART members at the bargaining table. When contractors across a local area are required to provide strong, family-sustaining pay and benefits, local unions can negotiate for the contracts members deserve without worrying about bad-faith companies pricing out high-road employers and lowering area working standards.

That’s why SMART fights for strong prevailing wage laws at the local level, and to strengthen the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts in the federal government. Because unfortunately, SMART members are just as impacted when prevailing wage rates are lowered.

A recent example from Florida: For decades, the United States Department of Labor has used one Davis-Bacon wage determination for construction work at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Patrick Air Force Base, Kennedy Space Center and Malabar Radar Site — known altogether as Cape Canaveral — and another for Brevard County, Florida. The Cape Canaveral wage determination reflected union-won rates for all classifications, ensuring contractors bidding on work were paying strong, union-negotiated packages (and helping signatory contractors and members win more work). The Brevard County wage determination does not reflect those rates. Most of the rates on the Brevard County wage determination are low rates that haven’t increased substantially for more than 10 years.  

Earlier this summer, the new administration’s Department of Labor announced that the Cape Canaveral prevailing wage rate would be replaced, effective July 4, 2025, by the lower Brevard County rate.

“Unfortunately, this is a decision that will affect SMART members in the near future and for many years ahead,” said SMART General President Michael Coleman. “The high standards contractors previously met at Cape Canaveral have now been lowered, opening the door for companies to bid on work without paying workers what they deserve. That’s the immediate impact. And in future negotiations, local unions in the area won’t have the foundation of strong prevailing wages to stand on when bargaining for the pay and benefits that our members earn.”

“SMART members and their fellow construction workers at Cape Canaveral are doing vital work to support our nation,” he added. “Undermining that just doesn’t make sense.” 

Canada sets the standard

The disappointing actions by the United States Department of Labor and Congress contrast sharply with the current policy that SMART members enjoy in Canada.

In the U.S., the spending bill President Trump signed into law gets rid of a variety of work-creating tax credits. In Canada, similar tax incentives known as Investment Tax Credits offer companies a 30–40% credit for investments in clean technology, hydrogen production and carbon capture. These green economy credits are designed to drive investment toward sustainable energy projects. What sets them apart, however, is their strong labour standards. To qualify, employers must ensure that at least 10% of total work hours are performed by registered apprentices and that all construction workers are paid the prevailing wage — which includes health and welfare benefits as well as pension contributions.

In other words, this represents the strongest definition of prevailing wage ever implemented in Canadian labour history, utilizing the union definition of prevailing wage.

“It’s simple: Thanks to these incredibly strong standards, SMART Canada members will be put to work and Canadian families will benefit. No question,” General President Coleman said. “We applaud the Government of Canada for putting working families first, and we will continue to work with state and federal governments in the U.S. to win policies that benefit our members and their families.”

A $2 billion megaproject that was set to create more than 3,000 union jobs in Massachusetts is under threat after Congress passed the 2025 tax bill, which President Trump signed into law on July 4, 2025.

The Allston Multimodal Project, which had a project labor agreement in place, would have put workers on the job straightening out the Massachusetts Turnpike throughout Boston’s northwest corner, opened up land for development and invested in public transit. SMART sheet metal workers and other union construction members would have played a key role, including building a new train-and-bus hub.

But on Friday, July 18, the Trump administration’s Department of Transportation confirmed that DOT is terminating $327 million that Massachusetts won in 2023 for the Allston Multimodal Project. Massachusetts will keep just $8 million from the grant.

“Unfortunately, some of the harmful pieces of the spending bill are already starting to impact SMART members and our communities, just weeks after the president signed it into law,” said SMART General President Michael Coleman. “This project wasn’t only going to create thousands of union jobs, including for SMART sheet metal workers. It was going to invest in local communities and the state’s transportation network. Because funding has been so drastically cut, all of that is in jeopardy.”

The project has been in the works for more than a decade. The Boston Globe reported that it “was Governor Deval Patrick, after all, who first promised this new transit hub, dubbed West Station, alongside the turnpike realignment, 11 years ago.”

But the pieces only came together in March of last year, when the Biden administration awarded the project a $335 million grant through the Department of Transportation’s Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods program.

Even with the rescinded funding, Mass. Governor Maura Healey said in a statement that her administration “remain[s] committed to doing everything we can, working with our incredible project partners, to make Allston Multimodal a reality.”

But the fact remains that the pulling of federal grant money directly threatens SMART members’ jobs.

“The Healey-Driscoll Administration is conducting a strategic review of the project to determine a path forward,” SMART Northeast Regional Council President Bob Butler said in an email to Local 17 members. “Local 17 stands with our fellow union partners, as well as our community and government allies in demanding the funding be restored — and in fighting to keep this project alive.”

Cleveland-Cliffs, a steel manufacturer, reportedly canceled a $500 million project in Middletown, Ohio, in June 2025 — leading to a loss in work hours for union sheet metal workers in the area.

“This would have been a solid project for Local 24, especially our Dayton-area membership,” said Local 24 Business Manager Jeff Hunley.

Local radio station WYSO 91.3 reported: “The planned switch from a coal-based steel plant to hydrogen was expected to create 1,200 union construction jobs and protect 2,500 existing positions.”

WYSO noted that Cleveland-Cliffs had planned to replace its coal steel-making furnace with a hydrogen-powered system, supported in part by a $500 million grant from the Department of Energy. That grant came from the Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law under the Biden administration in 2022.

But Steel Industry News reported that the Trump administration’s shift away from clean energy and its focus on fossil fuels created uncertainty for the company, and rising tariffs on steel imports “forced Cleveland-Cliffs to prioritize short-term profitability.”

Now, at least for the time being, the project has been abandoned.

Changing clean energy policies impact SMART members

Union sheet metal workers play a key role in building and converting clean energy facilities, including hydrogen, nuclear and battery plants. That’s what makes federal grants, tax credits and funding so important to SMART sheet metal workers, and why the strong labor standards included in such policies under the Biden administration were also crucial for members.

“When we work to pass laws like the Inflation Reduction Act, we’re investing in our future,” explained SMART General President Michael Coleman. “The grants and tax credits we got passed in that law are the kinds of policies that create jobs for sheet metal workers five, ten, fifteen years down the line. Unfortunately, when those types of policies are thrown in jeopardy, we see companies become less willing to invest, and projects get paused or canceled.”

“The Cleveland-Cliffs project cancelation means that the jobs Local 24 was expecting will no longer be available to members in Ohio. With the cuts to clean energy tax credits and programs in the spending bill passed by Congress, we can expect more disappointing stories like this, at least for the next few years,” he added.

NLRB Logo; National Labor Relations BoardOn June 17, 2017, the AFL-CIO issued a legislative alert to U.S. Senators regarding Trump’s nomination of Marvin Kaplan and William Emanuel to fill the vacant seats on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
In the alert, Emanuel is noted for representing the “…notorious union-busting law firm Littler Mendelson,” and Kaplan’s, “…sole experience with labor law is on a policy level, drafting legislation to weaken worker protections…”
Click here to read the entire letter from the AFL-CIO.
A Senate committee may vote on these nominations as early as tomorrow, July 19, 2017 –
so contact your Senator today: 
Visit the SMART TD Legislative Action Center (LAC) to call your Senator and voice your opposition to these nominations.
On Tuesday, July 18, the Chicago Tribune outlined how Trump seeks to dismantle unions in America. Click here to read the article.