Nation’s top labor leader calls Trump an “anti-American bigot”

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – In a speech today to the Plasterer’s and Cement Workers union (OPCMIA), AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka challenged Donald Trump’s appeal to working class voters:

Trumka said:

“We must come together to elect a president who will raise wages, so working people can build better lives…

“That is the choice we face in this presidential election.

“On the one hand, Republican candidates have used some of the ugliest, most racist and destructive language I have heard in my lifetime… 

“On the other hand, the Democratic candidates have engaged in a substantive and vigorous debate about how best to raise wages.

“Donald Trump is tapping into the very real and very understandable anger of working people. A majority of people in this country are living paycheck to paycheck.  It’s a precarious way to live…

“Listen, I know real down-home talk when I hear it, and I know a load of baloney and bluster, too, and I don’t think I have to tell you that Trump is full of baloney and bluster.

“He is also a bigot.  From his anti-American proposal to ban Muslims to his horrendous comments about women and immigrants, Trump is running on hate.  It seems the only group he won’t criticize is the KKK.

“Those statements and positions are bad enough.  But what’s getting less attention is how Donald Trump really feels about working people…

“First, Trump loves right to work. He said it is “better for the people” and his position is “100 percent.” Meanwhile, he is fighting tooth and nail against workers at his hotel in Las Vegas. 

“Second, Trump was a major financial backer of Scott Walker and says he admired the way Walker took on public unions in Wisconsin.

“Finally, and most disturbingly, Trump says our wages are already too high.  Can you believe that?  Trump is advocating the polar opposite of our raising wages agenda.

“You see, Trump says he’s with the American working class, but when you look close, it’s just hot air”.

For the full speech, go here: http://www.aflcio.org/Press-Room/Speeches/At-the-2016-OPCMIA-West-Coast-Business-Managers-Meeting

Photo: Richard Trumka.  |  AP