AFL-CIO chief: Trump has done more to hurt workers than help them

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Sunday that President Trump has done more to hurt workers than he has to help them.

“Unfortunately, to date, the things that he has done to hurt workers outpace what he’s done to help workers,” Trumka said on “Fox News Sunday.” 

{mosads}Trumka’s comments, made one day before Labor Day, come after Trump on Friday issued a statement praising labor unions. Trump lauded organized labor for “advocating for the interests of the American worker and wage-earner.” 

But Trumka on Sunday criticized a number of Trump’s policy decisions.

“He hasn’t come up with an infrastructure program that could put a lot of us back to work,” Trumka said. “He overturned a regulation that would deny over 5 million overtime that they would’ve had. He overturned some health and safety regulations that will hurt us on the job.”

“We keep trying to find areas where we can work with him,” he added.

Trumka has praised Trump in the past for his stance on U.S. trade policies, but has called the president a disappointment, charging that Trump has “used his office to actively hurt working people.”

“If President Trump wants to change course and join us in the fight to raise wages and standards, and strengthen our democracy and build better lives, then we’ll be ready,” Trumka said in January. “But if he continues down his current path, workers will be looking for a new president in 2020.” 

Fox News host Chris Wallace also pressed Trumka on the state of the economy, pointing to low unemployment numbers and suggesting that Trump deserved credit.

“Those are good, but wages have been down since the first of the year,” Trumka said. “Gas prices have been up since the first year. So overall, workers aren’t doing as well.”