Voters across the country voted to return Donald Trump to the White House. In Minnesota, voters supported the Harris/Walz team and overwhelmingly voted for the incumbent elected leaders, regardless of political party. The Minnesota DFL maintained control of the state senate by a one vote margin and the GOP flipped three open seats to tie the state house (note: as I write this there are two seats undergoing a hand recount- but recounts rarely result in a change of results in Minnesota). In Iowa, voters supported Donald Trump and the GOP gained seats in the state legislature solidifying their majorities.
According to exit polls appx. 56% of Union household voters supported Harris/Walz depending on the state, while 40% supported Trump (roughly the same as in the election four years ago). We do not yet have data on Minnesota or Iowa Union household vote numbers. Minnesota once again led the nation in voter turnout with 79% of eligible citizens voting.
Interestingly, in Minnesota, only one legislator running for re-election lost (Rep Brand in district 18A). A majority of leaders in both chambers of the legislator were endorsed by our Union, including all three of the women likely to serve in leadership: Senator Murphy (DFL), and House Leaders Hortman (DFL) and Demuth (GOP). While a tied house could result in a stalemate on many issues, we believe that our bi-partisan approach to politics and elections will position our members interests uniquely well at the capitol. While bold and dramatic changes are unlikely with one chamber of the legislature tied, we also do not predict a significant rolling back of important wins from prior years on items like the new Paid Family Medical Leave program in Minnesota or the Earned Sick and Safety benefits we fought for many years to achieve. In Iowa we do not expect to be able to influence many policies but will work in coalition with the Iowa AFL-CIO to make a difference wherever we can.
Nationally, we expect to be mostly on the defensive and we do anticipate a roll-back of gains on worker rights as compared to the Biden administration which was unusually good for Union members. Trump is expected to appoint corporate-friendly lawyers to the National Labor Relations Board (the federal agency chartered to protect worker/union rights). The changes to NLRB composition traditionally will impact the speed of Unfair Labor Practice cases and union elections pretty dramatically. We expect new safe staffing rules (from CMS) for nursing homes that were scheduled to begin phasing in next year to be rescinded and many of our members who are immigrants could see changes to their work eligibility depending on what new policies are enacted.
In addition, Biden’s expansion of minimum overtime eligibility rules are still scheduled to expand from a minimum salary of $35,568 per year to $55,068 on January 1, 2025. It is expected but not certain that Trump’s appointments to the Department of Labor will roll back this expansion of overtime eligibility next year since they rolled back a similar expansion of overtime eligibility that was achieved during Trump’s first term of office. For members who work for public sector facilities or non-profit institutions that are seeking forgiveness of their student loans through the current programs in the US Department of Education, we are concerned that these programs will be suspended (or loans not processed) as occurred from 2017 – 2020 during President Trump’s previous term of office as well. And we expect significant changes to public health programs around suspending the collection of data on vaccinations, for example, as well as in family planning.
On the potentially positive front- many members have expressed interest and support for changes to tax policy that would treat overtime and/or tipped income more favorably. Early reports on these campaign promises show mixed levels of support for the proposals in congress but we will be tracking these proposals and will keep you updated on these tax policy items that would favor hourly workers. We also hope to see a law prohibiting employer penalties for health care workers who decline the Influenza vaccine (our Union supports and encourages members to get the Influenza vaccine if they are medically able to do so, but we oppose employer policies mandating them as a condition of employment).
Regardless of how you voted, thank you to all members who participated in the election process this year! Thank you for engaging in so much discussion and debate around our Union with a spirit of curiosity and passion. I know that members have a lot of different issues and ideas that are important to you and your families. The issues impacting our Union and workplace rights are one area that members, regardless of party, appreciate learning about even if the issues might be more important when deciding how they voted. Our Union will work across party lines following the elections and will to do everything we can to advance the issues we can for members and to oppose the policies that would harm us. While I have significant concerns about the potential changes that we will experience in the next four years, I also know that we have a lot of power we stick together in our Union and face the future together, with solidarity and support for each other.
If you have any thoughts or feedback on the elections or what they mean for our Union I would love to hear from you by email, at a Special Member Town Hall on Election Results tomorrow, November 12th from 6:00pm-7:30pm, on Zoom, or at my virtual office hours on Zoom later this month on Wednesday, November 27th.
President Jamie Gulley
