Let’s Review the Tape

No, not that tape. We’ve seen it more than we care to admit and yes, it is repugnant. But I’m referring the tale of the tape comparing Secretary Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on key issues that working people in transportation sectors care about.

Transportation unions have spent more than a year in this presidential campaign building a case for policies that modernize our economy and lift up working people. Policies like massively expanding federal investment in our badly deteriorated transportation systems and infrastructure. Reversing the frightening collapse of the middle class and severe decline in peoples’ wages. And reforming labor, trade and other policies to give millions of working people a chance to raise their wages and be part of an expanding middle class through union representation and collective bargaining on the job.

On those issues and many more, this election has become the biggest no-brainer for working people once the facts are known. Here are a few:

On Investing in Transportation
Secretary Clinton has come out swinging with a serious plan that would spend more than a half a trillion dollars on our infrastructure. Billions would be allocated to transit and rail systems, air traffic control and airport modernization, highways and bridges, and our port and maritime network. It would put millions to work, is actually paid for with a corporate tax reform proposal, and — unlike most candidates we’ve seen over many decades — Secretary Clinton has pledged to move her plan forward in her first 100 days in office.

Trump talks about rebuilding our infrastructure but his rhetoric doesn’t match his views or his deeds. Trump’s platform disses America’s commuters by eliminating all funding for public transit. His plan breaks up Amtrak, a move that would threaten the rides of 30 million people who travel on Amtrak annually, put 20,000 jobs at risk and make the highway congestion crisis even worse by putting more cars on our roads. More recently, Trump abandoned any plan to direct new federal spending on transportation. Instead, he took a page from the right-wing think tank community and recycled a discredited idea that we can somehow find the trillions needed for our infrastructure improvements solely through public-private partnerships. His running mate, Governor Mike Pence, has spent a career in politics voting in favor of almost every proposal to hollow out transportation funding.

On Raising Wages and Collective Bargaining Rights
Trump says he’ll fight for working people and create jobs, but the facts tell a different story. Trump has endorsed national right-to-work legislation, a sure recipe to destroy unions and cut the wages of working people. Trump has endorsed a plank that would destroy the bargaining rights of federal workers, including those who work on the frontlines at the FAA and as Transportation Security Officers. And as a real estate mogul and hotel development giant, his record as an employer is deplorable.

Secretary Clinton sees it this way: “I’ve always believed that when unions are strong, families are strong and America is strong.” She has endorsed sweeping reforms to empower more workers to form and join unions. Clinton has also declared, “Right-to-Work is wrong for America” because she knows what we know: these laws crush wages. It is for this reason that the labor movement endorsed Clinton as the only candidate in this race who will expand collective bargaining as part of an economic plank to raise wages and put millions to work modernizing our economy.

On Trade and Globalization
Secretary Clinton has staked out the right views on how to fix our broken trade laws and agreements starting with an aggressive stance against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP. Closer to home for transportation workers, Secretary Clinton has come out strongly against the threat of foreign airlines, such as Norwegian Air International, that want to violate our trade rules while securing the right to provide air service into the United States.

Trump talks a good game on trade but his record tells a different tale. He rails against companies that move their production overseas and kill U.S. jobs, but most of his Trump clothing line is made in China and other low-wage countries. Trump says he’ll fix our unfair trade rules that have devastated critical industries such as steel, but his own construction projects use Chinese steel, as a steelworker explains it. And unlike Secretary Clinton, Trump hasn’t said a word about protecting U.S. airline jobs from trade violations by rogue, flag-of-convenience airlines.

Finally, there’s the track records of the candidates to consider. In addition to having better policy proposals and a clear stance on issues that affect transportation workers, Secretary Clinton can build on her strong record in the United States Senate where she got things done, promoted and fought for the interests of working people, and understood how to advance legislation with bipartisan support. Trump? No clue — he doesn’t have a record on anything that doesn’t brandish his name.

Learn more at www.shewillfixit.org and be sure to vote - either now if early voting is permitted in your state - or on November 8th.

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This was reposted from The Huffington Post.