"You better keep your eye on your kids. We know what car you drive." That's the kind of threats a local union official is getting after President-presumed-elect Donald Trump tweeted something bad about him.
"You gonna die. Death is coming to you real soon." A Florida woman is arrested for threatening the parents of a child killed at Sandy Hook. Trump-tied "fake news" sites claim the shootings there were a "hoax" intended to push gun control.
A guy shows up at a Pizza shop based on conspiracy theories -- some pushed out by Trump insiders, others by the same Trump-related websites and radio shows that pushed the Sandy Hook hoax -- claiming Hillary Clinton runs a child sex trafficking ring from its basement. He brings an assault rifle,"... terrifying customers and workers with his assault-style rifle as he searched Comet Ping Pong, police said. He found no hidden children, no secret chambers, no evidence of a child sex ring run by the failed Democratic candidate for president of the United States..."
Is this the "new normal" for our country?
Trump Attacks Local Union Leader
The latest example of this top-down attacking involves Chuck Jones, the president of United Steelworkers (USW) local 1999. Local 1999 represents workers at Indiana's Carrier furnace and air conditioner manufacturer.
After Trump falsely announced that he had made a deal to "save" 1,100 Carrier jobs Jones said Trump had, "... for whatever reason, lied his a-- off." (See LA Times, Trump's Carrier jobs triumph looks more like a sham every day.)
Trump publicly responded to Jones on Twitter,
and
This is the next President of the United States publicly attacking a guy who is president of a local union in Indiana, singling him out for national attention. And this national humiliation and endangerment by the next President of the United States is because the guy told the truth after Trump did not.
According to the Washington Post report, Donald Trump insulted a union leader on Twitter. Then the phone started to ring., "My first thought was, 'Well, that's not very nice,' " he told The Washington Post on Wednesday night. "Then, 'Well, I might not sleep much tonight.' "
Then things started to get bad,"Half an hour after Trump tweeted about Jones on Wednesday, the union leader's phone began to ring and kept ringing, he said. One voice asked: What kind of car do you drive? Another said: We're coming for you.
He wasn't sure how these people found his number.
'Nothing that says they're gonna kill me, but, you know, you better keep your eye on your kids,' Jones said later on MSNBC. 'We know what car you drive. Things along those lines.'"
But there's more to it. Attacking a union's leadership, saying "no wonder companies are fleeing the country," the union should have "kept those jobs in Indiana" and saying the union should "spend more time working-less time talking. Reduce dues." is classic management anti-union propaganda. Saying the union is costing jobs is a union busting tactic intended to drive a wedge between the union and rank-and-file workers.
This anti-union action shows the mindset of Trump toward working people. It sends a signal. If unions try to help their membership, and challenge Trump's tactics and facts, Trump will attack them and threaten their leadership.
Support For Jones: #ImWithChuck
Not everyone is intimidated by these attacks on individuals by the next president.
In response to Trump's attack on Jones, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka issued this statement,"Chuck Jones is a man of passion, conviction and integrity who would do anything for his union brothers and sisters. President Gerard is exactly right - Chuck is a hero. An attack on him is an attack on all working people.
Chuck is right to call out the president-elect for inflating the number of jobs that will be saved at Carrier. He understands better than anyone that these are more than numbers--they are people with families to support and bills to pay.
Instead of attacking those who have been working hard to save jobs, the president-elect needs to engage with local union leaders at Carrier and at his hotel in Las Vegas. Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas is breaking the law by not bargaining with its newly unionized employees. Mr. Trump will soon occupy the White House. His words and actions need to befit that office."
Scott Paul, President of the Alliance for American Manufacturing tweeted this about Jones,
Also on Twitter, the hashtag #ImWithChuck has messages of support of Jones.
This Is The Next President?
Trump, believe it or not, is president-elect of the United States. That is a position of great power, commanding great influence over what people think and do. When Trump or those around him "punch down" and publicly attack individuals or advance bizarre conspiracy theories, it puts people in danger. Trump and those around him don't seem to care. And by publicly not caring and continuing to do it, it starts to look like intent.
Trump and the people around him are, in essence, sending these nuts after people. Provoking. Inciting. But with the tweets attacking Chuck Jones using classic union-busting propaganda Trump is also strategically attacking the interests of all working people.