Unions rallying in Pittsburgh pitch Trump 'chaos' as chance to grow ranks

Union heavyweights pitched their organizations Monday at a Downtown Pittsburgh rally as not just detractors of the second Trump administration, but vehicles for a unified opposition.

“We’re saying: ‘Look to the labor movement,’ ” Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, told TribLive after the event. “We are the ones that can save ourselves, despite what the parties are doing.”

Shuler was joined outside the United Steelworkers headquarters by several other prominent labor figures, including United Steelworkers International President David McCall, Allegheny-Fayette Central Labor Council President Darrin Kelly and AFL-CIO Pennsylvania President Angela Ferritto.

Along with rank-and-file workers, they decried the megabill signed by Trump earlier this month on familiar fronts, like its tax breaks for top earners and cuts to Medicaid.

Republicans argue the Medicaid cuts are simply rooting out waste and fraud, and that truly vulnerable Americans will continue to have access to this lifeline. An analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, though, predicts at least 17 million people will be removed from the rolls by new work requirements — far more than experts believe are abusing the system.

Couple that with reductions in Medicaid funding for health care providers, and “the Medicaid cuts threaten not just our patients’ health, but the very survival of clinics like the one I work at,” said Erin Gurley, a physician assistant at Squirrel Hill Health Center in Pittsburgh who attended the rally.

McCall briefly zoomed in on rollbacks to renewable energy tax credits and other investments in clean energy, which he warned puts the “future of domestic manufacturing at risk.”

“We’re ready to embrace new plants, expand production, rebuild the supply chain and hire the next generation of union workers,” he told a crowd of at least 100 people. “But now, that’s all in jeopardy.”

Remarks went beyond angst over the bill. Ferrito made clear she sees this moment as a chance for the labor movement to make strides.

“It’s time to build your union,” Ferrito said.

The timing could hardly be more urgent.

Trump has moved to strip more than 1 million federal workers of their ability to collectively bargain, many of which are represented by the AFL-CIO by way of the American Federation of Government Employees.

A White House fact sheet justifying these actions claims federal unions have “declared war on President Trump’s agenda” by filing excessive grievances.

Trump has also paralyzed the National Labor Relations Board by failing to appoint enough members for it to function.

Beyond the president’s actions, union membership has been on the decline since the 1980s and is now hovering just below 10%.

Capping off a fiery speech among an afternoon of impassioned calls to action, Kelly turned to “The Art of War,” an ancient Chinese military treatise, for wisdom.

“I know that there’s a lot of chaos in this country right now,” Kelly said. “But just like Sun Tzu said, when there’s chaos, there is always opportunity.”