Union Members Gravitating Toward Trump Amid Tough Talk On Trade And Immigration [View all]

[Purveyor]

Brian Sepe has been a dues-paying member of the United Steelworkers for over three decades. Last week, he voted for Donald Trump in Massachusetts' Republican primary.

“My country is going to hell,” said Sepe, a 55-year-old utility worker and resident of Lowell, the famed mill town that is now one of the state’s poorest cities. “You look back at all the different trade agreements over the past 30 years, [and] it’s always been to move jobs out of the country. That’s got us in so much trouble. We don’t have good jobs left in this country.”

“Trump is a no bulls--- kind of guy,” Sepe continued. “He calls it what it is.”

Sepe belongs to a breed that’s causing serious concern among officials from organized labor and the Democratic Party: union members who support billionaire real estate mogul Trump for president.

As primaries and caucuses have illustrated thus far, voters across the country are drawn to the GOP front-runner’s populist rhetoric and tough talk on trade — both of which are pillars of many embattled U.S. labor unions. Come November, some Democrats and labor officials worry that Trump could capture a large chunk of the union vote, historically a vital part of the Democratic electoral coalition.

Mary Kay Henry, president of the 2 million-member Service Employees International Union, acknowledged as much in a recent interview. "I am deeply concerned about what is stirring, even in our membership ... where our members are responding to Trump's message," she told former Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod in a January interview.

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http://www.ibtimes.com/union-members-gravitating-toward-trump-amid-tough-talk-trade-immigration-2331971