Election Results
BAC will work with President-Elect Trump and the incoming Congress to advance working families where possible and defend workers’ rights as needed.
The most fundamental tenet of our democracy is the acceptance of election results and the peaceful transfer of power. So, while our union endorsed Vice President Harris for her strong support of unions throughout her career, we communicated our congratulations to President-elect Trump on his victory and conveyed our intent to work with his administration wherever possible to further the interests of working people and their unions, just as we have with every president throughout our history.
President-elect Trump will be sworn in on January 20, 2025, along with a narrow GOP majority in the House and Senate, led respectively by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD). With GOP control of both branches, the question now turns to whether the GOP will prioritize the interests of working Americans or the interests of the corporate elite and billionaire class.
What the 2024 election made clear is that Americans want government to address the cost of living. Inflation was the most frequently cited issue by voters, and any attempt to strengthen the finances of American households needs to tackle not only the cost of goods, but also raise wages. It is undeniable that a strong labor movement and widespread collective bargaining play a crucial role in raising living standards. Accordingly, BAC will work with the incoming Administration and Congress where they seek to strengthen those institutions.
Conversely, we will remain vigilant for any attacks upon the gains that workers achieved during the Biden Administration, such as strengthening prevailing wage protections, support for workers’ right to strike, investments in job-creating infrastructure acts, improvements to health and safety standards on jobsites, preserving workers’ pensions, and protecting the rights of workers to organize unions. These are principles that BAC will never shy away from.
Throughout the election campaign, President-elect Trump repeatedly disavowed the radical Project 2025, a plan that called for sweeping changes to US labor policies, including restricting union rights, eliminating overtime pay laws, enabling states to ban unions, ending prevailing wage and reducing health, safety, and child labor protections. However, despite that repudiation of Project 2025 on the campaign trail, there are troubling signs that the authors of Project 2025 may now obtain positions within our government to enact these anti-union measures.
“BAC will work with the administration of the president-elect to further the interests of working people and their unions wherever possible,” said BAC President Tim Driscoll. “And just as certainly we will fight to protect the hard-won gains that generations of BAC members have made possible. Our principles as trade unionists demand nothing less.”