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Republican Senator Josh Hawley has positioned himself as a populist ally of workers.
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That includes the demonstrations by striking auto workers at the UAW last year.
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But the UAW just endorsed its likely Democratic opponent, Lucas Kuncewhile calling Hawley a “joke.”
In recent years, Senator Josh Hawley has tried to position himself as a populist Republican and a staunch ally of organized labor.
That included meeting with striking auto workers in his home state of Missouri last September, seeking union support and even voting against a recent Republican Party-led effort to overturn a new National Labor Relations Board rule to make.
Despite these moves, the United Auto Workers are backing Democrat Lucas Kunce over Hawley as the Missouri Republican seeks reelection this year.
“Josh Hawley calling himself pro-worker is a total joke. There is only one candidate in this U.S. Senate race who has earned the trust of Missouri autoworkers, and that is Lucas Kunce,” said Fred Jamison, president of the UAW Region 4 Midwest States. Cap Council, in a statement first shared with Business Insider.
A spokesperson for Hawley did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
Kunce, a self-described populist Democrat who also ran for Senate in 2022, is likely to win the Aug. 6 primary. Observers generally see the race as Republican, though organizers hope to put a constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights on the ballot in November — a move that could boost Democratic turnout.
“I am honored to have the UAW’s support in this race,” Kunce said in a statement to Business Insider. “The only way we can put Missouri and America first in the next generation of the industry is by investing in and empowering workers like them. I will fight hard for them in the United States Senate. Let’s pass the PRO Act and get shit done.” Back in America!”
Hawley has made a number of pro-worker moves in recent years, including voting to give seven additional days of paid sick leave to railroad workers during a threatened strike in December 2022 and supporting a $15 minimum wage for workers at companies that pay more than $1 billion in revenue. Annual sales.
The Teamsters, one of the nation’s largest unions, contributed $5,000 to Hawley’s re-election campaign in April. They also gave $45,000 to the Republican National Committee — along with the same amount to the Democratic National Committee — and have apparently considered supporting former President Donald Trump.
But Hawley previously supported right-to-work laws, and he remains opposed to the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, a top priority of organized labor. The Democratic-backed bill aims to strengthen workers’ ability to form unions.
“I’m not a big fan of the PRO Act,” Hawley told Business Insider in September. “My concern would be that it hurts workers more than it helps them.”
He went on to say that “we can have a debate about” the bill, but that the “real question” is whether certain jobs will survive in the US at all.
“If you want to talk about how to divide a shrinking pie, I think you can,” Hawley said. “But why don’t we think about how we can get more pie for labor in this country?”
Hawley has also criticized public sector unions, which represent just under half of all union members in the U.S., including teachers and police officers.
“I just think that for a long time, public sector unions have held the government hostage and held vital government services hostage for people, and that’s a different thing,” Hawley told the Kansas City Star in October. “But when you talk about private sector unions trying to increase people’s bargaining power, these multinational corporations, especially over the last 30 years, have become less and less tied to this country and less and less tied to American workers. .”
Read the original article on Business Insider
