Rust Belt Union Blues – Why Working-Class Voters are Turning Away from the Democratic Party
Rust Belt Union Blues – Why Working-Class Voters are Turning Away from the Democratic Party, by Lainey Newman and Theda Skocpol (New York: Columbia University Press, 2023)
This book, now most timely due to the Republican vice-presidential nomination of J.D. Vance, a son of working-class and Rust Belt America who was raised near Appalachia, explores the reasons why workers in rural America, particularly focusing on Western Pennsylvania, have departed from their historic support of the Democratic Party.
In the early labor movement, some workers were dependent on unions for their jobs – before the New Deal many places of work were “closed shops” at which only union members could work. They relied on unions for pensions and death benefits before the advent of life insurance or employer-provided help. In that era, workers were closely aligned with the Democratic Party, viewing it as the party of the working man, and the Republican Party as the party of the bosses. Unions supported this belief by encouraging members to vote Democratic, holding rallies in support of Democratic candidates and including Democratic political points of view in their newsletters.
In that era, with large industries and local union halls inhabiting a town, the union would organize picnics and social events with the workers, instilling a sense that they were all part of the union family – the notion that the union would protect you and that you were a part of a broad movement.
However, with the deindustrialization of America accompanied by the departure of unions from what would become known as Rust Belt towns, workers no longer feel a connection with their unions. Further, with more workers living far from their work, that sense of unity no longer exists. Unions no longer occupy an essential part of workers’ lives.
President Biden, the first president who joined a picket line, claims to be the “most pro-union president in American history.” If that is true, why are working-class Americans, particularly those in the Rust Belt region, becoming increasingly attached to the Republican Party?
This excellent book attempts to answer that question as it explores why workers have turned from their historic support of unions and the Democrats to an embrace of the Republican Party.
Extensively researched through interviews with workers, archival records and union newsletters and reports, the book establishes, first, that unions’ historic support was driven by their close connection with workers. Local unions were situated in small towns in rural America, forging a bond with workers and their families through social, interpersonal and group activities. Such an alliance, at that time, was unshakable. The workers firmly believed, as “union men,” their unions completely supported them.
Today, unions play a much smaller role in American life and in the lives of workers. Employees no longer believe that the Democratic Party and unions, which were identified with that party, represent their interests.
The decline of resources available to unions in the latter half of the 20th century caused the closure of local union halls, resulting in the departure from their historic presence in Rust Belt and rural communities. This resulted in their inability to personally interact with their members and their families, causing the local union to cease being a central part of employees’ lives.
This absence of a union presence combined with workers becoming more aligned with social groups, religious organizations and gun clubs, led to their embrace of a different political party.
Further, the job outlook in states where industrial jobs were less available confronted workers with a choice: choose a non-union job or remain loyal to a union that could no longer guarantee employment.
Voting Democratic was no longer taken for granted. A more conservative social outlook among workers took hold and with it a shift to Republican policies. Workers resented Democratic programs which favored political correctness, the educated class and the “coastal elites,” not the working class. The Democratic party was seen as aloof, absent, and threatening to the working class which believed that they were overlooked, abandoned and minimized. These workers thereby became amenable to messages from the Republican Party.
The authors discount that workers became politically conservative recently in their move to the Republican Party. They note that rust-belt workers had conservative leanings historically but nevertheless voted Democratic in the past because they believed that their union membership and ties to their co-workers were more closely aligned to that party. However, the absence of a union presence in their lives, the economic decline in their communities, the attractiveness of alternative sources of friendship and connection, and their belief that the Democratic Party has abandoned them, have caused them to vote Republican.
The authors believe that there is hope for a return of Rust Belt America to the Democratic Party, but it will take a concerted effort by international and local unions to invest in communities of working-class Americans. In order to do so they will have to establish a strong, personal connection to those communities, become more involved in their lives and promote a belief that the Democratic Party is sincerely interested in their growth and future.
Co-author Theda Skocpol is a professor of government and sociology at Harvard. She has written numerous books including a study of social revolutions in Russia, France and China, and works on social policy.
Co-author Lainey Newman is a law student at Harvard Law School, in the Class of 2025.
Reviewed by Steven Davis, a member of the Executive Board of the NY Labor History Association and a retired Administrative Law Judge of the NLRB.