Former President Donald Trump announced Senator JD Vance as his Vice Presidential running mate last Monday via a post on Truth Social. Vance, currently the junior senator from Ohio, has frequently portrayed himself as a pro-worker, conservative populist. Indeed, Vance’s confirmation as the Republican nominee for Vice President occurred at the same Convention where Teamsters President Sean O’Brien spoke to the assembled Republican Party delegates and officials. Many have cited the two events as evidence of the party’s attempt to court union votes and paint itself as a “pro-worker” party. 

Vance claims that he is a different kind of Republican. But behind this pro-worker gloss, his track record on workers’ rights seems to be more of the same. Vance’s history on workers’ issues is politically savvy but rarely substantive. Instead, Vance displays a repeated practice of claiming to support workers and their right to organize while practicing business-as-usual anti-union and anti-worker politics. 

Vance’s Contradictory Record

While some of Vance’s views depart from Republican orthodoxy—for example, he has stated an opposition to right-to-work laws—those views are often contradicted by other positions. His engagement around the UAW strike, for instance, was tinted heavily by his climate denialism as he railed against the shift to electric vehicle production. His claimed opposition to right-to-work laws is also contradicted by his opposition to the PRO Act, which would ban such laws. And his support for unions is contingent upon the political support of their leadership. 

Nonetheless, Vance frequently claims the authority of the working class to push back against what he sees as a “culture war”, calling out “woke capital” and referring to DEI initiatives as class warfare. Meanwhile, his voting record on worker’s rights issues has been spotty at best, and the labor law reforms he has sponsored have been criticized as tilting the playing field even further in favor of employers. 

Public Appearances and Statements 

During the 2023 United Auto Workers (UAW) “Big Three” strike, Vance appeared on a picket line in Toledo, Ohio. He voiced support for several of the workers’ demands, yet placed much of the blame for declining work conditions in the auto industry on the transition to more electric vehicles and on politically active union leadership. Vance has subsequently reiterated these views via op-eds and proposed legislation, using the Autoworkers’ dispute with their employers to denounce the “electrification” of the industry, something he called a “death sentence” for workers. 

Vance claims his primary concern with electric vehicles is the fact that many battery components are produced in China, and he fears the transition will lead to greater off-shoring of automobile manufacturing. He is also, like many Republicans, opposed to what he sees as an intrusion of the “Left-wing climate agenda” into the American workplace. 

Despite visiting UAW’s picket line, Vance criticized UAW’s leadership in Shawn Fain. Vance commented that Fain should “just shut [his] mouth” instead of criticizing Trump, and should take the support he can get. Vance has similarly drawn distinctions between “good unions” like police unions, and “bad unions” like Starbucks Workers United. Vance has a pattern of claiming to support workers while criticizing their democratically elected leadership and political advocacy. “I think it’s dumb to hand over a lot of power to a union leadership that is aggressively anti-Republican,” Vance told Politico. 

Opposition to Pro-Worker Legislation

Despite his claimed support for workers’ right to organize, Vance’s voting record on labor issues has rarely been supportive of worker power or voice. Instead of backing popular pro-worker bills and nominees, Vance has advanced watered-down legislation that could weaken labor protections. 

Vance told Politico that he is not in favor of the PRO Act, which would outlaw the right-to-work laws Vance claims to oppose. His opposition to this legislation is rooted in his belief that it would serve only to empower “current union leadership… that’s completely in bed with the Democratic Party.” Vance has instead supported other labor law reforms that are decidedly less popular within the labor movement. 

Vance partnered with Republican senator Marco Rubio on the Teamwork for Employees and Managers Act of 2024 (TEAM Act), which claims to improve worker voice by relaxing the NLRA’s ban on company unions and promoting “employee involvement organizations.” Unlike unions, these organizations may be funded and dissolved unilaterally by employers. 

The TEAM Act draws heavily on recommendations by American Compass, run by former Mitt Romney advisor Oren Cass. American Compass advocates for the TEAM Act and worker-management councils, which Cass claims could strengthen “worker-management trust,” while unions like the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers have decried the bill as promoting “company unions” and allowing new avenues for employers to hold off unionization. Critics point out that employee involvement organizations, as outlined in the TEAM Act, would undermine unions’ ability to organize workplaces and remove protections for workers codified under the NLRA. 

Beyond his opposition to the PRO Act, Vance’s career in the Senate is punctuated by anti-labor votes. In April of this year, Vance voted to strike down the NLRB’s updated joint-employer rule. Vance also rejected Biden’s nominees to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) despite union support.

In 2023, Vance reached across the aisle to introduce legislation forcing railroad companies to follow safety precautions for workers. The bill responded to a toxic chemical spill in Ohio caused by a Norfolk Southern train derailment. Critics, however, note that Vance weakened the protections in his proposed legislation based on corporate lobbying. Opposition from other Republicans has since stalled this legislation. 

Vance’s Strongest Supporters & Detractors

As part of the upbringing detailed in his book, Vance states he was raised by “union Democrats”, but his more recent influences come from far outside Northern Kentucky. After graduating from Yale Law School, he found a mentor in Peter Thiel, the Silicon Valley billionaire and right-wing political donor. Vance has repeatedly cited Thiel’s influence as formative in shaping many of his positions today. 

Vance’s 2022 senatorial campaign received over $10 million from Thiel. Like his benefactor, Vance is among those who have decried diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, calling it a “destructive ideology” that “has no place … anywhere in our society.” 

Aside from Peter Thiel, Vance has the backing of many of the richest individuals (and notorious union-busters) in Silicon Valley, including Elon Musk, David Sachs, and others. Musk, whose crusade against the NLRB and the very concept of unions has been well-documented on the blog by John and others, pledged to donate $45 million per month to a Trump-Vance super PAC following Vance’s nomination. While he has since disputed the specific number, Musk and other Silicon Valley donors figure to play a large role for the Republican ticket in the 2024 campaign. 

This support is nothing new. Despite his populist framing, in his 2022 Senate run “CEO” was the most common job title among Vance donors. 

By contrast, Vance’s support among unions themselves is thin. During his comments at the Republican National Convention, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien did not officially endorse any candidate, but did state that Vance was one of several lawmakers who “truly care about working people.” However, the response from other unions following Vance’s nomination has been largely negative. 

AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler called the Trump-Vance ticket “a corporate CEO’s dream and a worker’s nightmare,” and said that Vance “likes to play a union supporter on the picket line, but his record proves that to be a sham.” The union federation, which collects “scorecards” tallying members of Congress’ voting records, gave Vance a score of 0% in “voting with working people”.

SEIU President April Verrett released a similar statement in opposition to Vance’s claims of being “pro-worker”, stating that his “loyalties lie with the Wall Street bankers and Silicon Valley billionaires who have bankrolled his political career.” 

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), International President of the Association of Flight Attendants Sara Nelson called Vance “just another shill for the corporate class who will sell out workers to corporate America,” and said that the Trump-Vance ticket “isn’t pro-worker or pro-union.”

The Trump-Vance policy agenda could also spell disaster for workers. Project 2025, a policy plan released by conservative analysts at the Heritage Foundation, outlines plans to make unionization more difficult, consider more workers as independent contractors, and hinder anti-discrimination lawsuits. Vance’s track record supporting legislation which weakens unions, limiting worker protections, and opposing diversity initiatives mirror these priorities. 

Additionally, Vance has strong ties to the Heritage Foundation. Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts called Vance “one of the leaders—if not the leader” of the group’s mission. In turn, Vance wrote the foreword for Roberts’ forthcoming book, “Dawn’s Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America”, which details the author’s plans for a “Second American Revolution” in line with many of the Project 2025 proposals. In a post on X, Vance called the book a “bold new vision for the future of conservatism in America.”

Ultimately, Vance’s actions tell the story of a corporate-backed conservative who seeks to undermine worker power. Far from a bold working class populist, Vance is beholden to billionaires and an opponent of policies that would actually empower working people.