Reason # 20: Hypocrisy revisited
Why do we need to defeat Donald Trump and ensure that a Democrat occupies the White House?
In a previous post, I discussed my belief that most undocumented workers in the U.S. work for Republicans in the U.S. and that it is pure hypocrisy to both exploit and simultaneously castigate these hard-working visitors.
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The evidence for this conclusion was, in large part, based on personal surmise and deduction. Today we will look at far stronger evidence.
In 1980, the Trump Organization bought the Bonwit Teller building on 56th Street and Fifth Avenue in NYC. Despite public outcry, they decided to demolish the architectural gem in order to build the Trump Tower. In 1983, a class-action lawsuit filed by Polish laborers and their contractor, accused the Trumps of unfair labor practices, in bringing in two hundred undocumented workers from Poland, off the books, to demolish the building. The suit alleged that the Trumps paid them only $4/hour (half the union worker’s rate), with no overtime pay for 12 hour working days, provided them with no equipment to protect them from asbestos, housed them on the building site and in the end, failed to fully pay them.
Trump fought this lawsuit for years, denying, despite compelling evidence to the contrary, that he had not known that the workers were undocumented, before capitulating shortly before the case was to go to trial. A gag order was imposed on the terms of the settlement until 2016. When the case records were finally released to the public, they revealed that the Trump Organization had paid $1,325,000, with the union receiving $500,000 to compensate the American union for the work that had been denied to its members.
This case illustrates a recurrent pattern of unsavory conduct. Donald Trump shows little regard for the law. He has little concern or respect for the human beings who work for him or those who are foolish enough to do business with him. When such people dare to seek legal redress for the wrongs done to them, he sets white shoe lawyers on them like hunting hounds and deploys every legal ploy to delay and deprive them of justice and restitution.
In this specific instance, a self-reported billionaire not only exploited foreign workers by underpaying them but also denied them overtime pay and ultimately screwed them out of what little they were still owed. He also put them in personal danger by failing to provide a safe working environment. His callous actions also hurt American union workers who were deprived of well-paid work that should have gone to them.
The primary lesson I derive from this sordid story is the incredible hypocrisy of a Republican presidential candidate, who daily belittles and slanders undocumented workers, when his own past business dealings clearly demonstrate how he was – and almost certainly still is – ready and willing to exploit hard working immigrants to enrich himself. His flagship Trump Tower is an enduring monument to greed, exploitation, and two-faced duplicity.
Donald Trump is an insincere phony. Why would anyone even consider rewarding such a grudging hypocrite with their precious vote?
Have a heart; use your mind, search your conscience, and vote for Democratic candidates – across the ballot – on November. 5th.
Please share this message with your friends and please, add your thoughts, to expand upon what are only brief sketches here.
Fred Grannis
August 4, 2024