The $80 buck an hour guys are those that hope to get a 40 hour week. If you work out of the Hall those 40 hour weeks are few and far between in this economy.
The real good guys are grabbed up and paid a different maintenance rate and hope to get enough hours to retire.
Unions have always been anti-republican, their voters were part of the New Deal coalition.
Even Eisenhower’s reelection of 1956 couldn’t change that.