so, yeah - all of the union bosses are democrats. exactly.
the reality is that all that these people have ever seen by voting democrat is lost opportunities, lower wages, job losses and lower living standards. it's not hard to understand why they won't vote for them.
if the labour movement - the actual labour movement - wants to rekindle itself, it has to start by distancing itself from management, and that is going to mean erecting a third party for these workers to connect with that doesn't have the history of the democratic party - or the history of joe biden.
that said...
polling is actually fairly clear that biden is doing substantively better with older white voters in the rust belt than clinton did, and there's not really any logic to it - they just like him better, for whatever specious reason. it's what is driving his polling bumps in wisconsin & michigan, even if it's not panning out in ohio or pennsylvania. biden will need that bump to hold if he wants to win.
but, it won't help to go after trump with this demographic - not after what nafta did to the region. a sober analysis pits two great evils against each other, of unclear ordering, and i don't begrudge them for picking one over the other. they need a labour party, not constant appeals to vote for the party of management.