Politico:

Organized labor is searching for answers after union households failed to turn out for Hillary Clinton despite a massive voter mobilization effort -- a sharp departure from decades of union support for Democratic presidential candidates.

The assumption is that Donald Trump's positions on trade resonated strongly with union members, particularly those in blue-collar jobs. But union leaders are looking at exit polls for a deeper dive into the reasons.

Nationally, Clinton outperformed Trump among union households by just 8 percent, the smallest Democratic advantage since Walter Mondale's failed campaign against Ronald Reagan in 1984. For a more recent perspective, President Barack Obama won union households by 18 percent in 2012.

Clinton's poor performance among union households appeared to especially damage her in crucial Midwestern states.

Love this:

One person familiar with labor's ground game speculated the election was more of a "personality contest," adding, "I would argue that this was not an election that was won or lost on issues and policies."

Either that or maybe Clinton had to be cajoled into (pretending to) being opposed to TPP, continued to talk about how great her husband's NAFTA is, and generally had no message for the working class (let alone the symbolism of not even visiting states like Wisconsin). She allowed Trump to make an unopposed bid for their votes.

Our personal bogeywoman, Randi Weingarten, gets into the right area but manages to twist things around and learn the exact opposite lesson:

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said Trump appealed to some union households with blunt attacks on trade deals, while Clinton used "more nuanced" language. Clinton confronted the same sort of populist rhetoric during her primary election battle with Bernie Sanders. While Sanders ultimately joined hands with Clinton, Weingarten said, "any tough campaign is going to hurt."

Maybe instead of blaming him for daring to challenge Dear Leader, you could have actually endorsed the candidate that had the populist rhetoric that your members found appealing or, failing that, adopted his message and policies.