Huffpost: "Labor Puts Candidates On Notice: 'Let's Be Honest About The Democratic Party's Record' "

[DemocracyMouse]

I've seen quite a few Democrats build labor support into their policies (Warren for one), but hope the rest are listening. When labor wins, we all win.

Labor Puts Candidates On Notice: ‘Let’s Be Honest About The Democratic Party’s Record’

https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5d43215de4b0ca604e2ed07f

In a closed meeting, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told the campaigns that Democrats shouldn’t expect union support if they don’t change their ways.

By Dave Jamieson
08/01/2019

The president of the AFL-CIO labor federation spoke at a closed meeting with representatives from the entire field of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates ahead of Wednesday’s debate in Detroit. His message was straightforward: “It’s time to do better.”

Richard Trumka told attendees that while President Donald Trump is enacting bad policies for workers, Democratic leaders need to reckon with their own role in creating an unfair economy. He said “both parties” are to blame for a system that caters to the rich.

“We are caught in a web of century-old labor laws that prioritize unchecked corporate greed over all else,” Trumka said. “We can blame this White House all we want. But this isn’t new.”

Trumka went on, “More often than not, the Republican Party is bad for workers. This president is bad for workers. But let’s be honest about the Democratic Party’s record.”

He singled out the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership as Democrat-backed trade deals that were tilted against the working class.

[demosincebirth]

1. The back bone of the democratic party used to be the union movement. What happened?

Trumka is right on.

[JI7]

2. they tend to oppose environmental and other regulations that's why many of them voter republican

even though Republicans also support NAFTA seems other trade fraud deals.

[Blue_true]

5. When democrats started pushing for fair representation of minorities and women,

Big Labor semi-decamped. The strongest democratic Unions today are the ones that have a large female and minority membership. Trumpka is a solid democratic leaning Union person, but large swaths of the rank and file that he leads vote republican a lot and oppose some of the social initiatives that democrats want.

[demosincebirth]

8. Social intitiatives that are too far to the left is what have always been a big problem for

the Democrats. What we forget is that we have to win the control of congress and the presidency before the the unions and working men and woman can even attempt to achieve their goa.l

[Blue_true]

12. Working for equal job rights for all workers in a Union is not too far to the left. nt

[LiberalFighter]

15. Then imo those labor unions failed to educate their members about the benefits of the programs.

[LiberalFighter]

13. Fewer union members.

[Hortensis]

3. Sadly, labor unions now represent only about 7% of private workers.

Only 7% still provides some good weight for them to throw around, even more the symbolism of union endorsements.

But let's be honest about THEIR record. Too much of their strongest effort for years has been to protect their own calcified and often corrupt leaderships and advance self interests. There have been many good reasons for them to sometimes be unhappy with us, not just regrettable ones.

I really don't like them threatening the Democratic Party to serve them or else, which they routinely do, even when their demands conflict with the needs of the 89-90% of nonunionized workers. They should be totally committed to revitalizing collective bargaining and to labor reforms that advance the interests of all American workers.

And there is only ONE party for that.

[Blue_true]

6. Since private Unions are the only organized labor entity among private workers,

they should have a prominent place at the table during trade negotiations with other countries. It will be up to the democratic administration doing the negotiations to insure that the interests of the other 93% of workers are brought to the negotiating table.

[not_the_one]

10. "insure that the interests of the other 93% of workers

are brought to the negotiating table"

THAT is the problem... (and I am talking about work, here, and not in negotiating with other countries...)

Why would anyone pay for something they will get for free? Greed is an extremely powerful force in people's economic decisions. (If you don't help pay for the negotiated pay raises, you shouldn't receive the benefits. You would see a MASSIVE union member increase. Unconstitutional? THAT issue needs to be re-addressed, too. Employers pay same level workers different wage amounts all the time. Is THAT unconstitutional?)

No matter what the union wins as labor improvements, ALL employees, both union members and non-union members, will receive those improvements.

Then cloak the whole argument in the classic "patriotic" jingle slogan of "Right To Work", and the whole narrative is that of freedom versus forced union membership.

Then make sure the gerrymandered republican state legislatures vote for THEIR state to be on the side of "FREEDOM", declaring themselves "Right To Work" states.

Employers then only raise wages when THEY want to, and they are allowed to discriminate against their employees through wages earned.

I was in AFSCME for many years, at a major educational institution in Florida, until I promoted out of being eligible for union membership.

I was a male in the administrative/clerical group of employees, which were referred to as the "pink ghetto", since almost all were women.

Admin/clericals were NOT in the union. Admin/clericals required a two year degree.

Grounds workers, who were male WERE in the union, and required a 6th grade education.

Those grounds workers who required a 6th grade education earned 45 cents an hour MORE than the admin/clericals, who had to have a two year degree. (My starting salary was 1.45 per hour - which gives you an idea of my age...)

That is when I became involved in the union, before we could even be represented. As a result I was called a trouble maker, and told to my face that I was not the kind of employee they wanted. After being told that, I quit my job in that office, and started applying for other positions. They would not even send me on a job interview for over a year, until after I contacted the labor relations board.

I finally was sent on an interview to an office where a former co-worker from my original office, had transferred to. She vouched for my work ethic, and told her boss that I had been screwed over by my former office.

I got the job, and stayed there until I completed my degree (long story, 15 year plan ), then finally promoted to a position based on my degree. That promoted me out of the union membership eligibility.

I have supported unions all my adult life, and was a member as long as I could be. I believe in them wholeheartedly.

But am also cognizant of the fact of there being good and bad about unions. They fight for worker's rights, and some workers hide behind them during work grievances.

Unions have also been long known to be "democratic power sources" through union administration, while the union membership routinely votes republican.

Communication and education is the key to that, and the democrats gave up controlling the narrative decades ago.

We HAVE to regain the communication narrative to ensure that union members vote in their best interests.

[DemocracyMouse]

16. I totally understand your point about regaining the narrative on unions.

They don't, in large part, have a coherent narrative. It's a jumble with a gloss over of 1940s/50s stylings.

I have a friend with a friggin' Phd. in union organizing. He's a hip, contemporary fellow, and you'd think he'd be concerned and aware of all the messaging problems. He is, but not enough to do anything about it.

The union movement needs a hero figure to re-set the mission, the bullet points, and the personality of the critter.

[Blue_true]

4. NAFTA was negotiated by republicans and rubber-stamped by Clinton with few changes as

he sought to show himself as not being hostile to business.

The TPP was negotiated by a democratic President who, IMO, gave big business too strong a hand in the negotiations, US Labor and Labor Unions from other countries that were in the negotiations and had Unions SHOULD have had a prominent place at the negotiating table, IMO.

[TexasBushwhacker]

7. Yu. NAFTA was George HW Bush's baby n/t

[elocs]

9. Whether you like it or not, the simple fact is that ours is a 2 party system.

You either get the Democrats or the Republicans, that's it.
As imperfect as the Democratic Party may be in regards to Labor, it is light years ahead of the Republican party.
So Labor's best bet is to support the most labor friendly candidate in the Democratic primaries and then vote for the nominee, whoever that is.
Labor can nudge Democrats in the direction they think they should go but they are despised by Republicans so ultimately it's in Labor's best interest not to have Republicans elected.

(I am retired and getting a pension as a member of the Teamsters Union.)

[ooky]

18. This.

It's kind of a head scratching comment to me about "the record". Help give us the trifecta and time to restore the balance of the court system, then talk about our record.

[bigtree]

11. honestly

Link to tweet

As a Senate candidate in 2016, Harris opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, arguing that the proposed trade deal with 11 Asian countries didn’t do enough to protect workers and environmental regulations. (Trump pulled the U.S. out of the pact shortly after taking office). Harris has opposed the Trump administration’s tariffs and escalating trade dispute with China. Last year, she supported a bipartisan, non-binding resolution in the Senate that rebuked the Trump administration over its tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from the European Union, Canada and Mexico. Harris also co-wrote a letter with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer opposing U.S. tariffs on Chinese electronic goods, saying the tariffs would hurt California’s economy.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/what-does-kamala-harris-believe-where-the-candidate-stands-on-9-issues

[LiberalFighter]

14. Under both Clinton and Obama...

labor was represented at the table in the DOL, and different labor related agencies and departments. If there was a more labor friendly Congress in both chambers during those years a lot more could had been accomplished.

[pecosbob]

17. No room for equivocation here candidates.

support our unions or go the f*ck home...and take all that voodoo trickle-down bullshit with you when you go.