An Obama Quid Pro Quo for Labor’s Support?

[Omaha Steve]

http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/4934/an_obama_quid_pro_quo_for_labors_support/

Monday September 21 1:05 pm

"So long as you stand by the public option, we will stand with you," new AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told President Obama in his acceptance speech last week at the labor federation's convention in Pittsburgh.

Organized labor has spent millions backing President Obama's healthcare reform agenda, but the president's failure to defend the public option and his proposal to tax high-cost health insurance threatens to drive a wedge between labor and the White House.

So far, Obama's health plan flies in the face of all three of the non-negotiable demands Trumka outlined: no public option, no employer mandate, and no taxes on high-value plans. To add insult to injury, the labor's long sought after Employee Free Choice Act has gone by the boards in the all-out push for healthcare reform.

FULL story at link.

[Gman]

1. Labor screwed up the EFCA

they were disorganized and acted like it was just going to happen without a massive effort to get it through Congress. It was very do-able with the right organizational tactics, mobilization and lobbying. Now, I think it's likely dead until 2011.

[clear eye]

2. Trumka's already caved.

See my OP above. It happened so quickly that I question the sincerity of original remarks. The AFL-CIO leadership is acting as though they think the membership are amnesiac idiots.