How Much Clout Does Organized Labor Possess
While Dems Control Congress and White House?

When, in the 2008 elections, the Democrats won both houses of Congress and Barack Obama had been elected President of the United States, labor leaders were jubilant. They had played a major role in achieving that remarkable political victory. They had contributed millions of dollars and many thousands of volunteers to Democratic Party candidates. Union members turned out in force to vote for Obama in critically important states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Texas and other states where the election contest appeared close.

Understandably, labor leaders believed that after eight years of the Bush administration, unions would be treated with respect and consideration under President Obama . In crass political terns, they expected—and felt they deserved—a payoff for their efforts. They wanted Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, labor’s highest priority, that until now, had been unachievable.

It was going to be a new day for labor. Many AFL-CIO leaders predicted that EFCA would be passed within 30 days after Obama’s inauguration. James Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters was talking about hiring a thousand organizers, once Employee Free Choice was passed, and the millions of unorganized workers would be rushing to join unions.

But a greater disappointment occurred when leading Democrats, with the silent approval of President Obama, eliminated “card check,” the core provision of EFCA that would enable workers to join a union when a majority of them in a workplace signed union authorization cards.

Even so, there was no longer talk about when EFCA would be voted on and in what form. It had simply disappeared from the legislative agenda of both Congress and the White House. It was rumored that Sen. Tom Harkins of Iowa was working on a “compromise” EFCA that would satisfy unions and employer groups. Shouldn’t we know what was being discussed?

What Help Can Labor Expect from the Obama Administration?

While we’re trying to find jobs for the millions of workers who are unemployed, hundreds of thousands of good-paying U.S. jobs are being outsourced to low-wage countries. Although the Obama administration sees this as a serious problem, it has not come up with a trade policy or other solutions to check or reverse the outflow of good jobs.

While the Obama team is cordial to AFL-CIO leaders and offers low-ranking positions to labor representatives, it clearly is more sensitive to the needs of banks and financial institutions than to the problems of working people. When the nine big banks were in distress, U.S. Treasury officials held a weekend meeting and raised upwards of 100 billion dollars to meet their emergency needs.

President Obama is to be commended for the $787 billion stimulus package, but the tempo of job creation is far too slow and the investment too little in comparison with the need. Fewer ranking personnel are assigned to see that the various programs run smoothly.

Then there are the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. AFL-CIO and Change to Win leaders have given Obama a blank check (the same they gave President Bush) to institute whatever policy he decides, even though public support for the two wars keeps declining. The web sites of the two labor groups refuse to carry any news about the wars, even though they are a cause of great concern and anxiety to working families, who worry about the cost of the war in money and lives.

A question for President Trumka: How is the AFL-CIO going to increase its political power in Washington?

There must be discussion within the labor movement on what policy to adopt toward the Democratic Party and the Obama administration. Right now, the conventional wisdom is that labor, for better or worse, must remain aligned with the Democratic Party, because it has no place else to go. But is the Democratic Party a reliable and supportive ally? Are there other alternatives?

Union members, not only leaders, should be brought into the debate on this very important issue.—Harry Kelber

LaborTalk (25) will be posted here on December 29, 2009 and on our web sites: http://www.laboreducator.org/ and www.laborsvoiceforchange.org.