Labor Unions and the Democratic Party

[sherilocks]

Labor Unions hold a large number of delegate seats in the DNC and DEC and have lots of power to control what goes on on inside the party. They give huge contributions and I, personally, welcome and support unions. Unions also contribute in the form of volunteer staff. But, not all union members vote Democratic, far from it. Another "but" is the number of delegates, who have already formed policy within their union ranks, heavily weights the policy or candidates they favor.

What I am about to say is anecdotal and only an observation , so if someone has more substantive information, I would like to hear it. I noticed that when the unions supported Dean for president, it was all good news. When the unions stopped supporting Dean, the party elders began the anti-Dean drumbeat.

Here in Florida, in the governor's race against Jeb Bush, the teachers union and possibly others, decided to run a candidate against Janet Reno. The candidate, selected by the union, had poor political skills, and lost mightily to jeb.

Also, because the number of delegates to the state DEC, conventions, DNC, etc. is limited, union delegates squeeze out the possibility of other non-union rank and file Democrats from getting representation in the party.

How can we increase the number of progressive delegates from the individual rank and file Democrats without hurting our relationship with labor unions?

[liberal N proud]

1. It is not the Unions my friend.

The unions did not stop supporting Dean until it was clear that he was not going to have a chance.
The unions have done more for this country than any other single organization.
Even jobs that are not unionized have all been effected by what the Unions have done in this country most importantly in job protection and safety.
The unions involvement in the political arena is vital. Just look to the republican agenda where they do not have union involvement, they think outsourcing is good for America.
We need to have the unions involved in the Democratic Party, they still represent a large block of voters.
Don't piss them off.

[sherilocks]

2. Reread my post, especially the last line. eom

[Jeff in Cincinnati]

3. I know what you're saying...

At our local caucus, union people packed the caucus room for Dean (back in January, when it appeared he couldn't lose), and ensured that union people were elected as Dean delegates. If you weren't union, you didn't have a chance.

Not that I begrudge unions anything. Here in Cincinnati, they've been our financial umbilical cord and we would be long-lost without them. On the other hand, there is a tendency to alienate other constituencies when the believe that only union leaders get to make decisions regarding the party. If we're going to grow the grassroots base of the party, we need to make sure that non-union voices are heard.

[H2O Man]

4. Unions should become

recognized as a potential force that represent the working class interests in America again. The right-wing has done a thorough job of discrediting unions since 1980. And some unions have shown a willingness to betray the best interests of the working class.

My father used to say that the workers wearing flannel shirts and blue jeans organized unions to protect themselves from the thieves in suits. But pretty soon, the heads of the unions were thiefs in suits.

Just like the democratic party itself, unions will only become more in touch with the needs of the workers, when those workers become far more active in the union at the grass-roots level.

[Ken Burch]

5. Unions need to work harder on organizing, and need to ask more

from Democrats in exchange for their support.

In 2000, the AFL-CIO endorsed Al Gore almost as soon as he declare, and thus gained no meaningful commitments from him in exchange for that endorsement. Consequently, Al did not run a campaign in the fall that made any real effort to speak to working class concerns, and this held down worker interest in the Gore campaign in many marginal states.

Unions also need to make common cause with the poor and the unemployed
(they should revive the old Unemployed Union idea) and should accept the fact that the majority of people who want to join unions are African American, Latino American, and a majority of them are women.
The old George Meany idea that only white men counted as workers must be abandoned and abandoned forever.

George Sweeney knows all this and has tried to embrace it, but the old line types at the AFL-CIO keep sabotauging him. Ron Carey knew it toom, and that is why the government framed him and removed him as head of the Teamsters, leaving the job open for Hoffa the Second.

[Ken Burch]

6. And Democrats need to be working class and Radical on economic issues

One of the big problems with the "socially liberal, fiscally conservative, down with unions" approach of the DLC is that it made the social liberalism into a trade off for the lack of economic populism and fiscal liberalism, but that trade off made working class white voters see the social liberalism as favors to "special interests" while they themselves were left out in the cold.

The Democrats need to be as pro-union and pro-worker as the Republicans are anti-worker and pro-corporate dominance.

[eg101]

11. Exactly! This is the elephant in the living room of American politics

And you notice that NOBODY is talking about the way that social-liberalism was substituted for economic liberalism as the focus of the Democratic party!

That fact right there means that this is something that we should focus in on like a laser and talk about incessantly. That is the game we need to play: talk about the elephants in the corner of the room that no one is talking about in the elite media. As an analogy, that is what really makes a good comedian--one that makes it big, is the one that notices things that are a part of our lives, but that no one ever talks about. Well, the social liberalism for economic liberalism swap is a big one.

[H2O Man]

7. Yes!

I agree 100%!!!

I have a cousin who is a union activist, involved in democratic politics. In this part of the state (NY), he is looked at as something from the past. No, we need to make unions part of the future ... a big part.

Your statement on old George Meany hits home. I was VP of our local, and we were the only county that I am aware of that didn't have Martin Luther King Day off. At a meeting, I started questioning this. At a meeting with the county Board of Supervisors, one crusty old white supervisor said, "Well, we don't have too many negroes (pronounced "knee-grows") in this area."

I wanted to ring his neck .... figuratively, of course! So I looked to the union president for a response. She said, "Yeah, he really didn't have anything to do with unions, and I'd rather get a warm day off."

So we have a degree of ignorance that unions need to address.

[Ken Burch]

8. "he really didn't have anything to do with unions"?

Well Duh, if the union she represented was whites only. God, what a moron! She sounds like the union types who broke out in cheers when the peace plank was defeated at Chicago, even though they knew that defeat would elect Nixon.

[Back to 92]

13. New Ads

Have you seen the new ads the UAW is running. I understand they are nationwide, and my friends tell me that it is a direct result to begin pushing back against years of negative advertising against them.

Granted, labor union members only vote about 60% of the time with Democrats, but their organizations are absolutely essential to the survival of our party. They provide the only REAL counterbalance against corporate interests in our country, and provide real support to middle-class working families.

I fully support my friends in labor, and if it means that they have the guts to organize and get their members to the conventions, then they have every right to have their delegates go.

I heard a lot of grumbling from Dean supporters in 2004, and I wondered, if it was really a well organized grassroots machine, they should have been able to mobilize for the caucus, and get grassroots delegates seated.

[Hidden Stillness]

9. America Needs Union Jobs

America has not been a great economy, and the middle class has not ben strong and safe, ever since corporations began this sustained attack on unions and the workplace, for about a generation now. As soon as that started happening, and great jobs with benefits were replaced with crappy jobs, underpaid and with no benefits, there began to be no real reason to vote for Democrats anymore. They were not helping us, and to a great degree (NAFTA, GATT, etc.) they were hurting us. The horrible thing has actually happened, and Republican capitalists have destroyed everything we built up over the years, every right and protection we won, and Democrats helped us with nothing. There is no urgent need anymore, therefore, to make sure Democrats stay in power. It is all gone.

Because unions have been so cut out of the previous areas of employment that once flourished in this country, they are now reduced to trying to get into supermarkets and other low-skill, "overworked/underpaid" areas. This just exacerbates opinion against them: why have unions in places where people are not even paid more than minimum wage? What does it accomplish? We needed Democrats to help us during all these fights of the 1980s and that bastard Reagan, to now, and all we got were DLC types who helped the corporations cut our throats.

We need real Democrats, and the Democratic Party needs unions and all employees. Remember that, although white males as a group voted for Bush, white males with union jobs voted for Kerry. They still have something worthwhile to protect, and know what they are fighting for. It will be a long hard fight to get the middle class back to the main stage; the majority, controlling the policies of this country. After all this destruction, I don't know if it will be done.

[eg101]

10. yes, and we need our advanced manufacturing jobs back from Japan

read this:
http://www.pushhamburger.com/index.html

I really think that what happened to our advanced manufacturing jobs is the fault of our elected public servants. They didn't just let this happen--they HELPED it happen. This is FAR more egregious a sin against America than anything else that has happened, outside of the secret CIA wars and Vietnam.

I think all our past presidents ought to be held criminally accountable for this free trade crime of treason.

[Omaha Steve]

12. How did I miss this post

Unions make mistakes too. Mine (AFSCME) backed Senator Clinton when she had a 40 point lead. Now they have been distributing video and pamphlets to members explaining why. Most member preferred waiting until February to make a decision. I think EVERYBODY knows I was Edwards backer.

Change won't happen over night. But it can happen.