Sen. Bernie Sanders Stands for Workers on Senate Floor—and Picket Lines

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/6770/bernie_filibusters_not_just_on_the_senate_floor_but_on_picket_lines/

Tuesday Dec 14, 2010 12:53 pm

By Mike Elk


Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) railed against renewing the Bush tax cuts for more than eight hours on Friday. (Image from C-SPAN)


Democrats ignore his example at their own peril

Last Friday, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) made headlines across the world by standing on the Senate floor Friday for eight-and-half hours "filibustering" impending legislation extending all the Bush-era tax cuts, and denouncing the special interests that benefit from them. That bold stand likely didn't surprise the workers in Sanders' state. He has been standing on picket lines and in union halls helping workers to organize as elected officials for decades in Vermont.

Sanders has always used the power of elected office to protect workers during union organizing drives, which often involve illegal firings of union activists. Sanders is known for coming to the union halls during union elections and urging workers to join a union. He has called up Vermont employers and threaten to shame them if they engage in illegal firings and management intimidation tactics, which often goes unpunished in the United States due to weak labor laws.

In return for this support, labor stands strongly by Sanders. Thus, he can stand on the floor of the Senate denouncing special interests for eight-and-half hours—without fearing their retribution.

Most Democratic elected officials are reluctant to get involved in union organizing drives in the ways that Sanders does. If they do get involved, it's only symbolic. Few make the repeated, intense efforts that Sanders does to threaten to use the powers of the full powers a Senator has to threaten a company into having a free and fair elections and contract negotiations.

I know this from personal experience while organizing government contractors that worked for Northup Grumman and a number of other contractors for the United States Customs and Immigration Services (UCSIS). In 2008, I was helping organize workers employed at a USCIS Center in California, while another group from the same union was helping organize workers in Vermont. We got very little help from Democratic elected officials in California.

FULL story at link.