Union members and friends of labor, it's time for a call to action.

[Union Yes]

It's time to remind the Democratic Party, The DNC, DLC, DCCC, DSCC and every elected DEM including the President that the debacle in Massachusetts was in part a result of what happens when you piss off union members.

Elected Dems, OPEN YOUR EYES.

EFCA has support to pass in the US House, so the House is somewhat off the hook on this one.
Hat's off to House Dems BTW.

Senate Dems have swept the Employee Free Choice Act under the rug. Sen Dems seem to favor a card-check free EFCA. That's the equivalent of health care reform without a PO. Without card-check, EFCA is a toothless piece of crap that deserves to be vetoed.

Senate Dems..
Learn from Mass and the loss of our beloved Teddy's former seat.

That's what happens when the party ignores SOLIDARITY and fucks with labor!

It's time to put EFCA back on the table.

It's time to demand passage of EFCA with a STRONG CARD-CHECK PROVISION.

Union SOLIDARITY showed it's strength in Mass. While I don't like the outcome of a Dem losing Teddy's old seat to a Rethug, I will always stand with labor.

Fellow union brothers and sisters, if we stand in solidarity the Dem Party will listen to labor.

If we remind our party leaders and members that what happened in Mass is what happens when they piss off labor and ignore us. If Dems ignore us, it can happen in Nov '10.

In the past few days, President Obama has leaned toward populism. Hat's off to Obama for doing so. His SOTU and Rethug townhall smackdown was a thing of beauty. Many DU'ers myself included are very proud of our President for showing courage and confronting the GOP head on.

Hearing the Pres go toe to toe and talk tough left me and many here wanting more. I believe the Pres and what he said. Now it's time for some action. He seems to have picked up some newfound support for his populist tone. At least politicians are listening to him now.

Now is the time for the President to put his foot down and fight hard for the passage of EFCA. Twist some arms Mr President.

Every elected Dem and the President could show their commitment to saving the middle class by signing EFCA w/CC into law.

But the President will need our help if he is to fight for EFCA.

Mass. Solidarity. I think the Dems will start listening to labor now. If we scream it from the rooftops.

Union Members, Mass proved we have a voice in the Dem Party. We don't have to wait for the Dems to let EFCA to rot. We can demand passage now.

EFCA could and would improve the quality of life for almost every American. It's legislation of the people, for the people, by the people.

EFCA NOW!

Solidarity
UY

:patriot:

[Tim01]

1. Mass was about unions? nt

[Union Yes]

2. My first statement in my OP I said Mass was in part a result of union members boycotting or..

turning away from Coakley, some even voted for Brown as a protest vote.

Seems like a clear message to me.

[rhett o rick]

4. What do you think was the failure in Mass ? nt

[WillyT]

8. Partly... Look Here:

<snip>

BILL MOYERS: Your message is very clear. Tax the rich.

RICHARD TRUMKA: Of course. They've had a ten year free ride.

BILL MOYERS: WALL STREET JOURNAL is going to come out next week and say Trumka says that class war is on again. And I'm serious about that.

RICHARD TRUMKA: Well, the class war's been on, except my class has been losing.

BILL MOYERS: You spoke at the National Press Club with this tough warning to the President, the Democrats on the 11th of January.

RICHARD TRUMKA: We worked to preserve a Democratic majority in 1994 because we knew what the alternative was. But there was no way to persuade enough working Americans to go to the polls when they couldn't tell the difference between the policies of the two parties. So politicians who think that working people have it too good, too much health care, too much Social Security, too much Medicare, too much power on the job - are actually inviting a repeat of 1994.

BILL MOYERS: Is that exactly what happened when the Republican Scott Brown defeated the Democrat Martha Coakley in the Massachusetts Senate race.

RICHARD TRUMKA:It was a wakeup call. And we were predicting that. We said, "Look, they're angry. They're frustrated. And if you're not on the side of creating jobs, jobs, jobs. If they don't believe that, and you're not acting that on the scale that they think is necessary, you're going to face a bad time." And that's exactly what happened.

BILL MOYERS: The Senate vote showed that 49 percent of union households in Massachusetts voted for the Republican.

RICHARD TRUMKA:Here's what they were saying. Here's what our members were saying. Here's what the general public said. Here's what working America's saying. That wasn't about Obama's agenda. They were saying, "You haven't overreached. You've under-reached. You haven't produced enough change. So, we're going to help you. You think the status quo's great. We'll show you." They want change. They want their problems solved.

BILL MOYERS: They voted for the Republican.

RICHARD TRUMKA:They did. But they did it because they were angry and they were frustrated and they wanted to demonstrate that change wasn't happening fast enough. And they were going to help it along.

BILL MOYERS: What do you think they want?

RICHARD TRUMKA: They want jobs. That's one thing they want. They do want health care reform. They still want it. But they don't want their benefits taxed in the process. And remember, Massachusetts has universal health care in the state. They were worried about losing what they did have. So, that played into it. Here's a startling figure. For people who thought that their benefits were going to be taxed in Massachusetts, they voted 64 to 32 for Brown.

<snip>

Link (Transcript): http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01292010/transcript2.html

Video: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01292010/watch2.html

Main Article: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01292010/profile.html

:shrug:

[Union Yes]

13. Thanks for posting that. BM'd for later ref. nt

[patrice]

3. I just talked to a couple of Sears delivery guys . . . ! You should hear some of the

stuff that goes down for low-level labor in the U.S.

WHAT does it mean to be American?

[Hubert Flottz]

5. The DLC gang is going to keep kissing the GOPer's asses until

A real third party evolves. I think a labor party might just kick some political ass! Not that I would LIKE to ever vote 3rd party, but I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. Working Americans have had the shitty end of the stick since Reagan started union busting and one day they will wake up and "just say no" to the hollow promises and lies.

[Omaha Steve]

6. K&R

I've started running a fever today. I'll be back in a day or two.

[Union Yes]

15. Get well soon OS! nt

[Political Heretic]

7. Man, I bled and died on this hill months ago here and no one gave a shit.

I loathe gearing up for another fight with centrist apologists telling us how we just need to forget about card-check, or how the administraiton was "really fight hard for EFCA" ...behind the scenes and complete invisible.

But, I'm with ya.

Solidarity.

[Go2Peace]

11. You are paying attention to a minority on this site. Most here are progressive

and the site is growing more progressive.

There are a number of people here who post prolifically, hundreds of posts, and spend a ton of energy trying to dominate the discussion. Once you recognize the names you start to see that they are in fact a minority.

[Goldstein1984]

9. I believe Mark Begich supports EFCA

Murkowski is just another Republican corporate toadie, so I doubt anything I write or do will change her mind.

On a larger front, I'm surprised by the lack of a Buy American campaign on any large scale. Why haven't unions demonstrated their support for all American labor by putting a lot of effort into this? I do all that I can do to buy American (or Canadian) whenever there is a choice. For example, I buy a lot of books, and I buy only books printed in the U.S. (although I also accept books printed in Great Britain if they are written by G.B authors). I'm stopped buying Levis and switched to Carharts, buying only Carharts printed in the U.S. I no longer buy Stanley tools (they weren't that great anyway), and my family has stopped buying Hershey products since they closed the PA plant and sent the jobs outside the U.S. I could go on.

The company I work for does both union and non-union projects. In my position I get to spend a lot of time talking to all the employees. The perception of unions by non-union employees is that unions are only concerned about union employees, not labor in general. Our company compensates union and non-union employees equally, althought the details our our labor agreements dictate different structures, for example, the non-union employees don't have pension and medical funds, but they make a much higher hourly wage so that they can obtain equivalent benefits independently. They non-union employees, especially on jobs where we have both working, are well aware that our company is under constant pressure from unions to hire only union employees. They hear the union employees complaining that the non-union paychecks are so much larger, but they never mention their medical and retirement benefits.

I'm very pro-union, but my pro-union stance is nothing but a subset of my general pro-labor stance. I'd like to see unions become the champions of all working people, not just union workers. In Alaska, it isn't that way. Maybe it is someplace else.

[JoeyT]

12. Actually most of the advances in worker's rights over the last

few decades were because of unions.

What you're suggesting would actually annihilate the unions. If the unions didn't do anything for union members that they didn't do for general labor, what would be the point of being in one in the first place? You could keep the dues and still reap the full benefit.
I understand what you're saying, and I agree to some extent. But there does have to be a reason to be in one or they won't be at all.

Personally I'd like to see a huge surge in the labor movement. Unions would be a big part of that, but certainly not all of it.

[hvn_nbr_2]

10. They can't hear you.

They have rolls of corporate lobbyists' hundred dollar bills in their ears.

[Vidar]

14. K&R.