Greg Sargent's Plumline: AFL-CIO To Bring Hammer Down On Wavering House Dems

[flpoljunkie]

Posted at 03/18/2010

AFL-CIO To Bring Hammer Down On Wavering House Dems

A second labor powerhouse is about to bring the hammer down on wavering House Dems.

The AFL-CIO is set to rachet up the pressure on House Dems who are considering voting No on the health reform bill, a source from the union tells me, implicitly threatening primaries and third-party challenges. The news comes days after the SEIU went public with a very explicit threat to do the same.

In the days ahead, the presidents of the AFL-CIO’s unions — heavy hitters such as Richard Trumka, AFSCME’s Gerald McEntee, and CWA’s Larry Cohen — will be making direct personal (ahem) appeals to these House Dems, the source says.

“Everybody who’s undecided now, all the different union presidents are going to get on the phone and bring very heavy pressure,” the source says. “Trumka, McEntee, Larry Cohen — all of our presidents will be laying down the law.”

Earlier this afternoon, the AFL-CIO voted to support the fixed version of the Senate bill, Sam Stein reports, despite a last-minute dispute over the so-called “Cadillac” tax.

The AFL-CIO source sends over the list of House Dems who are being targeted:

Dennis Cardoza, Jim Costa, Daniel Lipinski, Stephen Lynch, Michael Michaud, James Oberstar, Steve Chabot, Charlie Wilson Marcy Kaptur, Ralph Regula, Zack Space, Phil English, Jason Altmire, Christopher Carney, Paul Kanjorski, Tim Holden, Jerry Costello, Virgil Goode, Alan Mollohan, Nick Rahall.

more...

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/labor/afl-cio-to-bring-hammer-down-on-wavering-house-dems/

[Joanne98]

1. YAY

[demosincebirth]

2. Labor is no fool. They know that some is better than none. Thats why

we all should be backing this bill.