David Sirota: The Democratic Party's General Attitude Towards Labor Unions

[marmar]

from OpenLeft:



The Democratic Party's General Attitude Towards Labor Unions

by: David Sirota
Wed Jan 12, 2011 at 15:00


Over the last few years, we've learned a great deal about the Democratic Party's attitude toward the labor movement. Through the Employee Free Choice Act debate (or lack thereof), we've learned that Democrats are happy to rely on union workers hard-earned money to get elected, and then happy to block major pieces of legislation that would help workers join a union. Through the Obama administration's push for a new NAFTA-style trade deal, we've learned that Democratic presidential candidates are happy to sound pro-labor on the campaign trail, and happy to be anti-labor in Washington, D.C. I could go on, but you get the point: We've learned that the Democratic Party and labor are in neverending abuser-abused relationship.

That said, it's rare to get a truly unvarnished glimpse into the psychological attitude that undergirds that relationship. It's rare, but as today shows, it sometimes comes out. Check out this little snippet from the Denver Post on Colorado's new Democratic governor, John Hickenlooper, and whether he will issue an executive order rescinding a previous recent executive order that allows state workers to form unions:

"I don't think that executive order led to a significant increase in collective bargaining or people joining unions," Hickenlooper said. "It was a statement that I think to a certain extent was largely symbolic, and if that's the case, I don't see a reason to go and immediately repeal it."

Read that statement again, just to really see what he's saying, because it's so honest. He's quite explicitly saying that because the executive order "was largely symbolic" and didn't "lead to a significant increase in collective bargaining or people joining unions," he does't "see a reason to go and immediately repeal it." .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.openleft.com/diary/21389/the-democratic-partys-general-attitude-towards-labor-unions

[Hannah Bell]

1. wtf? great example of the dems so-called "support for labor" in recent years.

[HereSince1628]

2. This is a consequence of 20 years of DLC ascendency

They abandoned labor in favor of corporate money. Until the DLC philosophy wanes, labor in this party isn't really a place where polticial capital will be expended.