Big Labor: isolated incident or a shot across the bow?

[welshTerrier2]

is there a message here that the party should heed or is this just an anomaly? clearly there are trade-offs when elected Democrats cast their votes ... choices have consequences ... some votes cast by legislators will result in primary challenges or the loss of voters to third parties or having constituency groups sitting on the sidelines ...

by the same token, as was highlighted in the story below, choices have consequences for voters as well ... in this case, the AFL-CIO had to decide whether to risk having the Dems not take back the Congress or to "send a message" ... and in this case, they opted to send a message ...

to criticize only the AFL-CIO and not understand the yin-yang of the process misses the gestalt ... criticism at this point in the process, if we disagree with labor's decision, becomes just noise ... the time to "negotiate a compromise" (if one had even been possible), was before the CAFTA vote occurred ... once the CAFTA vote occurred, the chance for compromise was probably gone ... too often we blame one group or another for not voting a straight Democratic ticket ... and we may be right to do so ... the time to remedy the problem, however, happened way back upstream ... at this point we're just being REACTIVE; to avoid this, we needed to be PROACTIVE ... it's just a wee bit too late now ...

source: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID=2006-08-16T203620Z_01_N15429553_RTRUKOC_0_US-TRADE.xml&WTmodLoc=Home-C5-politicsNews-3

The AFL-CIO labor federation mounted an all-out effort last year to stop CAFTA, which House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, called a job killer in an impassioned speech shortly before the 217-215 House vote. Many union members and other activists were incensed when the 15 Democrats crossed party lines to vote with 202 Republicans to approve the pact.

"If we ever want to make politicians take us seriously when it comes to important laws touching the lives of workers, we must punish the 15 so-called Democrats who voted for the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) -- and punish them hard," labor rights activist Jonathan Tasini wrote on his Working Life blog just after the vote. <skip>

Two of the remaining primary races are in New York, where Rep. Gregory Meeks is running unopposed and 24-year House veteran Rep. Edolphus Towns faces two opponents on September 12.

The New York AFL-CIO voted this week not to endorse Meeks and Towns because of their CAFTA vote. "It basically means we're sitting out the race," said Mario Cilento, communications director for the New York AFL-CIO. "Delegates to the convention felt strongly that a message had to be sent and not take labor support for granted."

The Illinois AFL-CIO has voted not to endorse Rep. Melissa Bean, a first-term congresswoman accused of betraying union members who helped her defeat veteran Republican lawmaker Phil Crane in 2004.

Bill Morley, a lobbyist with MWW Group, said CAFTA Democrats are being rewarded by the business community for their vote, while labor unions risk marginalizing their influence by taking a hard line on trade pacts. "Melissa Bean's better off having supported CAFTA than not. Look who is really stepping up for Melissa Bean right now in the general election. It's the business community," he said.

[Drum]

1. They won't endorse Meeks, even if he's unopposed...

SLAP! Ouch!

That said, I wanna say I appreciate your post in its entirety. I have belonged to several unions, and perhaps appropriately I can say that I get the seesaw battle everpresent between labor and management. The process of protecting interests can seem tedious in good times and ugly other times. It's tough all around, but imagining things without any workers' organizations looks really frightening, exploitative (even more than they are already.) At a time where the exportation of so many jobs occurs---and vast swaths of the workforce are being mechanized, downsized, or replaced-by-unskilled---I'm surprised and saddened that these 15 didn't/wouldn't see the long-term national interest in protecting some of the abovementioned issues (aka voting with the GOP on CAFTA.)

I support all of these union folks for the hard battles they must wage again and again.

Great post!

[larrysh]

2. Union leadership can hem and haw all it wants.......the reality

is their members are going to vote the way their members want to vote regardless of the lack of a union endorsement. The time to have fought CAFTA was before the vote. I wonder if some of these union leaders don't have their own personal finances (of which we'll never know)
first and foremost in their minds, and the good of the workers last place.

[welshTerrier2]

4. question for you

i don't know how decisions like this are made inside labor unions ... your post seems to be implying that it was union management that made the decision ...

the article stated: "Delegates to the convention felt strongly that a message had to be sent and not take labor support for granted" ... are delegates to the convention mostly or all management or is it open to all union members?

also, it's not just about how union members vote but whether the union organizes GOTV activities and other resources during the campaign ...

[Drum]

6. I haven't gone to a convention, but

as a former board-of-governors person I know this much: the attendees for the union conventions are of the union. "Delegations" from my former unions were the upper officers of the union and senior staff. So our union's executive director and 2 senior assts would go and maybe our unions elected cabinet (pres, vices, treasurer, and a few committee heads.) This was for our local, here in NYC...such delegations were from all of the shops, nationwide.
To clarify, our union officers (and shop stewards and committee chairs, etc) were unpaid for their--our--official activities, all had to be active working members of the union (performers in this case) governing and running the organization for no extra $. The exec director, his 2 or 3 assts, legal counsel, office personnel, they were all paid, to run the business of the union. The paid ones were subject to the will of the unpaid in this case, and the distinction was important. Our members (and on up the chain to us on the board) set the agenda, and voted on the union's actions...management of the union carried out these wishes.

In the set-ups I've been associated with, management worked for US.

[Donnachaidh]

3. I hope it is a shot across the bow

How can we as a party diss Holy Joe (and I diss him too) for playing with the thugs, and then give a pass on the Dems who 'also' screwed the working class by going along with Cafta?

They don't deserve the backing of any person who has been hurt by that heinous deal. They aided and abetted Big Business -- they need to answer for it.

[tomreedtoon]

5. Why doesn't the AFL-CIO run their OWN candidates against 'em?

Undoubtedly there are rules that forbid unions from supporting one party over another. However...if the unions are that concerned about these Pink Tutu Democrats who backstabbed working people, they could "talk" to progressives or people in the party with the same concerns, and "convince" them to throw their hats into the ring.

A "shot across the bow" isn't anywhere as effective as a shot amidships beneath the water line. And considering the wide range of people in AFL-CIO, including the communications, printing and other industries, there could be plenty of FREE advice available about campaign details. I'd take the advice of a guy who proofreads copy, who knows what advertising slogans work, over these expensive and incompetent "professionals" the Democrats hire again and again.

[ToeBot]

7. In the last 30+ years, organized labor has received damn little...

for their support. (Unless ya consider having their membership cut in half a fair return.) If Labor is finally willing to walk out on this abusive, one-sided relationship, good for them. And as Mr. Morley points out, the dem's wont miss them, the business community is there and more than willing to "step-up".

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