Free Republic

The Clinton campaign privately fumed that one of its surrogates told supporters that Hillary Clinton planned to betray labor groups by adopting the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal after the election, according to emails published by WikiLeaks. Labor Outreach Director Nikki Budzinski told senior campaign advisers on November 3, 2015 that labor leaders were complaining to her about Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D., Texas). The congresswoman, an early Clinton supporter, privately told supporters that Clinton had no intention of opposing the TPP free trade deal once she was president, according to a memo circulated by Budzinski after a meeting with AFL-CIO...

Ohio Senate candidate Ted Strickland joked about the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on Monday, saying it came "at a good time" for union workers since he was unable to cast the deciding vote in a March case that ended up in a 4-4 deadlock. ... Strickland made the remarks in Cleveland, telling AFL-CIO members that Scalia's death "saved labor" from a terrible decision in the case, which could have dealt a blow to the ability of public-sector unions to collect fees from those who decide against joining the union and pay for collective bargaining activities. ... the...

Ground game and digital blitz to target millions of union households and allies In the final days before the election, the AFL-CIO will drive a powerful grassroots program and launch a digital ad blitz to union households and allies. The final stretch of the campaign is underlined by speaking with millions of voters at the doors and on the phones, delivering millions of mailers and a six-figure digital ad buy in battleground states.AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka began the countdown to election day with a new video message that makes the closing argument for Hillary Clinton.“The case for Hillary Clinton stands...

From:Amy.Dacey@seiu.org To: Andy.Stern@seiu.org, Anna.Burger@seiu.org, pbl@711sx.com, zschwartz@shangrila.us, douglas.york@soros.com, Michael.Vachon@soros.com more Date: 2007-09-22 00:24 Subject: Agenda and Logistical information for the September 27th NYC Meeting Thank you all for your patience as we have finalized the agenda and arrangements for the September 27th meeting in NYC. Please review the agenda and logistical information below.You will recieve a UPS overnight package on Tuesday morning with additional information to review prior to the meeting. We look forward to seeing you on Thursday. If you have any questions before then, please feel free to email me or contact me on my cell at 202-528-7492. Amy...

A new report finds that the United States fails to uphold the most basic rights of workers, particularly in the South, where some states "support or collude with employers to infringe upon workers’ rights to peaceful assembly and association." The report cited examples such as Tennessee officials’ opposition to unionization at a Volkswagen plant and the "government of Mississippi [which] touts the lack of unionization as a great benefit when courting potential employers."

At last week's presidential debate, America’s working women got a front-row seat to Donald Trump’s sexism. He repeatedly interrupted Hillary Clinton, a phenomenon too many working women can relate to, and repeated his claims that she doesn’t have the "presidential look" it takes to lead the United States. It seems like every day a new story from Trump’s past reveals more misogyny. Take the latest story out of his golf club in Palos Verdes, Calif., where Trump urged staff to fire unattractive hostesses and only hire "beautiful women."But it is his horrific, ongoing treatment of Alicia Machado that has captured...

It's been months since the passing of conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, but Democrats are still seemingly celebrating his death because it paves the way for their political purposes. At The Atlantic’s Washington Ideas Forum on Thursday, Labor Secretary Tom Perez casually noted that Scalia's death helped pave the way for union membership across the country. ... Unfortunately, Perez's comments are not isolated. In August, Ohio Senate Candidate Ted Strickland actually said “the death of Scalia saved labor” at an AFL-CIO event.

America’s coal miners have sacrificed much for our nation, and we have an obligation to support them and their families. Unlike Donald Trump who says he’s with us but has nothing to show beyond the bluster, Hillary Clinton has our back. She proved it with a detailed $30 billion plan to revitalize coal communities, while Donald Trump says ‘trust me.’ She is proving it again today with her support of the Miners Protection Act. From the bargaining table to the ballot box, working people know who stands with us, not by words, but action.

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Bernie Sanders returned to the campaign trail on Monday and received the warmest welcome possible — a Labor Day breakfast, sponsored by the AFL-CIO, in the state that gave him one of his biggest primary wins. His mission: to help elect the Democrat who had run against him. "We are not talking about personalities," said Sanders, explaining why he'd endorsed Hillary Clinton and would be stumping against Donald Trump. "We are talking about which candidate will better represent the needs of the American people." Monday's speech was Sanders's first outside Vermont since the launch of his new...

Sick To Democrats, nothing matters but agenda. Hypocrisy doesn’t matter, hubris doesn’t matter, decency doesn’t matter. All that matters is that they seize power and use it to ram their ideology down the throats of others. We see it time and again. Like an army of three-year-olds, they’re happy as long as they get their way. If a few people die along the way, and that happens to help their cause, well, that’s just hunky dory.

Fred Gegare, who is challenging Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa in elections this month to head up the transport union, says that Hoffa and the US government are colluding to control the union by the use of intimidation. If true, the allegations could mean that 50 years of work trying to rid unions of mob influence has come to an end.  Hoffa and the Justice Department, says Gegare, have abused a decades-old consent decree, “which was once used to remove mobsters two decades ago, [but] is now being used to target [Hoffa’s] critics” through a “rogue investigative unit set up by...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hillary Clinton on Thursday won the endorsement of the AFL-CIO, the nation's largest labor federation, giving her a powerful voter turnout engine against Donald Trump. The Republican businessman swiftly accused labor leaders of selling out its membership to a candidate he said was aligned with Wall Street.

Democrat under fire from supporters in own party. Sen. Michael Bennet was the only Democrat in Colorado not to be endorsed by the largest union in the state. The incumbent will not have the help of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) this fall, as the union’s 130,000 members voted to not support the candidate over his positions on trade. ... many union members were unhappy with Bennet’s support of a measure last year that gives the White House more power to cut international trade deals. Bennet has already come under fire from Democrats for...

A new super PAC partnership between billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer, the AFL-CIO and major public sector employee unions has triggered an angry backlash among the building trade unions -- dividing organized labor just as it ramps up its 2016 political programs. In letters delivered Monday to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, the presidents of eight building trade organizations called on the AFL-CIO to cut ties with Steyer, whose opposition to an extension of the Keystone XL Pipeline infuriated unions that had championed the jobs that the oil pipeline would have created.

Cavuto just dropped a bomb shell: Obama is about to "excuse" all AFL-CIO unions from Obamacare. Trumka has been making such a racket about the law he helped Obama and Pelosi write that he has apparently gotten a "get out of jail free" card from Obamopoly for his unions.

The AFL-CIO, the largest U.S. federation of labor unions, will launch digital attack ads targeting Republican front-runner Donald Trump next week as part of a multi-pronged effort to derail the New York billionaire's bid for the White House and dampen union workers' enthusiasm for him. Officials at the AFL-CIO, an umbrella group of 56 unions representing 12.5 million workers, told Reuters the ads will depict Trump as anti-union, and will appear on Facebook and Twitter. "Donald Trump has tapped into the very real and understandable anger of working people. But while he says he's with America's working people, when you...

In the closing weeks of the 1980 presidential campaign, it would have been hard to find anyone more vocally critical of Ronald Reagan than AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland. As a surrogate for President Jimmy Carter, Kirkland attacked Reagan as "displaying colossal ignorance" in his criticism of the President's plan to create a nation Industrial Development Authority that would have allowed labor more liberal access to its members' pension funds. Thirty-five years later, labor has gotten smarter. Infiltration has replaced the frontal attack. Unless, you want to believe that Donald Trump and current AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka really are collaborating. In...

By now everyone is well aware of Donald Trump's injection of raw racism into the election campaign. It is a tribute to the U.S. people that many from all walks of life have stood up and rejected Trump's hate mongering. The AFL-CIO in the first place has challenged Mr. Trump demanding he cease and desist. Muslims have a been particularly targeted by the GOP front runner. In response Rep. Keith Ellison from Minnesota has sent an open letter to Trump renouncing his call to ban all Muslims from the U.S. As Rep Ellison points out, the billionaire Republican's demagogy hurts...

WASHINGTON, DC – Jerry Hood, former Special Assistant on Energy, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, today issued the following statement: “John Kerry and John Edwards have forgotten their records of supporting job-killing extreme environmental regulations, but the union workers whose jobs he put on the line won’t be as forgiving. Kerry’s 2002 proposal to raise CAFE standards would have destroyed as many as 100,000 jobs and was opposed by both the UAW and the AFL-CIO for facilitating outsourcing. Their Senatorial and Presidential policies are endangering the welfare of the American Worker, and the impact of those policies would be felt nowhere...

Some of the largest and most influential trade unions in the country are calling out Democrats for boosting guest worker programs and open borders policies. North America's Building Trades Unions--an umbrella organization representing three million workers and 15 major unions, including the Laborers and Teamsters--sent outgoing Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D., Md.) a letter Thursday accusing her of selling out workers by importing foreigners to work for "Close to Slavery" wages. Mikulski pushed for increasing the number of temporary H2B visas that allow companies to bring guest workers to the United States to fill seasonal jobs. "We wanted to express to...