Posted on 11/18/2006 8:01:49 AM PST by george76
Unions spent more than $100 million getting out the vote, knocked on millions of doors and delivered Election Day support to Democrats running for the House by a more than 2-to-1 ratio.
Now organized labor is spelling out what it wants from the new Democratic Congress.
The priorities include raising the minimum wage, expanding health care and improving pension protections.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney sees the elections as a "mandate for a union agenda."
Likewise, says Bill Samuel, legislative director for the AFL-CIO, "we have an opportunity to push our agenda...
The AFL-CIO executive council is scheduled to meet Tuesday to discuss various issues, including the legislative agenda.
The aggressive stance is a sharp turnaround from the past few years.
"There were days during the last six years when we were in a defensive crouch protecting 60 years of workplace advances," Samuel said.
Organized labor clearly expects the Democratic Congress to help pass pro-worker legislation after an unprecedented get- out-the-vote effort.
Organized labor spent an unprecedented amount of money for midterm elections on its get-out-the-vote-effort - $40 million by the AFL-CIO alone - with 187,000 union volunteers in the AFL-CIO program knocking on more than 3 million doors in the final four days.
Labor did more microtargeting of voters, but the most effective technique was still worker-to-worker contact.
(Excerpt) Read more at rockymountainnews.com ...
The unions claim they represent the little guy, yet they ran the company that my husband worked for, out of business, with a loss of thousands of jobs. It was the only thing keeping our little town alive. Now the majority of the people here are out of work, thanks to the union.
Actually 98% of their income is being used to find the remains of Jimmy Hoffa.
The last 2% will be used to build a shrine for him.
Yeah. Pretty stupid how they dug up that guys barn. LOL
A shrine for him for destroying the manufacturing jobs here in America...
Much of the rust belt is economically dead.
Japanese and European manufacturers who do set up factories in the US avoid the high cost states with aggressive unions. Thus these states get no new jobs and are losing their old jobs.
Companies with high costs of production ( including expensive union contracts ) will fail.
We consumers are smart enough to want a reasonable price.
The Rust Belt is nothing new.. I remember hearing about the Rust Belt in 80's ... Until the Midwest shape up.. More jobs and people are going to be moving out the Midwest..
States will aggressive unions not only lose jobs, but also much of their tax base.
When the businesses are destroyed by the union demands, then the tax revenue that the businesses were producing are gone, too.
And local civic charity donations die off.
I'm a former member of a union affiliated with the AFL-CIO, I'm now retired, and I can attest that the union sent me a political-themed flyer encouraging me to "get out and vote" for the entire slate of Democratic candidates. They didn't endorse even one Republican in my area.
John Edwards and Wal-Mart: Playstation Before Principle
November 17, 2006
http://mensnewsdaily.com/2006/11/17/john-edwards-and-wal-mart-playstation-before-principle/
Many unions have become shills for the DNC.
Often taking care of the members seems to have been forgotten.
I'm not surprised...
The union hasn't contacted me since I retired three years ago, suddenly I get a flyer in the mail from them advising dumb old me how to vote. So touched by their concern (/sarcasm)
it's going to be such fun ... all the left wing entities think they "own" the dems, their conflicting agendas notwithstanding .. will be fun to watch the AFL-CIO/MoveOn/NARAL and others vying for primacy in this new Congress.
But the "leaders" know their majorities had less to do with any of those organization than with disenchanted conservatives who really are the majority in the country. Those non-voters will now learn disenchantment first hand.
My wife use to belong to UFCW.. Before her grocery store shutdown, she did not get a raise (as per the contract).. As soon the store shutdown and on her final paycheck she got a raise......
The NY Times use to also support one token R.
This year...not even one.
One thing I don't understand, why are they pushing socialized medince?? Isn't one of the functions of the Union is to take care of the members??
LOL.
You are kidding, right ?
" Isn't one of the functions of the Union is to take care of the members??"
That was a serious question...
You got that right! The one time my husband called on the union for help was when he was passed over out of seniority for a promotion in favor of a more politically correct person (a woman). They failed him miserably. The fact that my husband is a Republican didn't help matters either. He paid union dues to this union for 34 years and they just blew him off. He finally wound up getting the job when the woman failed miserably and they had no one else to turn to.
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