Posted on 08/25/2011 9:46:42 AM PDT by Second Amendment First
The growing rift between labor and their Democratic allies was on full display Thursday, as AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told reporters that labor groups are planning to scale back their involvement with the Democratic Party in advance of the 2012 elections.
Going forward, Trumka said, the labor movement will build up its own political structures and organizations rather than contribute to and depend on the Democratic Party’s political operation.
“We’re going to use a lot of our money to build structures that work for working people” Trumka said. “You’re going to see us give less money to build structures for others, and more of our money will be used to build our own structure.”
Trumka’s remarks follow the news that the AFL-CIO will set up a so-called super PAC, allowing the nation’s largest labor federation to spend unlimited amounts of money on political activity for next year’s elections and beyond. Trumka confirmed Thursday that the union is moving forward with plans to create the PAC.
Labor has traditionally been a major contributor to Democratic candidates and causes around the country. Trumka said that their outside effort will help keep union-backed candidates more accountable for promises made on the campaign trail.
“Let’s assume we spent $100 in the last election,” he said, explaining the union’s position.
“The day after Election Day, we were no stronger than we were the day before,” said Trumka. “If we had spent that [$100] on creating a structure for working people that would be there year round, then we are stronger.”
Speaking to reporters at a breakfast sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor, Trumka also said that many in the labor movement are weighing whether to skip the party’s 2012 convention.
“There are some of our affiliates that aren’t going to participate,” said Trumka. “We’re still talking about it.”
Relations between labor and the Obama administration have cooled over outstanding issues like the failure to pass a union-backed card check bill that would ease organizing, as well as the administration’s support for free-trade agreements with Colombia, South Korea and Panama.
Trumka articulated a broader critique of the Obama administration, telling reporters that the president has allowed Republicans to set the terms of debate — focusing on what he called a manufactured debt crisis instead of a jobs agenda.
“I think he made a strategic mistake when he confused job crisis with deficit crisis,” Trumka said. “He started playing on the Republican ground.”
“He’s going to give a speech in a couple of weeks on job creation,” Trumka told reporters. “If he’s talking about another percent or two break from a tax here and doing something with patent control, and doing three years down the road something with infrastructure bank, that’s not going to get the job done.”
He called for more direct action.
“As we approach this Labor Day, our working-class people are looking for three things: jobs, jobs, jobs,” Trumka said.
With Hispanics and labor moving off the plantation, blacks may be the only ones remaining in servitude.
The thought process of union leaders takes one into an alternate universe.
Vote for the AFL-CIO party, Vote Trumka 2012!
I actually read that THREE times on Politoc..just to see if I coudl actually make ANY sense of what Trumka was saying...I can’t...it’s incomprehensible...I mean, like, where are the gonna go now..they have ZERO leverage..other than just stay home and sit on their wallets...which, if his polling numbers continue to worsen, they may just decide to do...
That will be the day.
Well, they already have the CPUSA, but if they want to build another failing party so be it. I say go for it. Anything to split the democrat vote is fine with me. But keep in mind, it'll be mostly the graveyard and illegals vote they get (outside of their core)...
Third party threat, the Labor party, to Obama, unless he delivers.... more.
They must have spent billions of dollars getting Obama elected. The health care nuts got their dream. EPA nuts got theirs...Unions didn’t get their card check disaster passed and now they’re taking their ball and going home.
This is the best news I’ve heard all week. Obama is TOAST without the unions.
Let me translate: Instead of spending money on liberals who do nothing for us, we will spend the money on ourselves so union leaders can live even more lavish lives of luxury on the backs of their members!
Where are thugs like Trumka gonna go ?
Well said. They’re just trying to push Baraq even farther left (is that possible?).
translation: communist trumka is going to set up a pac that will support dems in order to protect auto deduction of union dues.
I think this is just a shot across the rat’s bow - deliver for us or else. The unions effectively have no where else to go.
We are so much better off if that’s what happens. Without union money - and associated support - Obama’s got serious problems in key states (PA comes to mind).
I call BS! This is about “The 0ne” having such a big ego that he believes that it’s the Unions that everyone is mad at not him so he has told them to go out and distence themselves.
Promises, promises. Don’t believe a word of it.
The unions were especially angry that Charlotte was picked as the convention site since it’s in a right to work state, and there are no union hotels there. They wanted it in St. Louis instead, but even here the movement is losing steam. A recent organizing attempt at a local manufacturer failed to garner even a quarter of the vote.
Translation: Trumka thinks that 2012 is going to be a debacle for Dems, and sees no reason to toss union money into losing races. You can only get goodies from candidates who win.
They will never ditch the Dems.
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