Organized labor is rightly claiming a major role in the Nov. 4 victories of
President-elect Barack Obama and congressional Democrats – and is rightly
expecting much in return.
The figures are impressive. One-fifth of all voters were union members or
in union households, and fully two-thirds of them supported Obama, a ratio
even higher in battleground states.
The AFL-CIO calculates that more than a quarter-million volunteers
campaigned among their fellow union members and others, discussing the
issues that were of particular importance to working people, drumming up
support for Obama and other labor-friendly Democrats and, finally, getting
labor voters to the polls on election day.
The AFL-CIO’s figures show that the volunteers knocked on some 10 million
doors, made 70 million telephone calls, handed out 27 million leaflets and
mailed out 57 million more. There was scarcely a union member or union
household anywhere that was not reached.
The number of union voters reached a record high of more than 3 million. The
labor federation claims they “made the difference in critical states like
Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio and so many others.” Maybe they did, maybe not
– but it is clear that organized labor significantly influenced the vote.
Not all of labor’s favored candidates won, but enough of them did to assure
unions of labor-friendly majorities in the House and Senate.
You can be sure unions will be asking a lot of their congressional friends,
as well as of their friend in the White House. They want “a new economic
agenda,” says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. He says, “We need to rethink
the rules and strategies of our economy. We need changes attuned to today’s
world that are as bold and as visionary as the economic changes FDR made so
many decades ago.”
Sweeney anticipates that the AFL-CIO will work closely with the Obama
administration and Congress to shape the agenda and meanwhile will keep in
place its mobilization structure to help press labor’s case.
“Working men and women are poised to keep the energy pumping to help the
Obama administration lead the change we need,” Sweeney promised. “ There
will be no gap or letdown.”
Labor’s specific wishes are many, including steps to stimulate the faltering
economy, such as extending the unemployment benefits of workers who have
used up their eligibility, broadening the food stamp program, rebuilding and
repairing the crumbling infrastructure, and making grants to state and local
governments that have been hit by heavy revenue losses. Unions also want to
extend health care coverage to many more Americans, and raise the taxes of
high-income earners to narrow the income gap between the wealthy and others
that has expanded greatly during the Bush presidency.
Above all, labor is demanding passage of the pending Employee Free Choice
Act that could guarantee millions of Americans the right to unionize that
has long been denied them -- the main reason only about 12 percent of
American workers are in unions, despite the much higher pay, benefits and
other advantages of membership.
Employers routinely violate the current labor laws by firing or otherwise
disciplining those who support or attempt to organize unions. Penalties, if
any, are slight. Workers, in any case, fear complaining about violations
because to do so is to risk employer retaliation.
The Free Choice Act calls for much stiffer fines, swiftly imposed, new
penalties on employers who violate workers’ rights and requires that
employers who stall in bargaining for union contracts will have the terms
dictated by an arbitrator. The key provision would automatically grant union
recognition on the showing of union membership cards by a majority of an
employer’s workers, rather than holding an election, as is now usually done.
The law was like that originally, with no lengthy election campaigns and
thus much less opportunity for employers to intimidate workers.
The Free Choice Act cleared the House easily last year, but could not get
the 60-vote majority needed to overcome a filibuster by Senate Republicans.
The prospects are much better now, with strong support promised by a
majority of congressional Democrats, as well as Obama and Vice
President-elect Joe Biden, who were among the measure’s co-sponsors when
they were in the Senate.
Obama’s support is consistent with his pro-labor approach. He also supports
virtually all of labor’s other specific wishes, among them prohibiting
employers from permanently replacing strikers and raising the minimum wage
and indexing it to inflation, so it would rise as the cost-of-living rises.
He promises, as well, to reverse decisions by the Bush-appointed majority on
the National Labor Relations Board that have taken union rights from
thousands of workers and says that, unlike Bush appointees, his appointees
to positions dealing with unions will support workers’ rights.
Rarely has labor had higher or more realistic expectations.
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Copyright © 2008 Dick Meister, a San Francisco-based journalist who has
covered labor and political issues for a half-century. Contact him through
his website,
www.dickmeister.com.
