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Today's Top News
12 Unions Tell Dems They'll Boycott Convention in North Carolina
Casting North Carolina as an anti-union bastion with "regressive policies aimed at diluting the power of workers," more than a dozen trade unions affiliated with the national AFL-CIO have told the Democratic National Committee that they will sit out the 2012 convention in Charlotte.
Charlotte, NC's Time Warner Cable Arena, site of the 2012 National Democratic Convention. Coming on the heels of some liberals' complaints that President Barack Obama is giving in to Republicans, the unions' decision is another sign that key Democratic allies are unhappy with Obama and other party leaders as they gear up for a difficult election season.
It's also a signal that anything relating to Charlotte - from its besieged hometown bank to its lack of unionized hotels - will face scrutiny as the city eases into the national spotlight.
Labor unions have long played an integral role in Democratic conventions. And some big ones, including the National Education Association and the Service Employees International Union, still plan to be active participants when the Democrats come to Charlotte in 2012.
Local and state labor leaders also are still on board. The N.C. AFL-CIO helped lobby for Charlotte to be the convention site. On Friday, a leader of the Raleigh-based labor group called the national unions' decision understandable but "shortsighted."
"I think the only way we're going to change things here is if people understand the struggles here. I'm encouraged that the Democratic Party wants to make investments here in the state," said MaryBe McMillian, secretary-treasurer of the N.C. AFL-CIO. "This convention is going to bring much-needed work for union members and thousands of unemployed North Carolinians."
With new Democratic convention rules barring donations from corporations, federal lobbyists and PACs - including those affiliated with labor unions - the Charlotte gathering already was forecast to be less reliant than past conventions on big financial support from organized labor.
Still, the decision by the national unions - representing 2.5 million workers in the building and construction trades - reflects disappointment from labor activists who Democrats count on to get union members to the polls.
"There is broad frustration with the party and all elected officials, broad frustration with the lack of a union agenda," Michael Monroe, chief of staff of the AFL-CIO's building trades division, told The Associated Press. "People are looking for outlets to express that frustration."
The decision by the building trades came after a vote by leaders of the unit's 13 affiliate unions, including the Laborers, Painters and Electrical Workers.
In a letter this week to Democratic Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the unions bemoaned the persistently high unemployment rate nationwide and the choice of Charlotte at a time when union members "face assault after assault" in Washington and in some state capitals.
"We find it troubling that the party so closely associated with basic human rights would choose a state with the lowest unionization rate in the country," Mark Ayers, president of the building trades unit, wrote Wasserman Schultz, who is also a congresswoman from Florida.
Those busy planning the Charlotte convention appeared unfazed - at least publicly - by the unions' action.
"We were proud to have the support of local labor leaders when we chose Charlotte to host the 2012 Democratic National Convention, including the N.C. AFL-CIO," Democratic National Convention Committee CEO Steve Kerrigan said in a statement. "The DNCC will continue to work closely with local and national labor leaders as we prepare for the convention next September."
That reaction was echoed by former Mecklenburg County Commissioner Dan Murrey, who now heads Charlotte's host committee.
"We've been having frequent discussions with the local labor unions and the state representatives," he said. "They've been very helpful in the planning process and ... on getting the word out to people."
Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx, who led Charlotte's campaign to get the convention, had no comment, deferring to party officials, said a spokesman.
There was also no comment from Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers, who is leading the local fundraising campaign for the convention. "His work in this effort continues," said spokesman Tom Williams. "Any actual status on numbers will be via the election (fundraising) reports."
Despite the strong language in the unions' letter, at least one of the 13 says it is still considering whether to go.
"The Teamsters Union has not gone through our own internal decision process about the Democratic National Convention," said spokeswoman Leigh Strope.
Monroe of the AFL-CIO said the decision doesn't preclude individual members of the unions from running as delegates, and some of the unions apparently are still considering how to proceed.
But the angst could spread. The International Association of Machinists, which is not part of the building trades, said it also has decided to skip the convention after participating for decades.
"This is the union that came up with the idea for Labor Day, and this convention starts on Labor Day in a right-to-work state," said IAM spokesman Rick Sloan. "We see that as an affront to working men and women across this country."
Monroe said the unions are being careful not to use the term "boycott" because they don't want to damage Obama's re-election prospects. He said money is also a major factor, when unions are spending millions trying to beat back efforts by Republican lawmakers to diminish union rights in Wisconsin, Ohio and other states.
"It would be disappointing to our members to see us doing business as usual, diverting resources that we know are scarce when we should be laser-like focused on getting elected officials focused on the jobs agenda," Monroe said.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka warned earlier this year that unions would focus more of their energy and money shoring up local affiliates and less on boosting a single political party.
The choice of North Carolina earlier this year provoked immediate outrage among labor leaders, who said it was another indication that Democrats take union support for granted. But Democrats defended the decision, saying it's part of the party's push to win crucial swing states in the South, including a state that Obama carried in 2008.
Organized labor and Democrats had a similar squabble over the choice of Denver for the 2008 convention, where the gathering was held at the non-union Pepsi Center and the city had few unionized hotels. At one point, Teamsters President James Hoffa threatened to "blow up" the convention with picketing and protests if union issues were not worked out.
But the two sides ultimately struck a deal to staff the Pepsi Center with union employees.
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34 Comments so far
Show AllMonroe said the unions are being careful not to use the term "boycott" because they don't want to damage Obama's re-election prospects." - Why bother boycott if the Democrats know you will support them anyways?
"But the two sides ultimately struck a deal to staff the Pepsi Center with union employees." - So the union wins a few crumbs from the Democrats, meanwhile, Obama is cutting Social Security tax rates, a first step towards the defunding of social security.
In addition to cutting Social Security tax rates, Obama via his 2010 catfood commission and his 2011 super catfood commission is cutting Social Security benefits.
Although I vote for pro-union Democrats, Obama has never demonstated that he supports organized labor.
Boycotting the convention will indeed have no positive impact as long as union dues are being used to support anti-union Democrats and union members vote for anti-union Democrats.
"Union issues" are people issues! The unions are not good at spreading that reality--they come off looking like a club that only wants to enrich its own members. In fact, unions should be fighting for all Americans--working and unemployed.
"Monroe said the unions are being careful not to use the term 'boycott' because they don't want to damage Obama's re-election prospects. He said money is also a major factor, when unions are spending millions trying to beat back efforts by Republican lawmakers to diminish union rights in Wisconsin, Ohio and other states...
"'It would be disappointing to our members to see us doing business as usual, diverting resources that we know are scarce when we should be laser-like focused on getting elected officials focused on the jobs agenda,' Monroe said."
This is all just fat, corrupt, over-paid national labor "leadership" staging a big poo-poo sulk to give the rank & file a excuse to vent before being corralled back into line to vote Dimcrap next November. It's tactically the same as a Koch Brothers/Dick Army Tea Party rally giving Baggers a griping event before they are corralled back into voting for Republicans come next general election.
The union rank & file need to grow the @#$k up and realize that if Obama gets back in he'll shaft them again just like he and several neo-lib Dim governors did in his first term. The whole reason they are having to fight to preserve collective bargaining rights, benefits and jobs at the state level is because Dims participated in the neo-liberal banking and derivatives deregulation (and for private sector unions "free trade") that brought public and private sector unions to this sorry point in the first place.
Elected Dimcrap officials will do NOTHING substantive to focus on a pro-union, pro-working-class, pro-middle-class jobs agenda, which is entirely opposite from the tri-partisan neo-liberal agenda which is egregiously anti-jobs and pro-Third World type slums in the First World--same as it is with the "Labour" and Tory neo-liberals in Britain.
Union membership will have to go outside the Dimcrap Party to create a movement or Third Party that will represent working-class people and get unions' backs. Until they come to that realization they and this country screwed.
Good commentary, metal.
Very few of us in unions have strayed from the Dims, though this administration has done nothing for unions.
My choice is the Iowa Green Party. I switched my registration a year ago.
Bill in Dubuque, Teamsters Local 120
Good on you, Bill. I hope many more union members will move outside the degenerated and treacherous Democratic Party.
Yes. Something MUST replace the Democratic Party, now in Perdition.
Obama clearly cannot be trusted, and the Leadership placing the convention in Charlotte reeks of cynicism and sellout. This is a deliberate slap at organized labor.
Clearly they feel voters have no place to go as they continue to shred our paid for benefits [NOT entitlements]. We have been shafted by this incredibly shifty and corrupt administration still attempting to hoodwink us into thinking they stand for Democratic party principles.
There has to be a better way.
As an active union member (IBEW) I have an insiders view of at least one labor union. I echo your words that the leadership of most unions ( I have been a member, in my time, of the Teamsters, SEIU and the TWU as well) is corrupt and fails to represent the needs or wishes of the rank and file in most cases.
But I have found that the workers in my local are increasingly leaning GOP, a trend that has been going on for a decade or so. The pseudo patriotism of Shrubya and Cheney appealed to many with only a peripheral political interest. Not all , of course, but far too many in fact. While the Union leadership remains solidly in the camp of the Democratic Party the lack of a voice that appeals to workers in that party, the lack of a spine to stand up and speak to the lies and distortions of the right led GOP, the obvious leaning towards the wealthy and the corporation has combined to lose a former bastion of loyal democrats, the working class American.
"Union membership will have to go outside the Dimcrap Party to create a movement or Third Party that will represent working-class people and get unions' backs. Until they come to that realization they and this country screwed."
Right on, metal, as usual.
Richard Trumka, President AFL-CIO, sounds as if he's mad as hell at the Dems.
Suppose the Greens (who, I believe, have better ballot access than any other party of the left) get their act together and invite him to run as their candidate for prez.
Then invite either Bernie Sanders or Ralph Nader to join as his running mate.
Trumka is still young enough to goven with energy. Sanders or Nader, both somewhat age challenged but with excellent credentials and national recognition, could be cast as taking on a less strenuous advisory role as Trumka's VP.
Then contact every union, progressive party and organization in the country, and the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and invite them all to lend support and cast their vote for these representatives of the New Progressive Coalition.
If we do not provide radicals/progressives/liberals with a viable alternative to the duopoly, we'll just see another round of lesser-evil voting, and four more years of a greater or lesser evil skunk.
I'd rather vote for something I want and not get it than vote for something I don't want and get it.
Ah, the unions. Always ready to suck resources from the progressive community and return nothing. Well... this is the least they could do, I suppose.
Yup, the veal-pen unions will always do the least they can do. From orgs that have negotiated their own demise as skillfully as Obama, the union's threat sounds more like a petty extortion attempt. From Shakespeare in Macbeth, "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
It's long past time to boycott the Dixiecratic Party; if unions can't see that, they deserve what they get. The party must be cast into outer darkness to weep and gnash their teeth until it can be purged and redeemed or replaced. If that means unfettered GOP misrule for a period, bringing the rotten system to total collapse, so be it.
If nothing else, and there is else.....the standard of living and respect for the American worker is involved here. Think. Warts and all Unions have provided Americans with a decent way of life and respect for the contributions labor creates
in our system.
At one time just think of it.....the American worker was the most envied in the world for the integrity that labor produced as we were the world leader in exporting our goods with unique ingenuity throughout the world.
Without an equitably rewarded labor force there can't be a credible consumer marketplace, domestic constructrions, or innovative future for goods produced by Americans.
It ain't easy being Green again this November. I notice that when the Trade Unions were strong Everyman had a living wage - now Noman has a living wage as it's all gone to the Elete Few.
The American labor movement is the longest suicide note in politics. It isn't its financial corruption that has dug its grave--though there's been too much of that--but the larger corruption: the lying. First they lied to themselves and each other, and then to the rest of us. The central lie was "Democrats are the friends of labor." Belatedly, some few have begun waking up to this falsehood...but even now, even with one eye open, they still can't bring themselves to make a meaningful break from their brand-name addiction.
With friends like these, who needs enemies? The lesser-evil faux realism of D's versus R's has ensured that labor steadily shrunk down to today's pitiful echo of what it was when I was a young man. Now the D's hardly have to think of labor at all...both because of its relative weakness and because the labor movement lacks a spine intact enough to allow it to stand for and by itself.
Now labor reaps what it has sown. Unfortunately, so do the rest of us. And the few who have been the Cassandras, decade in and decade out, warning that the two-party system was the death knell of the values and achievements of labor, can only watch as the predictable collapse ensues. No schadenfreud there--none at all. It is a tragedy without satisfaction.
More good commentary, dravazed. Well-written prose.
You'd think the Green Party would be a natural for labor; it appeals to me.
Bill in Dubuque, Teamsters Local 120
dravazed,
You're largely right, but you overlook the history of the labor movement and those Democrats who championed labor full tilt. Eleanor Roosevelt for one, and way beyond FDR. The Socialist Party and Socialist Worker's Party also championed labor, but labor had to thrive among a viable party for obvious reasons.
Yes times have changed and the corruption of both many unions and the Dems
has brought us to a sad place, but when we stopped producing product and the corporations sought cheap labor in China and elsewhere, the American worker and America got screwed. Free Trade had no restraints that would allow for apportioned export and import as we had for years. Everyone pigged out and now we produce nothing but Tech. Our Banks were allowed to sellout their workers, etc.
Being spiteful about labor doesn't solve the problem. Corporate profits have become lopsided as Americans workers are bypassed for the hugest profit corporate windfalls in history as our country and it's middle and working class decline along with the GDP.
It's a known fact that as Americans we have consistently voted against our best interests and continue to so. Media, money,kool aid,fanaticism have made many comfortable about shafting themselves while thinking otherwise.
The Right wing and the Religious Right have been hypnotized into voting directly against their interests consistently. It's called mind control and Orwell knew what he was talking about.
morris, That's history worth noting, but it's long-forgotten history, as far as the Clinton-Obama Dims are concerned.
My parents were FDR and JFK Democrats, and they must be rolling over in their graves with the politics of these weasels. Eisenhower Repubs were more liberal than these Dims!
There comes a time when it's incumbent to pack up and leave, and I reached that point, as I noted earlier, in registering with the Iowa Green Party.
Bill in Dubuque
Orwellian mind control...is what I have been teaching my youngest daughter this summer with an example from the educational policies of fcat...how knowledge is put into the form of facts (all put into a box) to be drummed into the students' head while missing out on the lessons of truly learning aka critical thinking.(thinking outside the box). Can it also be that all the political parties, here and abroad, including socialist and labour, have been squarely put into a box that violates the social contract. We must think outside the box!
Peace:)
helluva post and dead on. American unions are largely unworthy of the designation.
The Union Movement should have immediately fled the Dems when the Clinton DLC took over the party. President Clinton signed NAFTA and the WTO.
The rank and file were sold out by Union leadership and the Democratic party.
We're about 20 years farther down that road than we needed to be.
30 years actually, the Union Movement should have struck across the board in solidarity with PATCO when Reagan fired the air traffic controllers. "Longest suicide note in politics" nails it.
Bingo .... I voted Nader in '96, because of NAFTA and never looked back - each successive Dem admin, candidate and campaign have given more and more reasons for "the little guy" to abandon Dems. I found it amazing/absurd for "Big Labor" to march in Seattle in '99 and then support free trader Gore in '00.
I find it ironic for labor to bemoan the lack of unionization in soc. at large while failing to get it's own act together - unions failing to support other unions or competing with each other for members .... Suicide indeed
I agree that Reagan should have faced massive opposition. But this called for bravery and strategy that could only be enacted with a credible labor movement willing to fight hard for it's future. Reagan was out to break the unions and he did without real opposition.
That's when the slide began and the rest started with NAFTA..Nafta needed controls and caps, but there were none.
I'm trying to think of even one reason for this half-measure consession by some unions to politely bow out of the North Carolina Dem Convention. Nothing good comes to mind. Unions that root for the Dems, or that don't complain loudly about Dem policies, are just chumps.
Maybe it all comes down to that adage: "keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer." But quite frankly, the Dems really don't need the unions. Organized labor represents a small embarrassment on the way to the Dems collecting corporate contributions and carrying out the corporate agenda.
Unions are shrinking and they lack an overall solidarity message as the rest of the labor force faces cutbacks. Still, they could do a lot of good by backing a third party, if they only would do that.
With all the anti-Obama sentiment seething through the country, one might be suspicious if we're not all being played by the Koch brothers and Chairman Ailes. However, I do not have television and don't read mainstream press, so it would seem that I'm fairly immune from their machinations. And I decided during the first week of his presidency that I would never vote for him again (due to his authorizing drone strikes and appointing wingers to his Cabinet). Many things since that first week have strengthened my resolve.
If the Democrats don't dump him, none of us pro-union, anti-war, social security defenders, medicare for all proponents will vote democratic again. Not to say I'll vote Republican either. I was born and raised a Democrat--in a very politically active family. But I renounce the party. I denounce what it has not done. I think I have a significant number of like-minded citizens of the same mind in this country.
I don't like the "Greens". In fact, I would go so far to join something like the Communist Party if it were revived. We invaded Afghanistan illegally 10 years ago. We protesters were not only ignored by MSM, but also herded off into "free-speech zones" and into hidden-from-view areas at every effort--and now San Francisco is following Prime Minister Kissoff-Cameron's example and requiring Verizon, Comcast, etc. to suspend all cell phone communication during the protest this weekend.
Democratic? Convention in North Carolina!!!
Have you driven I-95 lately? Gotta carry your own urine bottle due to the State's saving money by closing all the rest areas. Gotta realign your front wheels at the end of the trip due to the many unavoidable large potholes.
Worse, our voices are silenced by so many powerful forces that the Convention will produce a flimsy balsa-wood platform without any of our planks. With President O'Compromise in charge it will collapse anyway the moment the Convention is over.
So how many kicks to the head, gut and groin from Obama will unions take before they not only boycott the corrupt Democratic convention but convene a meeting/convention to start a real labor/citizen party in the US? What does it take to make clear that Obama and crew are tools of Korporate Kapitalism along with 90% of the rest of Democrats in Congress, lined up waiting for their payoffs from one or more of the 30,000 lobbyists that infest DC?
One betrayal after another from Obama. Start with his promise on card check, never acted on. He watched the events in Wisconsin and sabotaged an effort developing at national Dem. headquarters to provide some support. Never a word of concern or support as a full scale attack on public employee unions is in full throttle operation. He says and does nothing as postal workers struggle to keep our mail system going. He lays Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block, which even the thugs of the Republican party hadn't asked for. He sends the sons and daughters of the working class off into endless useless wars after many of them went into the military because no other employment options were available. And he has never done anything significant to aid the millions of home buyers trapped in the convoluted mess and trap the bankster mortgage criminals set up. The list goes on, and on. And if the heat gets hot enough, he will offer some of his slick tongued lies, excuses and half truths for any sucker who still believes anything this man says. Well, let me make this absolutely clear, Obama works for Wall Street and the military-industrial-media system and his level of concern about the lives, hopes, jobs, health, education, livable environment of we the majority is right at the level of the Koch brothers, Goldman Sachs, and the Wall Street Journal.
It is long past time to break free from the consensus trance that union leaders and much of the working class are lost in about the Democratic Party. The party that formerly helped make a fairly decent social safety net possible and provide some degree of protections from the incessant greed and criminality of the Korporate Kapitalists is gone. Time to resist, revolt. Time grows short as the iron fist of the oligarchy tightens around us all.
.
It's time for the unions to leave the Democratic party and form a third party. Call it the Labor Party. Unless we get a party that represents the working class which forms 90 percent of the population, we as a nation will become something that want serve us well, if at all. The 30,000 or more corporate lobbyist buying our representatives is a termite infestation that has eaten and destroyed the house of Democracy. It's time for a new start by rebuilding the house of Democracy with a new party that represents the people instead of the rich and corporations. It might be important to study the Mondragon Cooperatives that thrive in Spain and other European countries. Our corrupt systems is leaving millions without jobs. The misery index is reaching critical mass.
"...form a third party. Call it the Labor Party."
Excellent suggestion. However, the working class remains intentionally divided over non-issues like abortion, prayer in schools, illegal immigration, and such.
The RINO party has a long history of economic destruction and crime to include Iran-Contra and Watergate. Like or not a consistent and disturbing pattern has developed by their choosing.
STOP electing RINO’s ! My My father in law left the RINO party because he is a fiscal conservative republican with at least 50 years under his belt. Evermore stunning he is working with the democrat party in Pennsylvania.
The word "RINO" usually refers to moderate Republicans. They, of course, have gone extinct. Perhaps you mean "Republican Apostates" or something like that. That would refer to those who abandoned traditional Republican principles--like fiscal conservatism and accountability--to embrace radical notions like tax cuts for all, an aggressive foreign policy, shredding of the social safety net, environmental laissez faire, attacks on abortion providers and gay marriage advocates and that sort of thing.
There are perhaps 4 parties in america.
1. The endangered species = fiscal conservative socially responsible republican
which may become extinct due RINO takeover.
2. Democrat = more like moderate republicans who were run out of the republican party by RINO big money
3. Progressive Democrats of America = which is the party that represents the USA white and blue collar working force. This party represents clean energy and clean industry which is where the money will be soon.
4. RINO = Tea Party Neoconservative Christian Fundamentalist. This group ran against republicans with enough gusto and money to assume the republican party name. Thus avoiding the ballot process and gathering of signatures that are required to become a "legal third party". 1980 was a big year for the RINO party and they have not looked back.
The RINO party represents destruction of USA economics for the USA blue and white collar workers. It is this party that brought Iran Contra,Reagan/Bush home loan scam,Bush/Cheney Home loan scam,Iraq war justified by lies, Bush destructive Tax cuts,Medicare Part D for the pharmaceutical industry and TABOR sponsored by Koch family and Grover Norquist.
In america if there is serious fraud the source is quite likely white collar private industry. RINO's focus is privatization of as much government as possible. Not because private industry can do anything better or more efficient. It is because these private industry nut jobs want OUR trillions of tax dollars in their bank accounts.
It's a good decision. They have to regain some bargining power and support for workers rights. Unions were responsible for most of the advances in non-union labor, and are not the enemy of non union workers, but rather are the advocate for all workers in the labor/man agement struggle. Clearly they have been loosing the struggle in recent years. Since they now realize the democrats are not representing them, but rather taking them for granted, perhaps a brave republican will actually get greedy and wonder if they can get union support. That might at least open discussion, and motivate democrats to once again listen to the union and not just spend their money. "Look for the union label" ;
P.S. It's the textile industry, that outsourced it jobs that is North Carolina's bigger problem.
Matt Damon for president.