They are no different than anybody else.
"Under Obama, few gains for labor; Leaders evaluate political alliance" September 05, 2011|By Sam Hananel, Associated Press
WASHINGTON - In the early days of the Obama administration, organized labor had grand visions of pushing through a sweeping agenda that would help boost sagging membership and revive union strength.
Now labor faces this reality: Public employee unions are in a drawn-out fight for their very survival in Wisconsin, Ohio, and other states where GOP lawmakers have curbed collective bargaining rights.
And it hasn't just been the GOP: Biden's Boast
Also, many union leaders are grousing that the president they worked so hard to elect has not focused enough on job creation and other bold plans to get their members back to work.
“Obama campaigned big, but he’s governing small,’’ said Larry Hanley, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union.
Labor remains a core Democratic constituency, and union leaders will stand with Obama in Detroit today, where he will address thousands of rank-and-file members during the city’s annual Labor Day parade.
But at the same time, unions have begun shifting money and resources out of Democratic congressional campaigns and back to the states in a furious effort to reverse or limit GOP measures that could wipe out union rolls.
The AFL-CIO’s president, Richard Trumka, said it is part of a new strategy for labor to build an independent voice separate from the Democratic Party....
Also see: Labor's Empty Threat
It is a far cry from the early optimism that unions had after Obama came into office.
Didn't we all?
Back then, unions hoped a Democratic-controlled Congress would pass legislation to make it easier for unions to organize workers. But business groups fought that proposal hard, and it never came to a vote.
And I had hoped the wars would end, not escalate.
Union leaders grew more disappointed when the president’s health care overhaul did not include a government-run insurance option.
I wanted single-payer.
Then Obama agreed to extend President George W. Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy.
Well....
Obama came out in favor of trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia, and Panama that most unions say will cost American jobs. Despite campaigning in favor of raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.50 an hour, Obama has not touched the issue since taking office.
In other words, ALL YOU GOT WAS LIP SERVICE!
It did not help that Obama declined union invitations to go to Wisconsin, where protesters mobilized against the antiunion measure. As a candidate, Obama had promised to walk a picket line himself when union rights were threatened.
Hey, what is ONE MORE BROKEN PROMISE!
Obama has handed labor smaller victories that did not have to go through Congress, like granting the nation’s 44,000 airport screeners limited collective bargaining rights for the first time.
CRUMBS for the GROPE and MOLEST patrol is a VICTORY!
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"Obama challenges GOP to make jobs top priority; He issues call to ‘put country before party’" by Darlene Superville, Associated Press / September 6, 2011
DETROIT - Police said thousands of people attended the rally. The event had the feel of a campaign event, with the union audience breaking into chants of “Four more years’’ throughout the president’s 25-minute speech.
And then they all collectively turned around, dropped their pants, and bent over.
Meanwhile, the US Chamber of Commerce unveiled its own jobs plan yesterday....
If the measures are enacted, the chamber says, corporations would spend much of the nearly $2 trillion that has accumulated on their balance sheets and generate more than 6 million jobs by 2013, and more in ensuing years.
First of all, WHAT HAVE THEY BEEN WAITING FOR, and secondly, THAT is HOW MUCH MONEY CORPORATIONS are SITTING ON?
The chamber’s jobs campaign will encourage business leaders to contact Congress and the White House to prod them into passing job-creation legislation.
Where you guys been, especially when the Democrats had TWO YEARS with a FILIBUSTER-PROOF MAJORITY?
All we got was a $1 BILLION-DOLLAR of BORROWED STIMULOOT!
Congress returns from its summer recess this week....
Sometimes I wish they would just stay away.
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The Globe let me down, too:
"Unions are furious and holding street protests - the biggest one is planned for next week in Madrid - as are regional governments which stand to see their financial autonomy severely limited....
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Oh, but they did get a photograph?
"Foreign students protest jobs in Hershey" Associated Press / August 19, 2011
HERSHEY, Pa. - Foreign students brought to work at a candy warehouse protested conditions and pay for a second day yesterday, chanting on Chocolate Avenue under streetlights shaped like Hershey’s Kisses, as the State Department said it was investigating.
More than 100 students gathered in touristy downtown Hershey, home to the nation’s second-largest candy maker, arguing that they were employed under the guise of a cultural exchange but toil away in what amounts to a sweets sweatshop.
“All we can do is work and sleep,’’ said Godwin Efobi, 26, a Ukrainian student originally from Nigeria.
The students, who protested with a bullhorn, leaflets, and a petition they planned to present to Hershey executives, complain of hard physical labor, steep pay deductions, rent that often left them with little spending money, and no cultural enrichment. They said their complaints were met with threats of deportation, prompting some to look for help....
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Related: Foreign workers for Hershey protest Pa. conditions
Gee, the website really expanded on my pos paper clip.
"Phone cutoff stirs free speech fight; Calif. agency defends action to stem protest" August 30, 2011|By Robert Barnes, Washington Post
WASHINGTON - Police in riot gear. Masked demonstrators ready for a confrontation. And then government forces shut down the wireless network to try to thwart plans for the “flash mob’’ protest coordinated by cellphones and Twitter.
It’s not a scene from the Arab Spring, but one from America’s beautiful city on the bay, San Francisco. It developed with a backdrop not of tanks and fires but of thousands of annoyed commuters trying to get to their trains.
Worried about a plan to disrupt service, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police this month decided to pull the plug on the system that allows underground cellphone service. It lasted only a few hours, but the decision continues to resonate.
Protests continue....
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Also see: Whaling Away in California
"Union dives into political spending; SEIU had fought corporate outlays on ads" September 01, 2011|By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff
The Service Employees International Union, the politically active labor group whose members include health care workers and janitors, has fought against corporations spending unlimited cash on candidates, warning it would “distort and ultimately delegitimize the electoral process.’’
But the union has now organized its own group that can spend limitless amounts of money to influence elections....
And we all know who has more money.
SEIU officials defend their spending, saying it would be irresponsible of them to unilaterally disarm in the wake of last year’s Citizens United case, in which the Supreme Court ruled that corporations and unions may raise and spend unlimited amounts to advocate directly for federal candidates....
In addition to running the ad, and picketing several of the senator’s events, MassUniting has organized neighborhood economic forums and protested foreclosures....
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Also see:
Environmental council and union forge alliance
'No Jobs Fair' rally in NH protests budget cuts - Boston.com
