Democrats Have Laryngitis

NN&V Exclusive

(Rebecca Smith) – Last summer, labor heavyweight Richard Trumka made an announcement that largely went unnoticed by the main media.  The AFL-CIO was launching a Super PAC to lobby for labor issues year round.  In August, Trumka stated:

“Let’s assume we spent $100 in the last election.  The day after Election Day, we were no stronger than we were the day before.  If we had spent that [$100] on creating a structure for working people that would be there year round, then we would be stronger.”

This is an important move and we should be paying attention.  The Super PAC has raised $3.8 million and anticipates raising even more after the Republican primary season is over.  Big Labor contributed around $400 million to Obama’s 2008 campaign.  That money may not find its way into the Dems 2012 campaign.

Trumka is also skipping the National Democratic Convention this year.  If the Dems have not figured it out yet, Big Labor is not feeling the love from the Obama administration.  Promises made in 2008 and now broken include the card-check bill, as well as the administration’s support for free-trade agreements with Colombia, South Korea, and Panama.

The trade unions are disappointed in the Keystone Pipeline delay, which would have led to many union jobs and also with the Communication Workers of America’s outrage over the latest Democratic compromise with the Republicans regarding the FAA Bill. While some Democratic pundits and strategists believe that due to what unions will see as union-busting moves by the Republicans, unions will be forced to support them, I think maybe not so fast.

Trumka is concentrating his financial resources at a local level and organized labors’ grassroots efforts.  Does this sound familiar to you?  If it doesn’t it should.

The AFL-CIO is stealing a page from the Tea Party’s book.  Trumka plans on creating a full-time political action committee operating year-round, working to influence not only union members but all workers.  Trumka plans on relying on a union’s ability to do grassroots like nobody’s business—no money will be spent on TV ads.

“The Super PAC is a key component of the AFL-CIO’s move toward mobilizing working people in communities year round around jobs and other issues, candidates, and holding elected leaders accountable,” said Alison Omens, a spokesperson for Workers’ Voices. “As part of our grassroots program, it will empower working people to talk to their friends, neighbors, and coworkers about the direction of our country and taking action to restore balance to our economy. While others use Super PACs for shadow spending and endless television ads, the AFL-CIO’s Workers’ Voices is about having real conversations in neighborhoods across the country, not 30-second spots on TV.”

Democrats may have bred their own “tea party,” which could conceivably start offering up their own labor-backed candidate in the primaries not only for open seats but to challenge incumbents. This means candidates that may appeal to workers on labor issues without the ball and chains of environmentalism and other far left ideology.  Unlike Tea Party-backed candidates, the AFL-CIO has the big bucks to make this a likely outcome.  Like the Tea party, by concentrating on local elections and recruiting their own candidates, they could start making an impact on the house or the senate.

It goes without saying what these actions could mean at the state level.  It is no secret inside the labor movement that the unions believe they’ve been taken for granted and wish to break away from the Democrats.  Trumka may be many things, but he came out of the coal mines of West Virginia, and he is no pushover.

Obama will need to placate Big Labor over the months leading up to the election if he hopes to tap into its ability to mobilize members and their money.  So look for labor-friendly decisions to increase out of the NLRB and whether the Workers Voice PAC can get their own candidates elected…

(Rebecca Smith is a former Teamster who now owns Taltos Consulting, Inc. and is a lead consultant for the Labor Relations Institute. She volunteers with the Wounded Warrior Project and St Jude’s Children’s Hospital.)