Legislative & Labor Goals: 2011

As you may have heard, Punsxutawney Phil did not see his shadow this year, so it appears we are in for a little more winter before spring rolls around.  In similar fashion, President Obama did not see his shadow this past November, and it looks like we are in for at least two years of political winter.

Even with the House taking a hard right turn, we should not, as Dante said, "Abandon all hope, ye lost who enter here."  In fact, I believe that the labor community should push for the following incremental gains that I believe can be achieved:

1.  Striker Replacement Bill - This is an item that most of the GOP would rather have their granny kidnapped before they would support.  However, if the Democrats in the Senate wanted to, they could attach this item to the Senate version of any popular economic bill passed by the conservative House.  When the bill goes to conference, the GOP would have to pick between killing their very popular bill, or letting the striker replacement amendment through.  Obviously, it would be imperative to be wise with the bill selection.

2. Develop better relationships between union Locals and the University communities -  The SLAP(Student Labor Action Project) is a program designed to get students involved in the labor community.  Unfortunately, it has not been developed widely enough, and has not been integrated enough at the Local level.  Too often, we think of the University communities only at election time, and not enough on a regular basis for social action, etc.  One of the issues that kept surfacing during the AFL-CIO Young Workers' Summit last year was the fact that students are tired of the labor community(and the DNC, for that matter) only trotting them out when they need them for a general election or a photo shoot.  Students are both our future, and our most active participants.  Every union Local should have a liaison to the local youth and college communities.

More on this later.

In Solidarity,

Joseph

The Employee Free Choice Act: An Obituary

Although I'm sure someone else has probably said it already, let me make this important declaration:

The Employee Free Choice Act is dead.

Deceased.

Kicked the Bucket.

Bought the Farm.

And with it, the hope for reviving the mainstream labor movement.

And who do we have to blame for the death of the most treasured piece of pro-labor legislation in the last sixty years? The pro-corporation, anti-worker fat cats? The Republicans?

Nope.

We have ourselves to blame. Allow me to explain:

For decades, the labor movement has continued to suck at the tit of a Democratic Party that has had a bosom full of poison since the party bosses managed to exchange Harry "the puppet" Truman for Henry "the real deal" Wallace in 1944.

For many years, we were able to survive by inoculating ourselves by investing dues money from the expanding membership. But with the declining membership and burdensome pensions that most unions have no real plan to pay for, the poison will finally begin to kill us, unless we begin to ween ourselves off of it immediately.

When we keep returning to the Democratic Party every election cycle like a prostitute to an abusive pimp(I apologize for the imagery, but it is a good description of the relationship between labor and the Democratic Party), we are extending the cycle that has brought us nothing in the manner of actual progress for the American working class. Every other November, the party puts(pimps) us out on the corner to attract voters(johns), and despite all our whining and complaining, what do we do? We put on our stilettos and fake mink coat and take to the streets.

The only way the labor movement will ever make a comeback in the hearts and minds of the workers is if we publicly cut the cord with the Democratic Party and begin to use our numbers to affect individual races that benefit us. No more dumping millions of dollars into the DNC, just so they can use it to promote the likes of Blanche Lincoln and Ben Nelson.

Let's go find us a few more candidates like Bernie Sanders, and let these anti-worker Democrats fend for themselves. After all that's exactly what they've done for us, isn't it?