Labor Leaders Have Obama’s Back, and Are Ready to HelpHaving helped President Obama win re-election, labor leaders will meet with him on Tuesday and intend to offer their robust support for what they view as his mandate: stand tough against cuts in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security and keep pushing to raise taxes on the wealthy.
Organized labor’s emphasis on broader policy, rather than union-specific legislation, is somewhat of a change from 2008, when leaders pushed for bills that would make it easier to organize workplaces.
As the administration begins talks with Congressional Republicans to modify a range of tax increases and budget cuts scheduled to go into effect next year, the unions say they will rally their forces on a broader agenda, seeking to counter business and conservative groups that are pushing for cuts in social programs and tax breaks for corporations and wealthy individuals.
“We expect to have the president’s back on the agenda that the voters just declared support for,” said Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union, which spent $75 million in backing Mr. Obama and various Democrats this year. “The president has always said he needs a movement behind his mandate.”
When Mr. Obama was first elected, labor pushed for the stimulus bill and health care legislation, but also sought a host of more specific bills, such as the so-called card check bill, which are no longer on the top of their agenda. Card check would make it easier to unionize workers by allowing a union to win recognition by persuading a majority of a workplace’s employees to sign cards saying they favor unionization instead of having to go through an often-lengthy campaign and secret ballot election.
Card check was blocked by Republicans in Congress, and with that party controlling the House of Representatives, it seems unlikely to return as an issue this year. After Mr. Obama’s first victory, the International Association of Firefighters pushed Congress to enact a bill that would grant firefighters and police officers the right to bargain collectively in all 50 states. But that effort fizzled.
Union leaders say Mr. Obama needs to pursue strategies to reduce income inequality, and some support a bill to raise the minimum wage, currently $7.25 an hour, to $9.80 after two years. The A.F.L.-C.I.O. and the service employees also back immigration reform, sharing that goal with business groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Union officials would still love to somehow enact card check, but they are also brainstorming other less ambitious bills that promote unionization, which they say is crucial to expanding the middle class.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/13/us/politics/unions-offer-support-for-president-obamas-tax-plan.html
