Trumka’s Straight Talk on Race Helped Win Blue Collar Union Vote

President-elect Barack Obama with AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka and former Sen. John Glenn in Columbus, Ohio, Nov. 2. Obama was talking up Trumka’s now-famous speech to the Steelworkers Convention last summer.

It’s always rewarding when some of the fantastic work the union movement has done to get out the vote gets acknowledged. At Daily Kos yesterday, one of our own, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka, got a big shout out by mojave mike, and we want to share it with you here.

Just a few weeks ago, John McCain was gushing and full of praise for his newfound friend, role model and source of inspiration. No, I’m not talking about Sarah Palin. Besides, by the time Joe the Plumber came into McCain’s life, Palin was already old news. McCain, having solidified his base with the Palin pick, needed to reach out to Joe Lunch-Bucket and Rust-Belt Rosie. McCain’s road to victory was seen as winding through the hardscrabble hamlets of industrial Ohio and Pennsylvania, known for closed factories and boarded-up businesses on Main Street. Many of the hard-working citizens of these communities became labeled as the so-called “Reagan Democrats” nearly three decades ago.

By holding Joe the Plumber up as a prop and counterpoint to the educated elitists that, in McCain’s mind at least, were somehow responsible for the economic collapse, McCain sought to drive a wedge into the Democratic-labor coalitions that have thrived in Pennsylvania and Ohio for decades. And perhaps on a much more subtle level, McCain may have been trolling for the “white pride” sentiment. But to McCain’s dismay, the Joe the Plumber ruse was unsuccessful. Something to do with authenticity perhaps?

More than likely, the real reason that neither Pennsylvania nor Ohio went into the McCain column is that many of his would-be supporters in these areas happen to be union members who have an uncommon tendency to vote in their best interests.  But this election presented these folks with a conundrum of sorts. The Democratic candidate, for the first time in history, was black. Granted, this is not the South where in-grained bigotry still inhibits social interaction between whites and blacks; heaven forbid casting a vote for an African American candidate. In the North, it is, for the most part, a matter of unease and uncertainty, and in some cases, a sense of cultural resentment similar to that alluded to by James Webb in Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America.

Recognizing this, Richard Trumka, former Mine Workers president and current secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, reached out to union and nonunion workers alike to address the issue of race in this election. Through a series of compelling speeches, Trumka implored those listening to overlook their misgivings about Obama’s race and to vote for someone who had their best interests at heart.

Three weeks ago, after listening to Trumka being interviewed on NPR, I viewed his speech to the national convention of the United Steelworkers and was sufficiently moved to post a diary entitled “Richard Trumka For Secretary For Labor.”

Everyone that I encouraged to view the speech was equally affected and immediately recognized the potential positive impact of Trumka’s message. I like to think that Trumka’s inspiration and outreach to workers played some small role in Obama’s rout of McCain in Pennsylvania and Ohio.  If that is indeed the case, then it is entirely possibly that Trumka has called the Reagan Democrats home. Richard Trumka deserves our appreciation and our gratitude.

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This is a cross-post from the Daily Kos.

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