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Trumka: Washington Lacks Political Courage to Fix Nation’s Jobs Crisis
Today’s economic crisis and the decline of the nation’s middle class “cries out for political courage,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a major address on the economy and jobs crisis at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., this afternoon. But that courage, he said,
is not much in evidence….Too many people in Washington seem to think that now that we have bailed out the banks, everything will be okay.
Pointing to the conversations he has had with workers—employed and jobless, union and nonunion, young and old—on his recent jobs-focused swing through California, Trumka told the nation’s leading journalists:
Everywhere I went, people asked me, why do so many of the people we elect seem to care only about Wall Street? Why is helping banks a matter of urgency, but unemployment is something we just have to live with? Why don’t we make anything in America anymore? And why is it so hard to pass a health care bill that guarantees Americans healthy lives instead of guaranteeing insurance companies healthy profits?
He said it is time to remake and build a new economy and reverse the fundamental changes in the nation’s economic structure and rules that for the past decade-plus “have celebrated private greed over public service.”
These include rules that boosted corporate empowerment; trade polices that encouraged shipping U.S. jobs overseas; financial deregulation that promoted speculation; and the systematic dismantling of the nation’s pension and health care systems.
These policies culminated in the worst economic decade in living memory—we suffered a net loss of jobs, the housing market collapsed, real wages fell and more children fell into poverty….This is not a portrait of a cyclical recession, but of a nation with profound, unaddressed structural economic problems on a long-term, downward slide.
Calling for an “entirely different kind of economy,” Trumka said the core of that new economy must include the creation of millions of new jobs, the restoration of the freedom of workers to form unions, genuine health care reform and re-regulation of the financial system.
The AFL-CIO’s five-point program would immediately address the jobs crisis by creating some 4 million jobs, Trumka said. In addition, more long-term initiatives are needed to build a lasting and job-filled recovery—yet too many lawmakers and policymakers are urging a “go slow” approach and displaying an unwillingness to spend the money needed to fix the foundation of the economy—job creation.
These voices are harming millions of unemployed Americans and their families—but they are also jeopardizing our economic recovery. It is responsible to have a plan for paying for job creation over time. But it is bad economics and suicidal politics not to aggressively address the job crisis at a time of double-digit unemployment.
The nation’s middle class can’t prosper in a global economy, said Trumka, without a healthy manufacturing sector. Rebuilding manufacturing and the jobs that go with it requires
a combination of fair trade and currency policies, worker training, infrastructure investment and regional development policies targeted to help economically distressed areas.
He also called for new rules that ensure safe, healthy and family-friendly workplaces and comprehensive immigration reform. Employers must renew their shared responsibility with their workers’ retirement security and strengthening Social Security.
On health care, Trumka slammed the Senate bill’s tax on the middle class with its tax on workers’ health care benefits that would hit some 31 million workers. While the Senate bill “rightly seeks to ensure that most Americans have health insurance,
the tax on benefits in the Senate bill pits working Americans who need health care for their families against working Americans struggling to keep health care for their families. This is a policy designed to benefit elites—in this case, insurers, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and irresponsible employers, at the expense of the broader public.
It’s the same tragic pattern that got us where we are today, and I can assure you the labor movement is fighting with everything we’ve got to win health care reform that is worthy of the support of working men and women.
Trumka also issued a warning to lawmakers who may try to hide behind insufficient and token gestures to create jobs, fix the economy and protect the middle class while continuing to give the privileged and Wall Street a free ride.
The reality is that when unemployment is 10 percent and rising, working people will not stand for tokenism. We will not vote for politicians who think they can push a few crumbs our way and then continue the failed economic policies of the last 30 years….There is no middle ground. We are in a “show me” kind of mood, and time is running out.
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Obviously I agree that unemployment is the problem. Having said that, I wish we could get off this healthcare thing already. First of all I don’t participate in western medicine that seems to be entirely about pharmacueticals (petroleum distillates & chinese ingrediants,) secondly if anything on healthcare should pass it should be hr 676 medicare for all anyway. But the only thing I could really care less about is EFCA. If we made EFCA WITH CARD CHECK law we would have employment, we would have healthcare this is fact not opinion. And although Trumpka seems optimistic about its passing, I’m very concerned. Sen. Dodd is on his way out, and all we need is a Dem. representative to “get sick” and were screwed. We need to play hardball with these “blue dogs” (scumbags) like Baucus and my own senator McCaskill, now. Show them this isn’t some stupid game, Employee Free Choice Act WITH card check WITHOUT comprimise NOW!
The transcript is up all over the place, but I’ve been holding out for video. Is that coming?
Video clip added to blog now.
For video of full specch, go to:
http://www.c-span.org/Watch/Media/2010/01/11/HP/R/28205/AFLCIO+President+Offers+Vision+for+Labors+Future.aspx
I agree with you CITIZEN4 but could it be that the EFCA passage could be payback for the cadillac tax?Are our UNION LEADERS making backroom deals?
Trumka: Washington Lacks Political Courage to Fix Nation’s Jobs Crisis
This is old news, President Trumka. Washington does not simply
“Lack Political Courage”, but the “Courage” has been already been bought and paid for by corporate profit interests.
Not just the “Jobs Crisis” will not be fixed, but all the multiple “Crises” that are now impoverishing U.S. working people and slowly threatening our human existence and long-term survival.
Perhaps this headline should read:
Trumka Lacks Political Courage to Fix Nation’s Jobs Crisis
The crises facing working people today requires more than courage and speeches or even getting arrested at a demonstration.
The old trade union strategies of the last 30 years continue to fail working people. Simple trade unionism has left organized labor completely powerless, as it has it pathetically begs Obama and the Democrats to “have courage”.
Obama and the Democrats have been in power for over a year now. As the banks, Wall Street, the military-industrial complex, the capitalist ruling class, have completely looted the treasury and created trillion dollar debts. The Democrats and Mr. Obama have fully carried out all the major foreign and domestic policies of Bush/Cheney.
Why doesn’t Mr. Trumka have the “courage” to create new strategies to powerfully lead and represent organized labor and
working people? Essential strategies:
1. Publicly support the “single-payer” Medicare for All proposals and oppose any and all of the care “health care reform”.
2. Dump the Democrats as they do not represent the interests of labor.
3. Realizing that the needs of working people are not possibly filled by simple trade union contracts, the AFL-CIO with other labor unions, should call for the formation of a new political party
that represents the interests of all working people.
4. Demand that the voice of labor have equal time media access on PBS, NPR and in print to inform and educate working people and the general public as to the economic needs of working people.
Has President Trumka completely lost his “courage” to start acting
as a leader
Well said Mr. Wells on all points. Our children have Business Adminastration as part of their curriculum, WHY NOT LABOR HISTORY? Labor News should be as “ever present” as the Stock Market reports on the Nightly News. We have to start making history, because our childrens education and future is OUR RESPONSIBILITY. Bravo Brother Morin! ColoneBlogger, Oh Yeah, we need publicly financed campaigns because “he who pays the piper calls the tune.” And now it’s time to start making our own music. But it will NEVER HAPPEN with the Dems or GOP’S because THEY ARE THE PROBLEM. Yes, Neubeck and Chicano Wobbly, Tony Mazzochi got it right a long time ago, NOW IS THE TIME TO BEGIN A BONAFIDE PEOPLE’S U.S. LABOR PARTY! Are you up to the task President Trumka?
If TRUMKA is so concerned about laid-off American workers why is the AFL-CIO supporting immigration efforts for amnesty and greater immigration numbers? As the saying states “FOLLOW THE MONEY” Besides not trusting the politicians Americas union members better watch the ACTIONS of its own leadership. Check out the website <> for more information.
Mr. Trumka,
While the health care reform “ping pong” sessions continue, do not sit on the sidelines. Your agenda is broad, but healthcare reform is part of it.
If you want to win on programs dear to your hearts, give elected representatives a glimpse of your strength. Strike while the iron is hot. Stamp the “Public Option” into the legislation before the ink is dry or someone raises a “Mission Accomplished” banner.
Actions speak louder than words. Gandhi and King showed what is possible when individuals join in common cause in peaceful demonstrations.
You, Andy Stern, Dr. Dean and Mitch Stewart are four individuals who have strong followers. Together, you could show elected representatives the strength of your field organizations and get them to include the ‘public option.”
Let me explain.
1. You want the public option.
2. You do not want Cadillac plans taxed.
So, force them to stamp the “public option” into the legislation that is being “ping-ponged” and encourage them to tax the “Rolls Royce Plans.”
In European cities, groups stage non-violent demonstrations to remind people about specific concerns. Certainly, the current healthcare reform efforts meet this requirement.
Show your strength by staging a massive event. The electronic and print media coverage would be high if you staged something so memorable that it touched everyone.
For example, could you imagine what the print and electronic media would be talking or writing about if you and your field forces literally stopped traffic from coast to coast for one hour on Friday, January 15 beginning at noon (Eastern Standard Time)? Then, at 12:15, 12:30 and 12:45 have truckers and drivers in their cars honk their horns for a full minute. Imagine the media coverage if every union worker or person in a grassroots organization carried a yellow sign with one of the following messages:
“Don’t be a Coward”
“Public Option Now … This Time”
“Don’t Tax Cadillac Plans … Tax ‘Rolls Royce’ Plans”
“Elections Are Coming”
If elected representatives understood that your regular members and grassroots organizers can stop traffic across the country for an hour, then they might respond favorably to your efforts. If you want the “Public Option” then you will have to force it. If you force them to write it, the people will force President Obama to sign it into law.
Sounds like a great plan to me. (Sunhunterwith2)
Good message.
(reply k2kelly) You could be right. I almost wish that were true, but of course with union #’s still rather small, the leaders don’t have the same clout they used to. Instead it’s neoliberal prius driving coffeshop dems that have the democratic ear. But I look at it this way there are still other, more rank and file, organising units out there that EFCA would help like the UE or the IWW. Either way this would be the first legislation that actually levels the playing field for workers in 1/2 a century at least.
“And why is it so hard to pass a health care bill that guarantees Americans healthy lives instead of guaranteeing insurance companies healthy profits?”
The real question is why the AFL-CIO, SEIU and Change to Win leadership has refused to publicly support HR 676, the Medicare for All bill or its Senate counterpart, S. 703.
Another question is why did the AFL-CIO purposefully exclude “single payer” or “medicare for all” from the phony “health care survey”?
It sure isn’t because the rank and file haven’t been demanding Medicare for All for years. Check the list of hundreds of local, regional and state federations at: http://unionsforsinglepayerhr676.org
Beyond disregarding the resolutions of the membership unions, the AFL-CIO has taken part in further subverting the movement for universal health care by aligning with anti-single payer groups like “Health Care for America NOW!”, or HCAN.
This corrupt coalition purposefully muddled the debate with vague calls for “real reform” which amounted to supporting the Democrat’s corporate plan no matter what.
The ever shrinking and deceitfully misrepresented “public option” HCAN and others promoted as “politically feasible” was whittled down to the “sliver” Obama accurately labeled it as. And now, even a privately run, “public” plan that may cover as many as 6 million people has proven too much for the health profiteers and Democrats to stomach.
The AFL-CIO didn’t learn their lesson from the Democrats after NAFTA and the broken promise of the anti-scab bill. The “payback” this time to unions has been more UAW concessions and layoffs, Obama’s support of “Merit Pay” for teachers, a corporate-indentured health care bill with a special slap in the face. This comes along with the wall street bailouts, war escalation and continuation of Bush policies.
The Democrats aren’t scared because they know they can sweet talk labor into campaigning and voting with more empty promises. Besides, the hundreds of millions labor wasted on the Dems in the last election cycle pale in comparison to what the corporations have given.
So what will be the promise this time?
A watered down EFCA? Keep in mind the Democrats have gutted the bill of the “card check,” or “majority sign up.” And where was the protest from the union leaders? There was none. It was barely acknowledged, only as “speculation.”
Considering what a great job they’ve done stalling EFCA over the past few years, it makes sense they’ll try to stretch it out a little longer.
The abusive relationship between labor and the Democrats needs to end.
Democrat supporters are quick to ask, “so you think the Republicans are better?”
And to them I say this:
THEY ARE NO DIFFERENT.
It seems to me, what obama is doing is creating a new tax stream. The text of the health care bill currently allows the income celings to be lowered. So imagine if you will, regardless of weather your medical insurance is paid for by private, public,state,federal gov. Everyone with medical insurance will have to pay a brand new tax on the value of your plan,regardless of weather or not you work under a collective bargaining agreement.
Its a brand new revenue stream. Everyone who has medical insurance, regardless of who pays their cost,weather it be a federal gov employee, a state employee or someone working in the private sector will be taxed by the IRS the actual value of their plan. The yearly value of thir plan will be applied directly to their adjusted gross income. The temptation will be huge for the federal gov not to lower the celing. It won’t just be for cadillac` plans.
Create jobs….Single Payer HR 676 or S. 703 will remove the employment/benefits connection. How many people would move other employment or retire overnight?
Increase wages…. Americans wages have flatlined over the last 30 years. Now workers are happy to have ANY job that comes with affordable benefits. One third of my wage package is benefits, but I haven’t seen a raise for 4 years. I am subsidizing the medical-industrial complex with my LOST wages.
Increase local, state and federal revenues….. right now benefits are not taxable, but with Single Payer we would all be paying an increased Medicare tax and hopefully with an increase in REAL wages that would be taxable, government would once again be able to fund essential services.
Rejoin the civilized world…. even in India, I was able to access quality public health care in a timely manner, with NO CHARGE as a tourist.
Access to health care is a HUMAN right.
Sea Star RN
We desperately need to change the way we fund national elections. We need to seriously reduce the impact of special interest money in electing Senators, House members and the office of President . The best way is publicly funded elections allowing only around 10 % from private sources. A very simply election reform bill that could be written on 2 pages, just like the
bank bailout bill. This is a national emergency. The American people should demand that their representatives stay home and away from DC until they’re ready to dramatically change the way we elect our representatives. The only way we’ll restore a government of the people, by the people and for the people is publicly funded election. It should be the American people’s #1 public issue.
Common Cause has been working on this for 40 years and we still don’t have it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Cause#Mission_and_issues
But we do have a worse case of corporate capitalism protected by our government. Remember the S&L scandal? It was nothing compared to the Bank Bail-out bill of 2007-8, it came close to bringing down our economy and yet there is less regulation and consumer protection and advocacy.
The root cause of what we have today is a rampant case of
HOW MUCH CAN I SAVE (amongst both business and consumers in terms of the price of things)
and HOW MUCH CAN WE PROFIT ( amongst corporations and investors)
Until we confront what part WE and THEY play in this going-nowhere mentality, we won’t be close to confronting the problem.
I’m working for single payer Medicare for All health care reform and my own public pension fund is depending on profits from the medical-industrial complex, even though it’s driving up the cost of health care for its employees and retirees.
What’s that phrase “you can’t have one’s cake and eat it too”
You’ve made some good points and given me alot to think about. This is why I signed into this.
I don’t want to make it seem like I’m unsimpathetic to those whose bodies are broken down by their jobs or life or genetics, and are dependent on the healthcare that’s availble to them. My neibhor is 60 and looks like he’s 80 because of the back breaking labor of being a maintenance tech. And I totally support the union nurses and the GOOD doctors who are behind HR 676.
I know that the #1 reason they went into medicine is they wanted to help people. Otherwise the student debt and the more disturbing sides of the job wouldn’t be worth it.
THEY aren’t the problem it’s the Bill Frist type people I have a huge problem with. I’m signed into the medicare for all website.
My biggest frustrations are that:
1) I have not yet heard of an insurance plan that covers ONLY burns, fractures, lacerations, cancer that’s it. I don’t want physicals, check-ups, god awful vaccines and pharmaceuticals covered. The physicals/check-ups I’ll cover myself. And I’m not taking poisens. But I will now be required to pay some ridiculous premium to some corporate plutocracy for something I’m not going to use.
2) Massachusetts tried the every gets corporate insurance plan running through the senate out. It did not lower premiums at all.
I’m glad Trumka has come forward to attack what is going on, but it feels like too little, too late.
Those of us who have worked in the mental health field are familiar with the definition of insanity; “Repeating the same failed strategy over and over again expecting a different result.”
That would apply to politics as well. There is little difference between the Democrats and the Republicans. Yes there are still a few decent democrats, but the party itself is nothing more than an apologist for the corporate monster!
A new party led by organized labor, civil rights activists, environmentalists, feminists, REAL liberals, folks from the gay community, socialists and other progressives sick and tired of the corporate domination and corruption of our electoral system.
It can be done It must be done! Granted there are individual state laws that discourage the formation of a third party, but remember that Jim Crow segregation was also “legal.” Unjust laws must be broken to bring about true democracy for the people!
Washington politicos lack not only courage, but along with Labor “Leaders”, lack historical perspective.
We are in the decline phase of the Capitalist system. It is not cyclical phenomonon, it is dying, almost dead. So it is also that we have long passed, overshot, the limits of growth on a finite planet with finite resources.
If we have any hope to adjust, we must recognize these realities and overthrow the paper shackles of the puppets in DC. Labor leaders may be able to fill the void if they would adopt the radical perspective that challenges every given of the Divine Right of Kings/Divine Right of Corporations, Investment Banks, Banks, Bourgeoise Landlords and all the lackey politicians and media that follow in cue.
We need something completely different. A Peoples Equity Union dedicated to community betterment, meeting the needs of people in an inclusive, affordable, humane, equitable, artisan, sustainable, and peaceful manner.
We need a fundamental overhaul and reorganization of the economic system.
But without leadership, the idiots will get up tomorrow and do something all too similar to what they did today. Is it approaching nothing?
Get real, Trumka. Face the Dead Air, and get Radical, like REAL LABOR LEADERS OF THE PAST. It is our only hope.
In Peace, Friendwalkin’, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,
Mike Morin
Eugene, OR
Peoples’ Equity Union
(541) 343-3808
If we don’t forcibly re4duce the trade deficit and get a handle on our population, nothing else will matter.
Our trade deficit is $36 BILLION per month. Translated, that’s 15 MILLION jobs. It doesnt’ take a rocket scientist to see that this is a huge cause of our jobs crisis.
Our suicidal immigration policies are going to triple our population to a billion people by the end of this century. Employers will have 3 times as many workers to choose from, that will depress wages beyond belief. There will be shortages as the Earth simply cannot support a population increase of this scale. Our great grandchildren will be in poverty. All because corporations want cheap labor, and the unions joined them in supporting excessive legal, and just plain illegal immigration.
Mr Trumka, you need to take up these issues.
I don’t know if it is courage, chutzpah or just plains balls — but “Washington” (the corporate state, the military-industrial complex, whatever you want to call our capitalist dictatorship) does not seem to be lacking in that department. In fact, they are doing everything sort of sacking our union headquarters and killing our leaders in their mad drive for billions at the expense of our ever-more-meager standard of living – yet our answer is … statements. Wake up, American worker – you are the real sleeping giant. WAKE UP – This is not America 1932, it is Germany 1932, and Obama is Hindenburg.
It is time for labor and their allies to dump the democratic party and have a labor party.The example of what we do not need is the UK labour party after Blair and Brown
i read alot of good ideas on this blog…have wrote a few good ones here and on other blogs as well. as a union member for 36 years and from a family with 6 brothers also union members my roots are solidly planted in the union soil. old school unionizm was one for all and all for one how many of you out there can remember such a union? it was the collective bargaining of a contract that was voted on FOR the benefit of ALL. it has been a long time since i have seen anything close to what the unions of the past have demonstatrated as whats good for all. OUR leadership is failing us. WE need learshipship that pulls the masses together with a voice thats heard. change for the good of ALL Americans will only come when the voice for what is RIGHT is heard. PEOPLE cant you realize that if this job crises is not dealt with and jobs created NOW we are going down the tubes. AM I by myself in this thought? Are the masses of unions affliated with the AFL-CIO (some 27 million) not capable of uniteing NOW to send the message to congress to get off their tails and get something done. TRUMKA is pussy footing around with this issue…send the message in a strong and loud way…Bring the voices together in a loud shout. I’ve been saying it for almost 2 years now, how much longer can we wait? Energy is and will continue to be a back breaker for our economy…1 nuclear power plant = 50,000 jobs, that’s not just constuctions jobs it is an extention into all sectors of manufactering and supplies. build with fed dollars and sell to private industry with low cost federal loan gurnitees…problem solved….JOBS FOR ALL….Well it seems I came back to an old school way of thought about UNIONS….JOBS FOR ALL!
Pres. Trumka, please do not bash the Dem. Party even if you are right. The Republican Party will use your comments as ammunition agains the Obama Administration.
President Trumka, stop asking for immigration reform”amnesty for illegals”, it’s dividing our rank and file!
Mr. Wells’ comments are right on target. The Democrats have taken unions for granted for decades, relied on our votes, campaign work, and donations to their election campaigns, only to betray workers again and again.
So instead of settling for mild or even harmful reforms, labor’s leaders need to make strong demands for what we really need and want.
Let’s not compromise away any small gains we might be able to get; as a wise man once said “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will.” Since even the direct beneficiary of the legacy of Frederick Douglass can be compromised by the Washington elites, we need to be stronger and even more demanding!!
There is certainly lack of courage in Washington and it is just as prevelant on 15th Street as Capital Hill. As Brother Wells says we need a workers party that will speak for all workers, union or not, plus all the oppressed and abused INCLUDING women, immigrants, gays, Blacks, and all those oppressed and abused by capital here and abroad.
The continued clamoring to stop supporting immigrants on this post is the kind of clamor that can and will translate into right-wing vigilantes on the streets bashing heads and burning down churches and homes.
When labor stands firm for immigrant rights, and the overwhelming immigrants in this country are working class or poor, they have a strong, vibrant and experienced pool of figthers for all working peoples rights. The rich and anti-labor immigrant will always have their rights protected by the government and if the government fends to protect immigrants they hope it will push a wedge between immigrant and native born in order to more easily exploit both.
To Frisco worker, williamrayson and other pro-amnesty folks:
The call for immigration enforcement and reduction is not about race or prejustice. It is not republican or democrat. Demoncrats want the (mostly) latino voters and a “permanent majority”, Repukes want cheap labor for their Chamber of Commerce puppetmasters. BOTH parties are guilty of making war on the working class.
It is about numbers. Flooding the workplace with unneeded millions of immigrants, legal and illegal, drives down wages and drives up unemployment.
Excessive immigration is going to triple our population this century. If we keep going, we’ll hit a billion people by the end of this century. Go to China and see what that looks like if you think it’s a good thing.
Flooding the country with millions of illegal aliens who break our laws every day is just plain stupid. American is built on the respect of the rule of law, these people don’t respect the rule of law. We should expel them and severely punish their employers. Amnesty is not acceptable for these criminals or their employers.
We (the citizens) have the right to choose who comes here and insist that all who do come are legal. That’s not racist, just common sense. (FYI, my wife is a LEGAL immigrant from China.)
Mainstream immigration reduction groups such as NumbersUSA do not bash immigrants or promote racism. They do want a reduction in numbers so as not to depress the labor markets and not ruin the enviornment. They do want immigrants to assimilate, learn English and become real Americans who are loyal to this country. Anyone with a gram or two of common sense should want the same.
So please, put away the race card. Think about what is best for the USA and it’s citizens and our future.
In a bunker under fire dissent is treason. Anyone who has worked at a non-Union job recently knows we’re under fire. We need to line up behind President Trumka and support him. He’s a good man and I’m glad he’s with us. If Obama/Dems do nothing for EFCA by 2010 I’m voting Green.
It is certainly true that racism is very divisive, just like sexism and national chauvinism. The answer, however, is not to kowtow or pander to our more confused brothers and sisters. Union leaders must educate, agitate and organize our still huge numbers into massive street demonstrations now, and always represent the most oppressed workers, like immigrants. When we are mobilized to defend our rights, it will be easy for many to see that the immigrant worker is often the most aware and militant. That is why the bosses force them to live in constant fear of deportation – they fear their militancy and the working class traditions they brought with them from their native land. If we could learn our own labor history, we would be more aware of the crucial role the immigrants have played in building unions in the USA – this land of immigrants.
What has the union leadership done for you recently? Look at where they were a few days ago. “On January 11, 2010, representatives from the Senate Judiciary Committee held a meeting with several pro-amnesty organizations to discuss “comprehensive immigration reform” (amnesty). Organizations represented at this meeting included the U.S. Chamber of Congress and the AFL-CIO (a labor union supposedly on the side of American workers).”
ACTIONS not HOLLOW words are what workers need.
America’s most precious and rapidly-dwindling natural resource – empathy.