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We Couldn’t Have Said It Better
After President Obama finished delivering his speech to the AFL-CIO Executive Council this morning, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka had this question for the president.
We’re going into a congressional election three months from today, and I think it’s fair to say that workers’ hopes for congressional action to protect workers’ rights and to create jobs have been frustrated by a Republican minority that has filibustered every matter in front of them, every single thing that’s been good for us.
I just want to ask you, what advice do you have for workers as the election approaches, particularly for workers who are trying to organize to have a voice on the job?
We couldn’t have answered any better. Take a look at Obama’s response.
Well, you guys don’t need advice from me, but let me tell you what I see out there. We were hurt by this recession, badly hurt. This is going to take some time to recover. Unemployment is at unacceptably high levels.
But as I said before, we’d had challenges before the crisis hit. A lot of your membership had been hurting long before, partly because we just live in a more competitive world. There’s nothing we can do about that, that’s just the truth. But a lot of it also had to do with the fact that we put policies in place that were not good for working families. There’s a reason why incomes, wages, were stagnant for average workers, even while the costs were going up. And part of it had to do with the fact that we had a philosophy that said that providing help to workers, allowing them to collectively bargain, allowing them to negotiate for better benefits, that that all was something of the past instead of something we need for the future.
So on the one hand, I think everybody here understands we’ve got to be competitive in America. We’ve got to have competitive price structures. We’ve got to make the best products possible. Workers have to be invested in trying to help the companies they work for succeed. With respect to public employees, we’ve all got to work together to make sure that whatever we’re doing, whether it’s as firefighters or as teachers or postal workers, whatever it is, that we’re providing the best possible service. I think everybody understands that there’s no operation in the United States of America that shouldn’t be efficient and effective in doing what it does.
But it is my profound belief that companies are stronger when their workers are getting paid well and have decent benefits and are treated with dignity and respect. It is my profound belief that our government works best when it’s not being run on behalf of special interests, but it’s being run on behalf of the public interest, and that the dedication of public servants reflects that.
So FDR I think said—he was asked once what he thought about unions. He said, “If I was a worker in a factory and I wanted to improve my life, I would join a union.” Well, I tell you what. I think that’s true for workers generally. I think if I was a coal miner, I’d want a union representing me to make sure that I was safe and you did not have some of the tragedies that we’ve been seeing in the coal industry. If I was a teacher, I’d want a union to make sure that the teachers’ perspective was represented as we think about shaping an education system for our future.
And that’s why my administration has consistently implemented not just legislative strategies but also, where we have the power through executive orders, to make sure that those basic values are reflected.
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18 Comments
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I’m sorry, BUT this is yet another instance of political pandering to the right audience. Would the President say this to the media in general? Posturing. Would he say this before the US Chamber of Commerce?
Of course not.
Just a reminder, that the so called “Free Trade” agreements were enthusiastically supported by the Democrats.
Renounce them Mr. President. Re-work them to FAIR TRADE AGREEMENTS, Mr. President. What about Employee Free Choice to organize Mr. President? Most rank n’ file are not sheeple.
US LABOR PARTY.
I’m glad to hear the President would join a union…I was a union member earlier in my working life as was my spouse.
My father helped found a union in the 1940′s and stayed active in Union issues his entire life.
Unions brought MILLIONS, my family and my spouse’s included, into the middle class…and we will support their existence and their GROWTH for all of our lives.
I have but one suggestion and that is that unions call on not only current union members but also PAST union members and in fact all of us (many baby boomers) who consider themselves “Children of the Union” or “Children of Organized Labor” to actively HELP during strikes, pickets and other struggles which confront Labor.
I think you will find that even though many of may not now be, due to current occupations, union members, we are VERY loyal to Labor and it’s principles.
The president could make it easier to join a union if he supported card-check legislation,instead of turning his back on it. Now all the sudden he’s a friend of labour,I wonder if the elections have anything to do with it. Bilking union members for more cash on false promises. Just a couple months ago the afl-cio stood up to the democrats with blanch lincoln,I see they still have battered wife syndrome and are once again going to be an atm for a party that has thrown the working class peanuts, at best.
Obama has NO right to compare himself with FDR. Franklin Roosevelt was FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, Obama is NOT>
Thanks Mr. President for your public endorsement of unions and your encouraging words on why workers should be able to organize and join unions. You have been doing a great job since being overwhelmingly elected as our President, especially when considering the opposition you have faced at every turn from congressional Republicans. The next step I hope you undertake is to push congress to pass the “Employee Free Choice Act” and overhaul our trade agreements, especially where they encourage American jobs be shipped out of the country and the products they build there be sent right back here to sell to an ever shrinking middle class while rewarding that same business huge tax breaks. Workers have a lot at stake in the upcoming fall elections and need to better understand just what is at stake if the party of “NO”, should prevail. We need to get behind your efforts and fully support congressional representatives that support workers, their families and their unions. I see that happening with the new AFL-CIO leadership and their renewed and vigorous commitment they have made to keep the ball moving forward in the upcoming fall elections where every hope for continued progress is on the line. Thanks again Mr. President and keep up the good work. Charlie Williams, IAM&AW
Charlie Williams, IAM&AW
Sounds good. President Obama make something happen. Anyone can speak a good game it’s the action that counts.
Way back in December of 2008, just after the election of Obama as President, sociology professor and author James Petras wrote a blistering essay entitled:
“A Historic Moment: The Election of the Greatest Con-Man in Recent History”
The Petras essay is here:
http://petras.lahaine.org/articulo.php?p=1766&more=1&c=1
Today, this article by Mike Hall shows how the remarkable rhetorical skills of “con man” Obama still completely seduces President Trumka, while the working people of this country are the really the ones getting “screwed”.
Published on Thursday, August 5, 2010 by OpenLeft.com
Report: Obama Launches New Program to Help Corporations “Take Advantage of Low Labor Costs” Abroad
by David Sirota
With the President Obama reversing his campaign promises on trade issues by pushing to pass NAFTA-style trade agreements with South Korea, Panama and Colombia, and with the unemployment crisis persisting, the key jobs question is once again front and center in American politics. Specifically: How do we create jobs here at home and build our most valuable 21st century industries?
Read the full story here on CoimmonDreams:
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/08/05-1
I wonder whether this came up… http://www.openleft.com/diary/19706/report-obama-launches-new-program-to-help-corporations-take-advantage-of-low-labor-costs-abroad
I work for a great union. It is funny, while all of you received little or no wage increase the last two years, I got 4% and 4.5% the last two years. Not to forget about the 2, 3, and 3.5% the three years before that. So after my union dues over the last 5 years which = $4250, I now make $7800 more each year. I only pay $200 a month for one of the best health insurance plans in the country, after Congress of course. By the way I have ZERO deductible. I would like to see anyone of you bargain for YOURSELF with those terms and not get laughed out of the office (probably fired). That is why this country needs Unions. The corporations have everything stacked in their favor and that is how they want it. Solidarity!
About 100 years ago Henry Ford realized you cannot have a sustained industrial economy if the people who make goods don’t have enough money to buy them.
When are we going to stop playing errand boy to these lying, spineless Democrats. I say support none of them and give them what they’ve given us. Nothing. We need a militant, grassroots movement. The worst thing the afl-cio ever did was purge itself of the communists. Stay home, or vote for a third party candidate. If the Repubs get back in, it won’t be that much difference, but stand up, and tell these corporate Democrats, “enough !” ” It is better to die on your feet, than to live on your knees”- Emiliano Zapata.
While I voted for President Obama, I have been disappointed in both his actions (or lack of) and his positions. Specifically I was greatly disappointed with the so-called healthcare reform that basically guarantees the healthcare insurance cartel more profits!
I am also greatly disappointed with his lack of support for the Employee Free Choice Act. And lastly I have great concerns for his lack of support for teachers. By siding with Education Czar Arne Duncan (who has NO education experience) Obama has scapegoated public school teachers and their unions for the mess that public school systems are in a cross the nation!
Will I vote for him in 20212? Probably not, unless he does a complete turnaround and begins backing the very people who elected him and not the corporate bosses who appear to have bought him!
So can we finally pass The Employee Free Choice Act?
thank you President Obama!!!
unions made the United States middle class what it is today–and by extension the country!!!!!!
Thank you President Obama,unions have made tha middle class in America and by extension the country!!!!!
President Obama is not a miracle worker. He has been a friend to working families in the face of incredible opposition, and we have made some gains in these past eighteen months—so I am willing to be patient and trust that he is a man of his word. I am happy to support President Obama because I know that he will find a way to repair and restore the rights of workers; we will get the Employee Free Choice Act if we make it a priority. We will get what we work for if we stand together. Divided we will surely beg.
I am a Union member and I call on my brothers and sisters to look to alternatives to the Democratic Party. They use the Unions because they know we will follow them like sheep out of fear of the alternative, Republicans. I ask that you vote your conscience. I am giving my time to the Green Party. Check their key values. I was sorely disappointed with the White House response to the efforts of Unions and progressives to oust the corporate Democrat Blanche Lincoln. We were bamboozled on EFCA. We have gotten little for our support!
Wwhy hasn’t president Obama done something about the outsourcing of jobs? Tax increases?? Supporting the Employee Free Choice Act? Done something about the industrial base we have lost? The good paying jobs.. the list goes on and on…
It’s great that the President expresses positive sentiments about unions and union jobs. The assault on the American worker has continued unabated in his term. The President has poured resources into the war machine which does not involve union workers heavily (outside of Aircraft manufacturers and naval shipyards). If you’re not a contractor for Blackwater, you’re not benefitting.
My entire adult life has been spent in the (non-union) financial services sector and I have seen the real negative difference in my economic life resulting from that.
The AFL-CIO and all unions have to expand their base beyond those directly represented by them. You have to capture the hearts of those beyond the people you directly represent. It’s the only way you’ll succeed in the long run.
I feel strongly that unions are a positive force for the economic viability of the average American. When are you going to tap into my sympathy for you? When are you going to reach out to me?