Posted on 11/09/2008 9:18:51 AM PST by Fred
CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. labor unions, having helped Barack Obama win the presidency, entertain high hopes he will enact their agenda to bolster their negotiating power with employers and increase their numbers after decades of decline.
Unions have "an unprecedented amount of leverage" after turning out white middle-class voters for Obama in battleground industrial states like Pennsylvania and Ohio that he won in Tuesday's election but had lost in the Democratic nominating primaries, said University of Illinois-Chicago labor expert Robert Bruno.
"American workers won this election," said Anna Burger, chairman of the labor coalition "Change to Win" at a news conference this week in Washington. "The mandate has never been so overwhelming for a progressive economic agenda."
A cornerstone of labor's agenda is passage of the Employee Free Choice Act that unions argue restores balance to its negotiations with employers, but is described as "Armageddon" by a leading business group.
Burger said she expected the measure and other parts of the unions' agenda to be addressed in the first 100 days of the Obama administration, which takes office on January 20.
Other labor leaders sought to dampen the notion they were owed something by the incoming administration.
"That is not the way Obama works," said Bill Samuel, legislative director of the AFL-CIO, America's biggest labor organization.
"We are part of the conversation about the economy right now in a way that we weren't when the Republicans were in charge ... we see the world in the same way (as Democratic leaders)," Samuel said.
A battle is shaping up in the U.S. Senate over the Employee Free Choice Act. Its two major provisions would let prospective members sign union cards instead of waiting to hold secret ballot elections to unionize workers at a company,
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
And those who refuse to sign get their cars torched later that night.
So hey why have secret ballots when we are voting in elections either...
I mean if you didn’t vote for Obama you are obviously an idiot who hates change, and a racist, bigot who loves Bush...
Maybe all future election ballots will be available online so that those that vote against the Supreme leader will be marked and “TAKEN CARE OF”
Great idea, if there is any employment after Øbama’s tax increase stagnate the economy
Money has taken over our elections. I believe one way to fix this is to have people donate to a central place....take the money and split it between candidates...all of them. If they run out of money...so be it.
It is payback time, of course. Will this be another example of well-established “Clintonism”? Will the Dims start to see the error of their ways with unions sooner, rather than later? GM is now begging for help from the American taxpayer because of their horrid decision to pander to their unions and build a welfare state that has bankrupted them?
Does the liberal madness just continue? Remember that libs will DO ANYTHING for a vote....no matter what the cost.
Yes, and when those “white middle class” voters in battleground states start seeing employers moving out or closing their doors . . . then what?
Some people never learn and others have to always learn the hard way.
Obama's website, and his campaign flaks, say he intends to pay for universal medical insurance (if not medical care) with COST SAVINGS, and that's always going to mean the salaries of the doctors and nurses.
I think I could organize Fairfax County, for example, faster than almost any retail chain or manufacturing operation now that the Democrats have shown their hand.
10 minutes tops. Collect the representation cards as they leave the buildings at the end of the shifts.
I am sure a Medical Providers union not affiliated with the mamby-pamby buttkissers over at the AFL-CIO could negotiate some interesting payraises that'd make Obama-Care at least twice as costly as the present system.
How on Gods green earth is this supposed to work in this economy. They have to extend unemployment benefits when these systems already lack the money to do this. This is not the time to do this.
How much did the United Mine Workers give to Obama to commit economic suicide?
I must disagree with you. What you suggest is tantamount to compelling support for people who oppose you. Besides, Hugo Chavez, Al Quaeda and the Chicoms would never go along with that.
We don’t need the equivalent of the Fairness Doctrine in campaign contributions. We need laws against foreign influence upheld, prosecuted and severely punished.
What of if these employers go out of business from the insane Labor Union demands, like Ford and GM are about to do right now?
Who will the Labor Unions use their Obambi inspired gangster, strong arm tactics on? Empty factories , run by non-existent managers?
Labor Unions might do well to remember that the best paying outfits like Microsoft, Apple, etc don't even have any unions, and they have far better conditions of work that the unionized companies.
If we're lucky, Obama will be mostly business-as-usual in DC. Some of the crooks are smart enough to know that you can't slay the golden goose and get all the eggs at once. Let's hope they are listened to.
Instead of “unprecedented” leverage, the unions have absolutely no leverage.
Where else can they go?
Obama wrote a lot of checks he can’t cover, and this measure is one which is likely to be shuffled to the deck as soon as any other. Afterall, big labor only represents 7% of the electorate. In addition, the unions have unprecedented experience in spinning defeats in labor conflicts into “victories”. Deferring completion of this promise won’t be as costly as others.
We’re vacationing in WV this year rather than VA.
The Dems are clamoring for a bailout of the US automakers. This, too, is payback for union support. The unions want the taxpayers to foot the bill for their generous retirement benefits. It has nothing to do with saving the industry.
If the unions are hurting so much, how did they manage to contribute so much to BO’s campaign?
Liberals have always been good at balancing their pandering to BOTH the environmentalists and the unions.
The carbon tax will change that forever. There is a chance that the affected unions may end up supporting Republicans as a result.
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