Free Republic

There’s not a single good reason for any worker—especially any union member—to vote against Barack Obama. There’s only one really bad reason to vote against him: because he’s not white.

The AFL-CIO and several union-friendly groups filed a formal complaint against Wal-Mart on Thursday, charging that the retail giant is pressuring employees to vote against Sen. Barack Obama. Citing a Wall Street Journal report, the complaint accuses Wal-Mart of pushing its workers to oppose Obama (D-Ill.), who supports a measure that would allow workers to form unions without a secret-ballot election. The complaint calls on the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to investigate whether Wal-Mart has broken federal election laws. Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) opposes the bill, called the Employee Free Choice Act. Among the groups filing the...

As a congressman, senator and one-time Democratic nominee for the presidency, I've participated in my share of vigorous public debates over issues of great consequence. And the public has been free to accept or reject the decisions I made when they walked into a ballot booth, drew the curtain and cast their vote. I didn't always win, but I always respected the process. Voting is an immense privilege. That is why I am concerned about a new development that could deny this freedom to many Americans. As a longtime friend of labor unions, I must raise my voice against pending...

Some of the nation's largest labor organizations are calling for legalization of all the nation's undocumented workers and have conceded the guest worker issue. "There is no good reason why any immigrant who comes to this country prepared to work, to pay taxes, and to abide by our laws and rules should be denied what has been offered to immigrants throughout our country's history -- a path to legal citizenship," said Ana Avendano, assistant general counsel for the AFL-CIO, which represents 53 unions nationally. The AFL-CIO and the Change to Win coalition, collectively representing about 15 million workers, or about...

EFCA, or the “Card Check” bill, introduced by Democrat Rep. George Miller (CA) and passed the US House of Representatives failed the Senate cloture vote with no Democrats voting in opposition. In a recent statement, Executive Director Brian M. Johnson said, “it should be no surprise that the left in Congress and the Communist Party are beholden to carry out the anti-democratic bidding of Labor Union bosses. Campaign contributions from Big Labor to the left translate directly into votes as not one Democrat in the Senate opposed this measure which strips the private ballot voting right of the American worker!”...

Voting is an immense privilege. That is why I am concerned about a new development that could deny this freedom to many Americans. As a longtime friend of labor unions, I must raise my voice against pending legislation I see as a disturbing and undemocratic overreach not in the interest of either management or labor. The legislation is called the Employee Free Choice Act, and I am sad to say it runs counter to ideals that were once at the core of the labor movement. Instead of providing a voice for the unheard, EFCA risks silencing those who would speak....

House Vote on Card-Check.

Union bosses are well aware that their days were numbered until Obama came along. And they are sparing no expense in getting him elected. The AFL-CIO and its affiliates have raised an unprecedented $250 million to put 200,000 union workers on the street campaigning for Obama in the crucial final weeks. The National Education Association has budgeted up to $50 million. The Service Employees International Union has added $100 million to pay 2,000 union members to leave their jobs and go work on Democratic campaigns. All totaled, unions are expected to spend more than $1 billion of their members’ money...

(CNN) — The nation's largest labor conglomerate says it's set to launch a major effort Tuesday to dispel ongoing rumors surrounding Barack Obama that continue to percolate more than 18 months after the Illinois senator launched his White House bid. The organization is set to send out mailers to more than 600,000 union homes in crucial battleground states — including Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — that directly address the false rumors that he is not a Christian, refuses to wear a flag pin on his lapel, and was not sworn into the Senate on the Bible. It also beats...

The AFL-CIO is attacking McCain with a TV spot saying he voted "against increasing health care benefits for veterans." Actually, he voted for increases in those benefits. The labor federation points to McCain's votes against Democratic proposals to increase funding. Those were defeated along party lines, and then quickly followed by alternative measures to increase benefits by smaller amounts, all of which passed unanimously or with near-unanimous majorities. McCain supported all of them. The AFL-CIO also points to a McCain vote against a war spending supplemental appropriations measure from 2007 that included additional funding for veterans' health care, along with...

The A.F.L.-C.I.O. announced on Wednesday that it has set up a new union council for military veterans that will run broadcast ads in six states praising Senator John McCain’s military record, while criticizing his Senate record, especially on economic issues. In a telephone news conference, John J. Sweeney, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s president, said that 2 million union members are veterans, and he urged them to back Senator Barack Obama for president over Mr. McCain. “On military issues, everyone respects Senator McCain’s record,” Mr. Sweeney said. “I want people to know that his agenda is wrong on pocketbook issues.” The labor federation,...

Over at The Nation's political blog, John Nichols reports on efforts by AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka to get steelworkers and other union members to throw their support behind a black presidential candidate: Trumka knew that the steelworkers had backed John Edwards for this year's Democratic presidential nomination -- and that the union had only endorsed Obama when Edwards finally came around. He understood that a part of his job was to get a union that is especially strong in the battleground states of Ohio and Pennsylvania excited about a candidate who must win those states. Trumka knew, as well, that...

WASHINGTON, June 18 (UPI) -- A new television ad blasting likely Republican presidential nominee John McCain is only the beginning of liberal "independent group" ads, union officials say. The spot, produced independently of Illinois Democratic Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign, financed by the liberal activist group MoveOn.org and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, features a young mother with a baby criticizing McCain's determination to keep troops in Iraq. It began airing Tuesday in Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan, USA Today reported. Pro-Democrat labor union leaders told the newspaper they have assembled millions of dollars for so-called independent...

Maryland Democratic Party Vice Chairman Lauren Glover is fielding calls from Sen. Barack Obama. Jim Leaman, executive director of the Virginia AFL-CIO, is being inundated with personal letters and e-mails from supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. And D.C. Council member Harry Thomas Jr. just wants be left alone. Pressure is mounting on the 67 Democratic superdelegates from the District, Maryland and Virginia to choose between Obama and Clinton in the most heated presidential nomination fight in a generation. With neither Clinton nor Obama likely to win enough pledged delegates to secure the nomination, the 793 superdelegates nationwide will have...

http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com ***** By Jennifer Skalka The AFL-CIO is dropping a tough mailer in PA today noting that while John McCain's war service is admirable, his political views -- on the Bush tax cuts, NAFTA and overtime pay, in particular -- are out of sync with the needs and values of working Americans. "

Hillary Clinton has added three superdelegates... One... is Sophie Masloff, the former mayor of Pittsburgh. The other two, are Rep. Jackie Speier of California...Bill Burga of Ohio, an AFL-CIO poobah.

CNSNews.com) - A coalition of liberal organizations announced plans Tuesday to move "the most expensive mobilization in history this election season." MoveOn.org, Rock the Vote, Acorn, National Council of La Raza, Women's Voices Women Vote Action Fund, and the AFL-CIO announced plans for a $350 million initiative for the 2008 elections at the Take Back America conference in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the liberal Campaign for America's Future. Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America's Future, called it a "sea change election" on Tuesday, "one that we really haven't seen since 1980 when Reagan was elected and conservatives really...

WASHINGTON - Liberals are antsy. They haven't seen Democratic voter enthusiasm like this in a long time and they'd rather not wait until the party's August convention to harness it to the party's presidential nominee. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama are still fiercely competing just when liberal activists and labor leaders wanted to mobilize voters and gear up their message for the general election. Activists who gathered at a Washington hotel this week said Obama and Clinton have energized the electorate with their prolonged contest, but several warned that a convention fight could be fractious and leave little...

WASHINGTON - A loose coalition of liberal and labor organizations expects to spend about $150 million this fall to push its causes and help Democrats win the White House and strengthen their grip on Congress. Participants include the two main labor coalitions — the AFL-CIO and Change to Win — as well as MoveOn.org and voter mobilization groups for minorities and young people. Organizers were announcing the effort Tuesday during conference sponsored by the liberal Campaign for America's Future. Liberal and labor strategists say an animated Democratic electorate and a dispirited Republican base have created a political environment tailor-made to...

There’s nothing new about the AFL-CIO’s recent attack campaign on Senator John McCain. Instead of focusing on hard-working families, the Big Labor group is practicing the same old attack-and-destroy politics, fighting dirty instead of giving their members the truth. They picked the wrong candidate to attack. Senator McCain’s positive campaign and optimistic agenda will prevail, no matter how much money they throw into their negative campaign. Just as in 2004, when the AFL-CIO and its affiliates spent a total of $150 million against President Bush and Republicans, so it will be in 2008. The Republican presidential candidate will stand strong...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- The AFL-CIO said Wednesday it will have union protesters follow GOP presidential nominee-in-waiting John McCain around the country to demand explanations on his positions on economic and labor issues. The effort is part of a wide-ranging campaign aimed at linking McCain with what union officials call the Bush administration's failed economic policies. In addition to the protests, the nation's largest labor federation also plans to devote part of its record-setting $53.4 million grass-roots mobilization campaign funds to criticizing McCain through workplace leafletting, volunteer door-knocking, telephone calls, e-mail, direct mailings and an anti-McCain Web site, www.mccainrevealed.org. "Everywhere John...

In a major step for the U.S. labor movement, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has announced that it will shut down West Coast ports on May 1, to demand an immediate end to the war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East. In a February 22 letter to AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, ILWU International president Robert McEllrath reported that at a recent coast-wide union meeting, "One of the resolutions adopted by caucus delegates called on longshore workers to stop work during the day shift on May 1, 2008 to...

Striding onto a Seattle-area work site with a white hard hat, Jimmy Matta converses in Spanish with Latino laborers who carry paintbrushes, power drills or spackling tools. How much are you getting paid? How many hours are you working? Matta gives them his business card, promises his help and drives off to the next site. A decade of organizing Latino construction workers is paying off for Matta, 32, who recently became the first Latino organizing director of the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters. Born in Idaho to illegal migrant farmworkers, Matta spent much of his early childhood in the...

A 20-year-old legal fight over protests outside abortion clinics ended Tuesday with the Supreme Court ruling that federal extortion and racketeering laws cannot be used against demonstrators. The 8-0 decision was a setback for abortion clinics that were buoyed when the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals kept their case alive two years ago despite the high court’s 2003 ruling that had cleared the way for lifting a nationwide injunction on anti-abortion leader Joseph Scheidler and others. Anti-abortion groups appealed to the justices after the lower court sought to determine whether the injunction could be supported by findings that protesters...

The ploy had been hatched behind closed doors by Democratic leaders of both houses. A pork-laden appropriations bill filled with $1 billion in earmarks would combine with veto-proof spending for veterans. Instead, the two measures were decoupled in a Senate party-line vote last Tuesday. The Democratic scheme to present President George W. Bush with a bill that he could not veto seemed a clever strategy, but it was based on presumption of Republican ignorance and cowardice. As late as last Monday, savvy GOP Senate staffers predicted Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's decoupling motion would fail. In fact, she did not lose...

U.S. unions ready to push new laws if Dems win bigSun Nov 4, 2007 12:52pm By Nick Carey CHICAGO (Reuters) - If the Democrats hold both houses of the U.S. Congress and take the White House in the 2008 elections, America's struggling unions plan to trade their political support for a raft of labor-friendly bills. "It's early to say but if the Democrats were to take the presidency," as well as Congress, said Bill Samuel, legislation director of the AFL-CIO labor federation, "this could be an opportunity for historic change." Analysts say Big Labor will push for legislation to make...

When unions can’t win collective bargaining agreements at home, they look to U.N. agencies abroad. The AFL-CIO has a preferred legal venue—the International Labor Organization (ILO)—when Congress and the courts don’t see it their way...... Organized labor won last November’s electoral lottery. The unions officially spent $105 million and received in return a promise from the new Democratic majority to push labor’s redistributionist economic agenda. They are desperate to convince politicians to give them what they cannot win in the marketplace. The impact on domestic public policy is clear. Already the House approved a minimum wage hike as part of...

Osama bin BushBig labor says the president is waging a terror war on working families. If John Sweeney is right, Osama bin Laden isn't the only one terrorizing ordinary Americans. It turns out that George W. Bush is also "waging a vicious war on working families." That, at least, is what the AFL-CIO chief told delegates at their convention this week in Las Vegas. Mr. Sweeney was only a warm-up for the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who the next day accused the Administration of "economic terror," declared Attorney General John Ashcroft a "threat to democracy" and called for workers to ...

The AFL-CIO leadership just put a number on its commitment to the general election: $53 million, the federation is set to announce. That's money that can be used for unrestricted "member-to-member" communication in House, Senate, and presidential races around the country.

SAN FRANCISCO - The Social Security Administration cannot start sending out letters to employers next week containing notification of more serious penalties for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants, a federal judge ruled Friday. Ruling on a lawsuit by the nation's largest federation of labor unions against the U.S. government, U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney granted a temporary restraining order prohibiting the so-called "no-match" letters from going out as planned starting Tuesday. The AFL-CIO lawsuit, filed this week, claims that new Department of Homeland Security rules outlined in accompanying letters threaten to violate workers' rights and unfairly burden employers. Chesney said the...

A federal judge has put a halt on a planned White House crackdown on employers who hire illegal immigrants while she considers a lawsuit filed by the AFL-CIO claiming the move would harm citizens and those working in the U.S. legally, the Washington Post reported on Saturday. Click here to read the report from the Washington Post. The ruling, issued by U.S. District Judge Maxine M. Chesney, bars the Department of Homeland Security from sending mail notices to 140,000 employers about suspect Social Security numbers. The AFL-CIO and the American Civil Liberties Union say that DHS is going beyond its...

A federal judge has put a halt on a planned White House crackdown on employers who hire illegal immigrants while she considers a lawsuit filed by the AFL-CIO claiming the move would harm citizens and those working in the U.S. legally, the Washington Post reported on Saturday. Click here to read the report from the Washington Post. The ruling, issued by U.S. District Judge Maxine M. Chesney, bars the Department of Homeland Security from sending mail notices to 140,000 employers about suspect Social Security numbers. The AFL-CIO and the American Civil Liberties Union say that DHS is going beyond its...

The Office of Labor Management Standards, the federal government’s union watchdog agency, has recouped more than $100 million for American workers since 2001. But the increased oversight on unions hasn’t gone over well with liberals in Congress, who are trying to slash the agency’s budget for next year. Last month, pro-labor Democrats in the House successfully fought back a Republican-led challenge to restore $2 million to the agency’s budget. The Senate will take up the bill when Congress returns from its August recess. The liberals’ revolt against the Department of Labor agency comes on the heels of an increased crackdown...

Democratic presidential candidates argued Saturday night that organized labor is an essential part of the nation's economy whose troubles mirror the deterioration of the middle class way of life. "The only way to reinvigorate the middle class is to reinvigorate the labor movement," Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware told several hundred union members at a labor forum in eastern Iowa.

I would immediately call the president of Mexico, the president of Canada, to try to amend NAFTA, because I think that we can get labour agreements in that agreement right now. --Barack Obama, speaking at the AFLCIO presidential candidates debate, Aug. 7. Senator Obama's little slip of the tongue on Tuesday did not gain much attention in the United States. President of Canada, prime minister of Canada -- what's the difference really? And the fact that the president/prime minister/whatever is a Conservative -- and therefore highly unlikely to agree to the labour agreements a President Obama would propose? Details, details....

On Tuesday, retired steel worker Steve Skvara tearfully asked Democratic presidential candidates, "What's wrong with America? And what will you do to change it?" The question was, according to a reporter on the CBS Evening News, an example of when "a moment of truth breaks through a political campaign event." On MSNBC's Hardball, Chris Matthews told Mr. Skvara, ""You're a great American to speak so well to the needs of this country." Chrissy later gushed: "Well, can I pay tribute—can I pay tribute to you, sir?" I'll not attempt to minimize Mr. Skvara's plight. When I heard his question, though,...

The AFL-CIO Democratic forum last night on MSNBC, was the lowest rated-yet of the eight primary debates/forums held this election season. Based on live +same day data, Nielsen found the debate had 960,000 total viewers and 340,000 viewers in the 25-54 demo. This spreadsheet shows the debates by date, and the number of viewers that watched...

CHICAGO (AP) - This was supposed to be John Edwards' chance to shine, with 17,000 union members eager to be impressed, especially by a presidential candidate who has been actively courting labor support ever since his failed vice presidential run in 2004. But Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama used the AFL-CIO's Democratic presidential forum Tuesday night at Soldier Field to fend off their primary rivals hoping to move up in the polls, impress organized labor and maybe land an early primary endorsement. "I thought the candidates left the forum in exactly the same condition they came in," said Marick...

The AFL-CIO summer meeting is underway in Chicago and the nation's labor leaders have much to celebrate. The Democratic presidential candidates were scheduled to again grovel before organized labor last night and doubtless promise to heed the labor agenda, which includes the creation of a universal health care system. After all, whenever Democrats meet with organized labor leaders, it is a love fest. Indeed, the love fest has been a central feature of this year's congressional session. Few things have been more important to Democrats that pleasing organized labor. Labor organizations want the public to believe that they produced the...

When the AFL-CIO organized a presidential debate at Chicago's Soldier Field, leaders of the labor federation quietly went out of their way to make sure that Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich would be on the stage. While some debate organizers have talked about excluding so-called "lesser" candidates -- those like Kucinich with low poll numbers and small bank accounts -- from the debates, the AFL-CIO wanted progressive populist from Cleveland front and center Tuesday night. Why? Because leaders of the labor organization recognize the importance of candidates who stand on principle rather than merely engage in political calculations.They also recognize that...

CHICAGO — Democratic presidential candidates said Tuesday the nation should invest more money in infrastructure and less in the Iraq war, citing the Minneapolis bridge collapse as a symptom of neglect. The candidates cast the matter as one of creating jobs as they addressed thousands of labor union activists, a constituency that could prove pivotal in deciding which contender emerges as the party's nominee.

I checked but no one else have a live thread going on this so I might as well start one. It's on right now on MSNBC.

Cindy Sheehan, Tom Hayden, and the Hate America Left meet with pro-Ba'athist members of the Iraqi parliament to discuss “peace.” TO FIND PEOPLE WHO HATE AMERICA AS MUCH AS THEY DO, the Fifth Column Left had to go halfway around the world to meet with Iraqi political leaders who call terrorism “honorable national resistance” and say foreign jihadists “are guaranteed Paradise” – and at least one of whom has ties to militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr. By the end of the trip, the American leftists would echo these sentiments. Somehow most of the media – occupied with interminable coverage of Hurricane...

We all know the radio talk shows overwhelmingly are dominated by Attila the Hun types—the kind that think the war in Iraq is going just dandy. A new report released today by the Center for American Progress and Free Press puts hard data to the extremist right tilt on the nation’s radio waves. According to the report, The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio, 76 percent of the news/talk programming in the nation’s top 10 radio markets is “conservative” (read: far-right), while 24 percent is progressive. In four of those top 10 markets—Philadelphia, Atlanta, Dallas and Houston—the domination of conservative...

JESSE J. HOLLAND AP Labor Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The revival of the Senate's immigration legislation also resurrected a rare split inside organized labor. The AFL-CIO formally came out against the bill Wednesday, reflecting the distaste among manufacturing unions and others whose members have been displaced by overseas competition and would have to compete with an influx of cheaper workers who don't have labor rights. Embracing the bill are a couple of unions that cater to workers in the fast-growing service sector of the economy and also split from the AFL-CIO in 2005. They've seen their membership rosters swell with...

The revival of the Senate's immigration legislation also resurrected a rare split inside organized labor. The AFL-CIO formally came out against the bill Wednesday, reflecting the distaste among manufacturing unions and others whose members have been displaced by overseas competition and would have to compete with an influx of cheaper workers who don't have labor rights. Embracing the bill are a couple of unions that cater to workers in the fast-growing service sector of the economy and also split from the AFL-CIO in 2005. They've seen their membership rosters swell with immigrants taking jobs in hotels and restaurants and as...

Americans enjoy so many rights and privileges, we sometimes seem to take them for granted. But if we aren’t willing to fight for them, they could easily be taken away. Consider, for instance, the secret ballot. Fewer private-sector workers belong to a union today than at any point since the turn of the 20th century. So to boost their numbers, union activists want to organize through what’s known as a “card-check” system. Instead of continuing to allow workers to vote in government-supervised elections, workers would sign a union card. Card check, though, redefines high-pressure tactics. Union organizers come to workers’...

--snip-- We must not sell out, and we must fight for the rights of our people that have been here!" he shouted, a crowd of 50 or so cheering and applauding as the short speech closed. "This is our land and we're going to fight for just and humane comprehensive immigration reform!" --snip La Raza, LULAC and the union issued a news release announcing the town hall meeting that was an ultimatum. They said U.S. Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, R-Texas, were "on notice" that "we want workable reform and we want it now!"

Congress should coalesce behind sweeping new compromise immigration legislation despite steep political obstacles because opportunities to confront the problem head-on are rare, Sen. Edward Kennedy said Friday. Kennedy, the lead Democratic negotiator with Republicans and the White House, acknowledged widespread criticism but called it "our last-gasp stand." The bill, which conservatives immediately attacked as an "amnesty" program, would provide a pathway to citizenship for some 12 million immigrants now in the United States illegally. It also would mandate tougher border security and workplace enforcement and provide for a guest worker program. Critics complained that it would reward the nation's estimated...

NEW YORK - Civil rights activist Al Sharpton, whose profile soared in his recent push for dismissal of radio personality Don Imus, is attracting all the major Democratic presidential candidates for his annual convention this week. John Edwards was scheduled to address the National Action Network convention on Wednesday, the first of the White House hopefuls. The other candidates, as well as Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean, will address the group the remainder of the week. Top candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) are scheduled to appear Friday and Saturday. The Network is a...