But another part of the message – that labor could sit on its hands unless the administration started pushing hard on workers’ issues – is another matter.
In a brief interview after a rally in a Capitol Hill park on May 6, the federation leader said he’s carried that jobs-equals-winning message to the administration at every meeting he’s had, adding the meetings have been frequent.
“When haven’t I told them? I’ve done so every time I’ve been there,” he said.
The saga of labor’s message to the White House arose at the AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting in Orlando in March, as the message had other elements.
After hearing from Vice President Joseph Biden and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, the council, behind closed doors, spent two hours in an angry session days later. The union leaders said the Obama administration takes support of unions and their members for granted. Not only had the leaders heard the same speeches from Biden and Solis before, they were also upset at the administration on labor-specific issues.
Their complaints included Obama’s support of a Rhode Island superintendent’s arbitrary firings of high school teachers, and the president’s verbal support, but no more, for the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation designed to help level the playing field between workers and bosses in organizing and bargaining.
Leaders told Press Associates Union News Service that the closed-door session ended with Trumka saying he would carry that message of anger to the White House, and specifically say that “unless they get off their ass, we’re going to sit on our hands.”
Reminded of the closed-door session, and read that quote, Trumka replied: “I’ve never connected the two” in his White House meetings.
But recently, Obama has been more public about his support for unions and for the Employee Free Choice Act, though he did not name it. “We just want to make sure there’s a level playing field” in organizing and bargaining, he told a woman questioner dressed in a Laborers T-shirt, while taking questions at his April 27 Iowa town hall meeting.
And Trumka, in his May 6 speech before Steelworkers, UFCW members, SEIU members and other unionists in the park, thanked Congressional Democrats for pushing through health care revision. It passed on party-line votes, pushed by strong labor lobbying. Since the votes were tough, “We’ll be with you in November, and we’ll work harder than ever and we’ll work smarter than ever,” Trumka told the lawmakers.
Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.
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But another part of the message – that labor could sit on its hands unless the administration started pushing hard on workers’ issues – is another matter.
In a brief interview after a rally in a Capitol Hill park on May 6, the federation leader said he’s carried that jobs-equals-winning message to the administration at every meeting he’s had, adding the meetings have been frequent.
“When haven’t I told them? I’ve done so every time I’ve been there,” he said.
The saga of labor’s message to the White House arose at the AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting in Orlando in March, as the message had other elements.
After hearing from Vice President Joseph Biden and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, the council, behind closed doors, spent two hours in an angry session days later. The union leaders said the Obama administration takes support of unions and their members for granted. Not only had the leaders heard the same speeches from Biden and Solis before, they were also upset at the administration on labor-specific issues.
Their complaints included Obama’s support of a Rhode Island superintendent’s arbitrary firings of high school teachers, and the president’s verbal support, but no more, for the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation designed to help level the playing field between workers and bosses in organizing and bargaining.
Leaders told Press Associates Union News Service that the closed-door session ended with Trumka saying he would carry that message of anger to the White House, and specifically say that “unless they get off their ass, we’re going to sit on our hands.”
Reminded of the closed-door session, and read that quote, Trumka replied: “I’ve never connected the two” in his White House meetings.
But recently, Obama has been more public about his support for unions and for the Employee Free Choice Act, though he did not name it. “We just want to make sure there’s a level playing field” in organizing and bargaining, he told a woman questioner dressed in a Laborers T-shirt, while taking questions at his April 27 Iowa town hall meeting.
And Trumka, in his May 6 speech before Steelworkers, UFCW members, SEIU members and other unionists in the park, thanked Congressional Democrats for pushing through health care revision. It passed on party-line votes, pushed by strong labor lobbying. Since the votes were tough, “We’ll be with you in November, and we’ll work harder than ever and we’ll work smarter than ever,” Trumka told the lawmakers.
Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.