Labor & Employment Law

Union Leaders Say New Congress Must Follow Through on Jobs, Economy Promises

By Mike Hall

Voters gave Republicans control of the U.S. House of Representatives following Tuesday?s election, says AFSCME President Gerald McEntee, because they say ?much more must be done to put America back to work.?

In a Huffington Post column, McEntee writes that with a majority in the House, Republicans must

demonstrate that their priority is working families, rather than corporate interests and the very rich. Voters have not embraced the radical plans of Republican leaders in the Congress to cut taxes for millionaires, privatize Social Security and slash Medicare funding.

Check out our election night surveys here.

He added that voters also rejected radical right-wing and tea party candidates like Sharron Angle in Nevada, Ken Buck in Colorado,  Joe Miller in Alaska and Christine O’Donnell in Delaware, all of whom

argued that government should do nothing to improve the economy or protect working families during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Voters support efforts to build an economic recovery that works for everyone.

Here?s what other union leaders are saying.

AFT President Randi Weingarten says, ?The problems that confronted the country before the election are the same problems we are facing after the election.?

Voters vented their anger at the polls and now expect the government to get us back on track with more jobs, better schools and a more prosperous future. The question is: How will the new Congress accomplish this?

In California, union members were a key factor propelling Gov- elect Jerry Brown and Sen. Barbara Boxer to double-digit wins over former CEOs and multibillionaire and millionaire, respectively, Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina. Rose Ann DeMoro, California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) Executive Director, says those victories provided

a national alternative to the conservative, corporate-oriented economic program that won so many other races nationwide. We are very proud of Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer for standing up for visions of social and economic justice, and of Californians for seeing through the fool’s gold promises that the path to economic recovery and job creation is through corporate tax breaks and shifting more wealth and resources to those who need it the least.

With corporations spending nearly a $1 billion in this election, Communications Workers of America (CWA) President Larry Cohen says:

We?re back to the way elections were run in the United States 100 years ago, when the Big Trusts and robber barons made sure theirs were the only voices heard.

But Cohen says that doesn?t change what must be done to fight for working families.

Our goal remains the same: to help build an economy that works for everyone and to keep working for the change that millions of Americans voted for in 2008.

Electrical Workers (IBEW) President Edwin Hill says that despite the Republican House takeover, the huge efforts of union volunteers from coast to coast made a big difference.

Polling results show that in Nevada and California, Washington State and others, labor?s grassroots efforts overcame huge bankrolls of the anti-union crowd. Because of your efforts, right-wing extremist candidates like Sharron Angle in Nevada will not be putting their fingerprints on legislation in our nation?s capital.

I agree with the Democrats and Republicans who say that this election never was about political parties alone.  It was about the direction of our nation.  And that is why it is so very important that our adversaries cannot claim a clean electoral sweep.

?Empty wallets and empty promises drove this election,? says Machinists (IAM) President R. Thomas Buffenbarger.

Workers who lost their jobs voted their empty wallets. Workers who saw their home values plummet voted their anxieties. And politicians who reacted too slowly paid a heavy price.

Those who used the pain and suffering of working families to win an election now have an obligation to deliver on the ?jobs, jobs, jobs? they promised. Or, in 24 short months, what just happened will happen once again.

United Steelworkers President (USW) Leo W. Gerard says, ?Strong leadership in Washington, D.C., is needed immediately to regain the trust of average Americans.?

It is time now for members of both parties to work with the President to develop an agenda that will rebuild the economy by revitalizing manufacturing through investments in our infrastructure and small businesses, and a major commitment to renewable energy….[W]e must also stop trade deals that give away good paying American jobs.

New Jersey State AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech says the victories of Linda Greenstein in capturing a state Senate seat held by Republicans for two decades, the re-election of Reps. Frank Pallone and Rush Holt, along with the overwhelming passage of a constitutional amendment to protect employee benefit funds are ?evidence of organized labor?s electoral strength.?

In addition, 31 of 53 graduates of the New Jersey federation’s Labor Candidate School won election to state Senate, mayor, city and township council seats. Those wins bring the number of election wins for school alum to 639 since the program was founded in 1997. Says Wowkanech:

We know it?s important that labor has a voice not only in the federal and start government but at the local level as well.

In Iowa, union volunteers made the difference in winning re-election for Reps. Leonard Boswell, Dave Loebsack and Bruce Braley in contests most observers believed would go to Republican challengers. Says Iowa Federation of Labor President Ken Sagar:

The Iowa AFL-CIO Labor 2010 program fought like hell in the face of a flood of anonymous corporate money, despite millions spent by shadowy special interest groups, despite a riptide of economic frustration. And while we didn’t win every race, union voters were the firewall.

In Massachusetts, where working families were a big part of Gov. Deval Patrick?s decisive re-election and the victories of several other pro-worker candidates, Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Robert J. Haynes says working family voters

soundly rejected the rhetoric of the Tea Party Republican anger-and-fear-mongers….Jobs and the economy were the number one issue in this race and are the number one order of business here and across the nation. Massachusetts voters clearly understood that the way to restore our economy is to continue moving forward, not backwards, to the Republican policies that got us into trouble in the first place.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on November 04, 2010 (boomark / email).