AFL-CIO Pins Its Hopes on an Election Victory;
Cuts in Jobs and Wages Continue in ‘Recovery’

As a pep talk, President Trumka’s speech to more than 200 state, central labor council and local union leaders deserved high marks. He lambasted the Bush presidency, extolled the virtues of the Obama administration, and, if he exaggerated on both counts, it could be forgiven, with only three months before the November election. He emphasized the importance of turning out a huge union household vote to ensure victory for the nation’s working families. He added:

“We have to bring our “A” game to the election; which is why I am so glad to be talking to Labor’s ‘A’ Team.”

Meanwhile, although the economy is said to be well on the road to recovery, a growing number of companies, even those that are reporting record profits, are pressuring their employees to take wage cuts and reduce benefits, presumably to avoid layoffs or outsourcing. The wage cuts are occurring in virtually every industry, and include orchestra musicians corporate law partners and university professors.

State and local governments, hard hit by losses in revenue and reduced federal assistance, are resorting to mass layoffs and furloughs in order to balance their budgets. Fortunately, the U.S. Senate broke an intended Republican filibuster to vote $26 billion to save or create nearly one million jobs for teachers, police officers, firefighters, public employees and others.

Trumka Takes Baby Steps Toward Open, Honest Elections

In a rare response to criticism, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka spoke about “our commitment to truly getting our state and local labor movements more involved in the national labor movement’s program.”

As proof of the Executive Council’s new policy, Trumka noted that two of the new AFL-CIO vice presidents were the president of the North Carolina State AFL-CIO (James Andrews) and the Los Angeles executive secretary-treasurer (Maria Elena Durazo)—a historic change from selecting only international union presidents for vacant Council seats.

With all due respect, the two new Council members were appointed, not elected. Any trade unionist can tell you the difference in authority and influence between being appointed and elected. Nor do these appointments change the fact that for 124 years, no officer or member of an affiliated state or local body has ever been elected to the Executive Council.

Why didn’t the Council call for an election to fill the vacancies? Why not give some newcomers a chance to run for national office?

Nevertheless, we are pleased that Trumka recognizes the problem of fair representation, but he has yet to come to the obvious solution. I don’t see how he can justify a Constitutional provision that gives a delegate 40.000 convention votes because he’s a member of a big union, while limiting state and city delegates to one vote each, even though they may represent tens of thousands of members.

If Trumka is thinking of his reputation within the AFL-CIO and his legacy as a national labor leader, he would be wise to endorse and promote the “One Delegate, One Vote” campaign, because it would give members the feeling that he was getting them proper representation and action for their dues money.

He and many of the international union presidents on the Council would have nothing to fear from honest elections, because, under the new conditions, they would be the come-on favorites to win the next election.

On the other hand, if Trumka pursues a policy of silence and secrecy and relies exclusively on the support of the big unions, he will see his influence diminish and his problems increase.

We’ll be watching his behavior closely to discover his decision.—Harry Kelber

LaborTalk (89) will be posted here on August 10, 2010 and on our two web sites, https://www.laboreducator.org/ and www.laborsvoiceforchange.org.