After snubbing the 2012 Democratic National Convention,
labor leaders are this year pledging a flood of cash and volunteers for the
party’s U.S. Senate candidates -- and getting plenty in return.
Democratic leaders have shelved a measure to encourage
free-trade agreements -- which unions hate -- and are moving to raise the
minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. President Barack Obama is seeking more for
labor-backed job training programs in his budget request. And workers are
winning key decisions by the Democrat-dominated National Labor Relations Board,
after Obama helped clear the way for it to operate again at full strength.
In return, Democrats will need all the help they can get as
they seek to preserve a slender, 55-45 majority in the Senate. The November
elections include competitive races in Michigan, Alaska, Montana and other
states that have workforces with a higher-than-average percentage of union
membership.
“Nobody knows how to organize like they do,” said Matt
Canter, deputy executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign
Committee. “They bring a tremendous amount to the table. The biggest challenge
we face this election cycle, because it’s a midterm, is turnout.”
Individual unions also will spend tens of millions of
dollars to reach out to non-union voters, activity that was restricted until
the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling removed limits on corporate and
union independent election spending.
Karl Rove
Unions have shown a growing willingness to help the party
respond to the record sums being raised by Republican-leaning groups through
super-political action committees, which can collect and spend unlimited sums
on elections, and other organizations. That includes Crossroads GPS, founded
with help from Republican Karl Rove, and Americans for Prosperity, backed by
billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.
Super-PACs and nonprofit organizations spent $840 million in
the 2012 elections. Labor unions donated $115.5 million through outside groups,
about 14 percent of the total, according to the non-partisan Center for
Responsive Politics. So far this cycle, unions have donated $9 million, about 17
percent of the total, the CRP says.
“In recent years, labor has provided the edge that Democrats
need to go toe-to-toe with any number of right-wing conservative groups,” said
Jim Manley, a former top aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat.
Chamber’s View
Not everyone is so sure labor can make a real difference.
Bruce Josten, executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said
union-member anger over elements of Obama’s health-care law is just one issue
that might depress that part of the Democratic base.
And their dwindling numbers may also hamper their efforts,
he said.
“There’s a lot that can disrupt this,” Josten said. “And
they have a diminished capacity to get out the vote among their own people,
because they’re in decline.”
And Obama risks angering unions later this year if he
rejects TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which they
favor for its job-creating potential. Environmentalists who back Obama oppose
the pipeline from Canada to the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coast.
2012 Convention
Unions are preparing to mobilize for Democrats after feuding
with the Obama administration for years, with labor leaders angered over a lack
of action on core issues including measures to make organizing workplaces easier.
Most major unions declined to help fund 2012’s Democratic National Convention
in Charlotte, North Carolina, because it was held in a so-called right-to-work
state that prohibits making dues payments a condition of employment in union
shops. The host city also lacked unionized hotels for delegates.
“Our financial contributions and participation in this
convention would be viewed by our members as questionable at best, given the
unacceptable unemployment levels they are experiencing, and would be demoralizing,”
leaders of 13 labor unions wrote Democratic National Committee Chairman Debbie
Wasserman Schultz in August 2011.
Unions long been known for their organizing abilities have
since the 1990s bettered their mobilization efforts with improvements in
technologies that allow better pinpointing of voter residences -- and
Republican-leaning groups have struggled to keep up. They also have boosted
outreach to union members directly in workplaces. Such strategies have ensured
labor remains a key figure in the Democratic party, even as union membership
among U.S. wage and salary workers was just 11.3 percent last year, down from
20.1 percent in 1983, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Voter Turnout
The AFL-CIO’s polling data shows that members of unions are
more likely than other voters to turn out in midterm elections in the most
contested states. In the 2010 elections, 65 percent of union members affiliated
with the labor federation voted in 19 swing states -- including Ohio,
Pennsylvania and Colorado -- versus 53 percent for non-union voters. In 2006,
it was 65 percent for union voters versus 55 percent for non-union voters.
Union membership is higher than the national average in
several states with the most competitive Senate races. That may help Democrats
in a year when the party will defend 21 Senate seats, said Michael Podhorzer,
the AFL-CIO’s political director.
Alaska Race
In Alaska, where Democratic Senator Mark Begich is fighting
to keep his seat, 23.1 percent of workers are union members. In
Republican-leaning Montana, where 13 percent are in a union, Democrats are
seeking to keep the Senate seat of Max Baucus, who has resigned to become U.S.
ambassador to China.
Podhorzer said a concentration of union workers also could
give labor sway in Kentucky, where Democrats seek to defeat the Senate’s
minority leader, Mitch McConnell, and Michigan and Iowa, where Democrats Carl
Levin and Tom Harkin are retiring.
“Those are places with pretty high union density, and we’re
going to be running aggressive programs,” said Podhorzer, whose labor
federation represents unions with 12.5 million members.
At the same time, unions are reaching out more broadly to
non-union workers, minority voters and other parts of the Democratic base.
Unions bolstered their political giving after the Supreme Court’s 2010
elimination of some contribution limits.
Worker PAC
“It’s an opportunity for us to be involved in states where
we may not have as large a membership,” said Brian Weeks, political director at
the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees.
The AFL-CIO operates the Workers’ Voices PAC that that
raised $21.9 million to help get out the vote among non-union workers in the
2012 elections, and it’s raised $5.2 million so far for this year’s contests.
Other unions that are gearing up for big spending efforts
through super-PACs include the Service Employees International Union and the
National Education Association, while the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and
Joiners is behind a committee called Working for Working Americans. Taken
together, those three super-PACs have raised $11.3 million so far for TV ads,
voter outreach and other efforts in 2014.
Reid’s PAC
Just as important, unions are top givers to other outside
groups geared toward electing Democrats. One union -- the Massachusetts
Education Association -- is the biggest donor to the Senate Majority Fund, a
super-PAC allied with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. It’s given
$650,000 to the group that raised $8.6 million as of Dec. 31. Other unions have
given at least $425,000.
The campaign fundraising and donations coincide with labor
leaders’ boosting demands on top policymakers and getting results.
Podhorzer said labor leaders implored Democrats months ago
to resist Obama’s call for “fast-track” legislation to speed action on trade
deals at a time when unions are concerned that a pending pact with 11 Pacific
region nations will cost jobs.
Reid announced in late January -- a day after Obama called
for the legislation’s passage in his State of the Union address -- that he
doesn’t want to see action on it this year.
“Everyone would be well-advised just to not push this right
now,” said Reid, who opposed fast-track legislation in the past.
Unemployment Benefits
Democratic leaders instead are pushing bills to bolster
incomes of middle-class Americans, including a higher minimum wage and expanded
unemployment benefits. Both are unlikely to go far in the Republican-led House
if they clear the Senate.
Labor also is benefiting from last year’s end to a two-year
standoff between Obama and Senate Republicans who blocked his nominees to the
labor board. After he nominated two new Democrats, including a former general
counsel for the United Auto Workers, Democrats used their one-seat edge on the
board to propose speeding up the process for workers to form unions -- a
proposal being criticized by business groups.
Still, some signs of acrimony between labor and Democrats
remain. On Jan. 27, the president of the Laborers International Union of North
America and Unite Here, which represents workers in industries including hotels
and airports, told Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in a letter they
are “bitterly disappointed” by Obama administration rules under the health-care
law they say may cause some employers to drop coverage and shift workers to
government-subsidized plans including Medicaid.
Source: Bloomberg
No comments:
Post a Comment